During the assessment, you can pinpoint where your house is losing energy. Energy assessments also determine the efficiency of your home’s heating and cooling systems. An assessment may also show you ways to conserve hot water and electricity. You can perform a simple energy assessment yourself, or have a professional energy auditor carry out a more thorough assessment.

A professional auditor uses a variety of techniques and equipment to determine the energy efficiency of a structure. Thorough assessments often use equipment such as blower doors, which measure the extent of leaks in the building envelope, and infrared cameras, which reveal hard-to-detect areas of air infiltration and missing insulation.

An energy audit can discover lots of heat escaping through a home’s attic and walls. However, a new approach to air sealing and insulation can make a big difference.

To build a better thermal envelope, we need to look at the second law of thermodynamics. This law states that heat flows in one direction, from a warm space to a cold one. For example, warm air inside a home will flow to the cooler air outside during winter months. Fiberglass batt insulation helps prevent this from happening, but there’s a better method for preventing heat loss — one that is easy to install and is within your budget.

The best practice for insulating is to use spray foam insulation to fill the spaces between the framing studs in the walls and attic. Spray foam insulation is nontoxic and typically has a lifetime guarantee. It expands to about 100 times its original volume, so it fills in air gaps unlike standard fiberglass insulation. Over time, as the house expands and contracts, so will the foam insulation. This eliminates cracks and spaces for warm air to escape.

If you’re insulating a small part of a wall or several small spaces, you’re probably better off buying your own tanks of spray foam from a local contractor. However, for areas larger than 200 square feet, such as an attic, you should consider hiring a professional. It’s cheaper for you, and they’ll have the equipment for such a large-scale job.

Here’s how to insulate a large space with spray foam insulation:

• Do a test spray. Remember, this material expands to about 100 times its initial volume, so use it conservatively.
• Spray evenly between the studs and on the backside of the exterior sheathing. Allow it to expand so it fills all the gaps.
• After allowing the foam to form and set, take a handsaw blade and shave away any foam that extends past the studs. The foam needs to be flush so that it won’t be an obstacle when you’re ready to install the drywall.

The most common insulation method is to use fiberglass insulation batts, which are placed between the studs and stapled into place. The drywall is then nailed over it, creating a straight wall. Although this is an acceptable method, it does not create an airtight seal, so heat can escape. The amount of heat that escapes from the average home every day could fill up a blimp. By using the better practice of spray foam insulation in walls and attics, you can create a better air-tight envelope. This gives an advantage over common batt insulation in both efficiency and cost.

With foamed-in-place insulation, it is relatively easy (though not inexpensive) to fill wall and ceiling cavities completely. Closed-cell spray foam provides a higher R-value per inch (6.5) than less expensive insulation types like cellulose and fiberglass (3.5 to 3.7).

Most spray polyurethane foam is called “two-component” foam. Two ingredients—conventionally called “A” and “B” components—are mixed on site using special equipment mounted in a trailer or truck. Heated hoses convey the components to a mixing gun that sprays the chemicals on the surfaces to be insulated.

A chemical reaction begins as soon as the chemicals are mixed. The liquid mixture foams, expands, and eventually hardens.

Choose a conscientious installer

Most jobs are for pros
Spray polyurethane foam is usually installed by a spray-foam contractor equipped with a truck or trailer to carry the necessary chemicals and spray equipment.

For smaller jobs, builders can purchase disposable tanks of two-component polyurethane foam. These tanks are sold in various sizes, and range in cost from about $200 to $500. For very small jobs, small aerosol cans of one-component (moisture-cured) polyurethane foam can be purchased at most building-supply stores for about $5 a can.

Experience matters
Although spray polyurethane foam has many advantages over other types of insulation, spray foam installation isn’t foolproof. Some builders have reported problems with sloppy foam insulation. For example, some installers have been known to begin spraying before the chemical components are up to temperature, which can affect component mixing and foam performance. When components are poorly mixed, or mixed in the wrong ratio or at the wrong temperature, cured foam has been known to shrink away from rafters or studs, leaving cracks. Some installers rush through their spraying, resulting in voids.

As with any type of insulation—whether fiberglass batts, cellulose, or spray foam—it’s important to choose an installer with a good reputation; to monitor the installer’s work; and to verify that the insulation work meets expectations before making the final payment on the job.

Find a certified spray foam contractor

BASF announced today (October 5, 2011) that closed-cell spray polyurethane foam products have received hurricane-zone approval from the Miami-Dade County Building and Neighborhood Compliance (BNC) Department. Tests and engineering evaluations of COMFORT FOAM® and SPRAYTITE® (178 series) applied at roofing trusses increased the wind-uplift resistance of a traditional code-approved home roof by more than 200 percent. Spray Polyurethane Foam (SPF) from BASF can enhance wind-uplift resistance of new and existing homes to help prevent roof failure during a hurricane.*

Submission of this test data to the Miami-Dade County BNC office resulted in the first Notice of Acceptance (NOA)** for this application with approval for use in High Velocity Hurricane Zones.

“This new hurricane-zone approval adds high-wind mitigation to an already impressive list of product benefits,” said Michael Sievers, Business Manager, Spray Systems, BASF. Sievers added that this specialty application must be installed by a BASF qualified contractor.

The Miami-Dade County NOA indicates that when BASF spray foam is applied as a three-inch fillet along the truss and roof deck, it glues the roof down to provide a simple and cost-effective means of significantly strengthening the roof against failure during high-wind events. BASF also has Florida Building Code (FBC) product approval (FL #13001) for COMFORT FOAM and SPRAYTITE (178 series) SPF products. Adding a total of three inches of closed-cell spray foam under the roof deck will also give the homeowner energy savings and wind resistance. Reduced homeowner insurance premiums may also be an added financial incentive in some areas of the country.

Homeowners in high-wind areas who want to maximize the benefits of COMFORT FOAM, including: premium-insulating values, improved indoor air quality, reduced energy bills and stronger roofs, are recommended to install a three-inch continuous application to the entire roof deck.

What stands tall after the storm may depend on a strong roof
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports that hurricanes account for average insured losses of about 5.2 billion dollars per year in the United States. The majority of these losses were directly caused by severe wind and rain exposure resulting from a failed roof deck, according to a study by Clemson University.

BASF understands the value of providing materials that protect homes during catastrophic weather events including storms, hurricanes and high winds. Particularly vulnerable to these conditions are roofs. According to the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, if a roof is not properly secured to the rest of a home, the likelihood of structural failure is much greater than if reinforced with hurricane damage mitigation tools.*** This type of application of spray foam glues the roof sheathing to the rafters, giving severe wind and rain no room to enter and weaken a structure.

For more information on the energy and structural benefits of building or retrofitting your home with BASF spray foam insulation, please visit http://www.spf.basf.com.

About BASF Polyurethanes
BASF is the leading supplier of Polyurethane Solutions for systems, specialties and PU basic products. With its global network of 38 polyurethane system houses and its comprehensive product and service portfolio, BASF is the preferred partner of its customers in many industries.

The BASF brand “Polyurethane Solutions” represents over 40 years of experience of the market and technology leadership for Polyurethane Systems.

In the extremely service-oriented business of polyurethane systems and specialties, reliable PU experience and competence are crucial. Through its system house network, BASF provides fast local support, from technical service and sales to production and marketing during the development of customized solutions. With its world-scale plants, BASF secures its leading market position in the production of polyurethane basic products in all regions of the world.

Polyurethanes make life more comfortable, safer and more pleasant while helping to save energy sustainably. They contribute towards improved insulation of buildings and more attractive, lightweight design of cars. Producers of shoes, mattresses and household goods as well as sports equipment use the unique advantages of polyurethanes provided with the knowledge and expertise of the polyurethane experts of BASF world-wide. Further information is available on the internet at http://www.polyurethanes.basf.com.

Have you taken the time to have a hard discussion with your investment adviser about how you should adjust your investment portfolio as you get closer to retirement age? If you have, he or she probably told you that the closer you are to retirement age, the more secure your investments need to be.

You will need to draw regular payments to support your lifestyle. Some investment vehicles, such as stocks, typically have too much volatility to be depended upon as a source that can be regularly drawn upon by retirees. A balanced portfolio usually includes some combination of bonds, stocks, real estate, and cash. The percentage invested in bonds and cash will increase as you approach retirement age. During your retirement years, you will deplete your stock holdings in the years when stocks are doing well and draw from your less volatile investments, like bonds and cash, during more troublesome periods.

Plan for energy inflation

Over the last few months I have done a lot of research on energy costs, and have uncovered a lot of useful information. I have compiled that information into a series of spreadsheets that examine every aspect of the relationship between investments in your future energy consumption and other types of investments. I have also consulted with several investment advisers, including one top money manager at one of the nation’s leading investment firms.

One of the first things I found is that the U.S. Dept. of Commerce has been keeping track, since 1974, of the price that consumers pay for energy. Energy is a separate component of the Consumer Price Index. As we all know, gas prices have gone up, then come back down, then gone up again; lots of volatility, and not much predictability, but over time the result has been an upward spiral.

Electricity rates, on the other hand, seem much more stable. Yet they have risen at almost exactly the same rate over time as gas prices. When these prices are averaged with other energy prices, such as natural gas, heating oil, and propane, the average annual increase has been 6.33%.

Energy prices increase faster than Social Security payouts

By comparison, the Consumer Price Index, used by the government to calculate increases to your Social Security check, has only risen at an annual rate of just under 1.54% during that same period. It is clear just from looking at these two numbers that if you are trying to use your Social Security check to pay for your energy use, you will be falling behind by about 4.8% per year. The average American living in a 2,000-square-foot house is currently paying home energy bills of around $214 per month. In addition to the home energy costs, the average American is also spending a similar amount on gasoline for transportation. At the current rate of energy price inflation (over the last 38 years), this number will double in about twelve years. Yet your Social Security check would only increase by about 18% over the same time period. It is obvious, then, that you will need some other source of funds from which to purchase energy some other portion of your investment portfolio.

On the surface, the solution might seem simple: If you could use the equity in your home to buy your next 30 years worth of energy at today’s prices, you could lock in a rate of around 5% interest on the loan, and receive a return of 6.33% over time. This would allow you to earn a return of 1.33% per year on the bank’s money. The opportunities are actually much better than that, but the mechanism for doing so is much more complicated. To start with, you just don’t have room in your back yard to store that much gasoline, and surely the neighbors would complain about the smell!

Drastically reducing energy demand can be an important hedge

What is required is either an energy upgrade investment in your existing home, or to sell your existing home and purchase one that is truly energy-efficient. I am not just referring to today’s code-minimum home. While today’s homes are indeed much more energy-efficient than homes of just a few years ago, they still are using energy at a rate that could bankrupt you a just few years down the line. A better choice is to upgrade your existing home or buy a below-net-zero-energy home. Does such a thing exist? Yes, it does; my company and others are now building homes that produce enough energy not only to supply themselves, but also to power your electric car. How much does such a house cost, you ask?

That depends on how big or how fancy a home you would like. We are currently building a very simple, 1,915-square-foot house in Seattle, Washington, that looks just like many of the other homes in its neighborhood. The difference is that this house will power itself and the owner’s car for about 8,000 to 9,000 miles per year, using a 10-kW solar electric array on the roof.

The total cost of this house is right around $250,000 (including the solar panels, but not including the land). That is actually just about at the median price for an existing home in that neighborhood. You could say that the net cost of going to way below net-zero, in this case, is zero. That would not really be true.

Trade your granite countertops for a better envelope and solar panels

To get to net-zero and below requires a complicated set of calculations and trade-offs that are very climate-specific. In rough numbers, the solar energy systems for this house cost about $50,000, other envelope upgrades cost about $10,000, and the heating, ventilating and hot water system will cost about $7,000 more than what most new homes would spend. In addition, the owners are willing to forgo a few amenities that most new homes in the neighborhood have, such as granite countertops.

A more accurate estimate would be that it costs about $75,000 more for the below-net-zero-energy house than it would cost for a similar home of standard construction in the same neighborhood. This represents a 40% increase in costs over that of standard construction, if you added back in the amenities that other homes would have. In a more expensive home, that percentage would be much smaller, perhaps as little as 15%.

So, what do you get for your $75,000 investment?

A tax-free income stream

For the purpose of this exploration, we used a 30-year time horizon, because that is the duration of most mortgages in the U.S. today. We compared the return our customers will realize by having no energy bills, to the returns they could receive from a variety of common investment vehicles. To make this a fair comparison, we assumed that you would draw from the initial investment each month to pay your current energy bills.

You would be required to pay income tax on the income from your investments. There is no tax on your energy savings! We were so surprised by what we found, that we ran additional calculations, using actual energy savings from other homes we have built, and savings from some high-performance energy remodels we have completed over the last few years. What we found is that the energy savings in all cases provided a higher rate of return, with a higher level of security, than any other secure type of investment.

Better than traditional ‘stable’ investment options

If you invested in money-market funds or Certificates of Deposit, your energy bills would have eaten up the entire investment within the first ten years. Investments in the bond market would have fared much better, not running out until just over twenty years into the investment period. Investments in the Dow Jones Industrial Average or the S&P 500 Index, with all dividends reinvested, would have netted you a larger return, but with way too much volatility to be worth the risk.

For example, if you had started your investment period about ten or twelve years ago, you would be almost out of money by now, and we have no way to predict that the next ten years would be any better than the last ten, even though the last thirty-five years have been very good. The energy investment, by comparison, will save our customer over $350,000 over the next 30 years!

What this means is that any other investment could end up leaving you having to make some terrible choices in your future, like whether to pay your energy bills, your grocery bills, or your medical bills.

While past performance of any investment cannot predict the performance of future returns, it is clear that having a zero energy bill will always effectively net you a return, and that return will become even more significant over time.

The energy retrofit option

One final note on energy improvements to your existing home: If you have a great house, in a good, central location, nice yard, everything you want, but just too many energy bills, what should you do? This is where a high-performance energy remodel comes in.

We have done high-performance energy remodels that have reduced the over-all energy consumption of existing homes by up to 66% and the heating and cooling energy use by over 83%. These results were before adding any alternative energy production like solar hot water or photovolatic panels. Because the previous energy use of the existing house was way above the national average, the savings experienced by the owners was even greater than those experienced by the purchasers of our new homes.

Every home is different, so it is impossible to predict exactly how much it will cost to achieve what result in an existing home. A qualified Home Energy Rater should be able to help you with these calculations.

My conclusion is that investing in the energy efficiency of your home today could well be the wisest investment you could make to assure a worry-free future.

When you buy a new house, before it’s built, you get to choose from the variety of styles and floor plans the builder offers, as well as options and upgrades on details and finishes. Depending on the builder, sometimes the options and choices of upgrades are very limited. Most times, those options are limited to finishes. Rarely do they offer green upgrades, or upgrades on what matters most: what’s behind the walls.

A lot of builders and building companies have model homes, or even a design centre you can visit to help you decide on the finishes and upgrades you might want to add. What’s on display is always finishes. It’s never the insulation, the drywall or tile underlayment. You’ll never see air purifiers on display or added as an extra appliance.

Energy Star appliances are standard now with new homes, and they are built to minimum code standards with regard to construction, building envelope, insulation.

But what about green upgrades?

Some leading green builders offer features such as solar rooftop photovoltaic (PV) and solar hot-water pre-heating rough-ins for those who want that option. And lots are coming on board with low/no VOC paints, and maybe some bamboo flooring. But that’s about it, I’m sad to say.

That’s all driven by consumer demand. Builders will build what sells, so it’s up to you to demand upgrades that will really increase the value of your home.

What do homebuyers think is important when they invest in their new homes?

Everyone is concerned about indoor air quality, and the effects of mould and allergens on their families’ health. But how many people are even aware of the upgrades they can have that will improve that indoor air quality? The type of insulation you choose, the type of cabinets and flooring, all contribute to the indoor air quality. What about adding an air-purifying system or premium HEPA filtration to your HVAC?

Some people will advise you to choose your upgrades based on future resale of your home. That’s fine, but who’s to say a brushed nickel faucet will still be fashionable when your home goes on the market? Will cherry cabinets be in, or will painted wood? Is your money better spent on a granite countertop or on a properly insulated basement and attic?

A finished basement is a popular one. But for me, this is one of the real traps of a “builder upgrade.” Guaranteed: If you opt for this upgrade, you will have a basement finished to minimum code. That’s all that’s required. And that will be a complete waste of your money — in either a short time or a slightly longer time — when you need to tear everything out because it’s tainted with mould.

Conventional wisdom says that spending your upgrade money on kitchen and bathrooms will repay you. But I say that every penny you invest in an upgrade that improves your home’s efficiency will repay you, too.

I say, when your budget is limited — and whose isn’t? — spend your upgrade money on the places you can’t get to later: behind the walls. You can always upgrade a standard finish to something pricier later, if you want to. But you can’t easily change your insulation or the underlayment beneath your tiles or replace your standard drywall with mould-resistant.

The consumer decisions always seem to be: Do you want the premium kitchen cabinets or the standard? Do you want a granite countertop or laminate? What kind of tile do you want in the bathroom?

People spend hours discussing choices of light fixtures, door handles, cabinet hardware, plumbing fixtures, paint colour, crown moulding and style of baseboards. Who cares? Seriously.

What about the level of insulation — code or above code? What kind of insulation — blown-in cellulose, batt, or spray foam? How good are the windows?Are they high-performance? BluWood or standard? Mould-resistant drywall or standard?

Can you choose sustainably sourced hardwood for your flooring?

Ask the questions. Make the right choices on your upgrades.

The article highlights the benefits of using closed-cell spray polyurethane foam (ccSPF), also known as medium-density spray foam, in residential construction.  ccSPF can be used as cavity insulation and as an exterior wall and roof material. The material has applications in all climate zones.

Among the numerous benefits offered by ccSPF, the material’s water resistance can be an invaluable asset in the face of the severe weather conditions common to coastal regions. In fact, “Closed-cell spray foam has negligible water permeability, minimal water absorption, and excellent adhesion allowing it to act as a secondary rainwater barrier to limit damage when primary roof assembly rainwater-control membranes leak,” states Christopher J. Schumacher, a principal with Building Science Consulting, Westford, Massachusetts.

Everywhere there are joints and cracks, the spray foam seals and prevents the entry of water. In cases where the primary roof does leak, the ccSPF application can keep water from spreading through to the interior finishes.

And for low-slope roofing, ccSPF, by itself, can actually perform as a primary water barrier due to its high adhesion and closed-cell characteristics. It keeps away mold and mildew and is the only FEMA-approved cavity insulation for homes built in flood zones.  Furthermore, after it is exposed to water, it demonstrates rapid drying capability.

The high-performance insulating material, closed-cell SPF, strengthens the same walls they insulate. Closed-cell SPF is stiffer and stronger than other insulations. For that reason, ccSPF can strengthen frame walls by a factor of two to three times when applied inside the wall cavities.

An additional area where ccSPF has well proven its worth includes withstanding wind uplift. Considering the fact that uplift of the roof deck is, after window and glazing damage, the most common form of hurricane damage, this can be key.  Testing shows that wind uplift performance can increase by two to three times with spray foam insulation.

Beyond water resistance and wind uplift, additional ccSPF properties include thermal insulation and airflow control.  Closed-cell spray foam acts as an air barrier (at 1 in. or 25 mm minimum thickness) and vapor retarder (at 2 in. or 50 mm minimum thickness) and therefore does not need an additional vapor retarder in cold climates. And because ccSPF is air impermeable, it adheres well to construction surfaces and expands to fill voids, thereby creating an air seal.

With ccSPF, all these problems are eliminated. Industry groups like the Spray Polyurethane Foam Alliance (SPFA) and the Spray Polyurethane Foam Division of the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) list a number of additional benefits:

• Energy transfer through ductwork is no longer lost to the exterior.
• Water pipes are better protected from freezing.
• Airtightness requirements for the ceiling plane are reduced or eliminated.
• Renovation and rewiring involve no disturbance to the insulation layer.
• Attic storage space

Homeowners can quickly search for spray foam contractors in their state, through our convenient search engine.  Search results can rapidly be scanned for areas of special interest with the certification icons.  Each potential contractor can be contacted directly for a custom estimate and/or reference checks.

Homeowners looking to save money on their long-term energy bills will find the Spray Foam Homes site extremely useful with tips and best practices for reducing energy consumption.  The combination of spray foam insulation and practical advice will save homeowners tremendous amounts of money year after year.

Our mission is to provide homeowners, as well as builders, GC’s, architects and all other energy-conscious individuals with the most current news and information on spray polyurethane foam technology.

We invite your commentary, thoughts, and suggestions for topics.  In fact, if you’d like to submit an article for publication on the Spray Foam Homes site(s), please email it to us.  All submissions are welcome!

This PDF article discusses the advantageous and differences between open-cell and closed-cell spray polyurethane foam.

As a result, the upcoming 2006 edition of IRC will allow unvented, conditioned attics when the following four conditions are met:

1. No interior vapor retarders are installed on the ceiling side (attic floor) of the unvented attic space.

2. An air-impermeable insulation is applied directly to the interior underside of the structural roof deck. “Air permeable” is defined as ASTM E283, “Standard Test Method for Determining Rate of Air Leakage Through Exterior Windows, Curtain Walls, and Doors Under Specified Pressure Differences Across the Specimen.” An exception is permitted in the code’s Climate Zones 2B and 3B (portions of southern California and Arizona) where the use of air-impermeable insulation is not required.

3. In Climate Zones 3 through 8, sufficient insulation is installed to maintain the monthly average temperature of the condensing surface above 45 F (7 C). These zones encompass all the U.S. except Florida and Hawaii and the southernmost portions of Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. The condensing surface is defined as either the structural roof deck or interior surface side of the air-impermeable insulation. For calculation purposes, an interior design temperature of 68 F (20 C) is assumed; exterior temperature is determined as the monthly average outside temperature.

4. In warm, humid locations, for asphalt shingle roof systems, a vapor retarder with a perm rating of 1 perm (57.4 mg/s•m²•Pa) or less be installed on the exterior side of the structural roof deck. For wood shingle and shake roof systems, a 1/4-inch- (6-mm-) thick minimum air space shall be provided between the underlayment and shingles or shakes. “Warm, humid locations” include all of Florida and specific counties in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas.

UNVENTED ATTIC:

The new International Residential Code language allows unvented attic spaces, as long as the roof is insulated with air-impermeable foam and there’s no vapor retarder between the attic and the living space.

Recommended insulation for coastal areas by FEMA technical fact sheet # 8 Insulation: plastics, synthetics, and closed-cell foam, or other types approved by local building officials

There’s no evidence that sealed and insulated attics trap moisture. Researchers have found that, in hot, humid climates, buildings with unvented attics are actually less likely to have condensation and mold than those with vented attics. That’s because, in these climates, most moisture comes from outside, and the foam keeps the attic dry by sealing that moisture out.

Humid attics wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for leaky air-conditioning ducts. Depending on the pressures in the HVAC system and the pressures in the house created by that system, these leaks can blow cold air into the attic or suck hot, humid air into the ductwork and into floor and wall cavities. Either way, you have a problem. Air leaking from the ducts can cool nearby surfaces enough that humid attic air condenses on them. Moist air pulled into the ductwork will get blown into the living space, where it can condense on walls and ceilings. There has seen none of these ills in homes with sealed and conditioned attics (conditioned by means of passive connection to the living space).

Foam contractors are trained and certified by insulation manufacturers. There have been no reported problems with unvented attics built in Florida as long as 10 years ago. It’s a proven building technology.

In high wind regions – particularly in coastal areas, wind driven rain is a problem with vented roof assemblies. Additionally, during high wind events, vented soffit collapse leads to building pressurization and window blowout and roof loss due to increased uplift. Unvented roofs – principally due to the robustness of their soffit construction – outperform vented roofs during hurricanes – they are safer.

Effects on roofing

• The greatest influence on roof temperature is geographic location. The mean roof temperatures for Miami and Green Bay, Wis., for example, differ by 18 degrees Celsius.
• The direction a roof faces has the second greatest influence on average roof temperature (in excess of 1.44 degrees Celsius in the east through south-to-west range studied, but the real difference is greater because other directions, such as north, will be cooler).
• The color of roofing materials influences the mean temperature of a roof system slightly less than direction (1.45 degrees Celsius average for these parameters).
• Ventilating the area under a roof deck reduces the average temperature 0.5 degrees Celsius (about one-third the influence of the direction or color and one-thirty-sixth the influence of geographic location). Even with wind assistance, ventilation reduces average roof temperature about half as much as using white rather than black shingles.
• Within the ranges studied, slope has the least influence on average shingle temperature