How do you know if you need more insulation in your home?
Any one of the following conditions can be an indicator of inadequate insulation:
- Heating and cooling bills are high
- Rooms in the house feel drafty or uncomfortably warm
- The furnace or air conditioner runs constantly
- Outside noise is audible inside the house
- Snow melts quickly off the roof
- Icicles and ice damming occur on the roof
The best way to determine if you need additional insulation is to measure the depth of insulation currently in your attic. If there is less than R-49, (19 inches of fiberglass or rock wool, or 12-13 inches of cellulose), you could benefit by adding more insulation to your attic. Adding Nu-Wool Premium Cellulose Insulation on top of other types of insulation reduces air infiltration and improves the performance of your existing insulation.
If your attic has ample insulation and your home still feels drafty and cold in the winter, or too warm in the summer, the exterior walls may not be sufficiently insulated. Basements and crawl spaces need proper amounts of insulation as well. Of course, doors and windows should also be checked for air leakage.
A Naturally “GREEN” Product
Nu-Wool was GREEN long before Green Building existed. With its low embodied energy, high recycled content and superior energy saving performance, Nu-Wool Premium Cellulose Insulation is without question the GREENEST insulation product in the marketplace.
GREEN Since 1949
More than 65 years ago, Nu-Wool Co., Inc. began using recycled newspaper to manufacture its environmentally safe and effective cellulose insulation. Converting recycled paper to insulation used in the walls and attics of buildings helps keep it out of landfills where it has the potential to pollute the environment. Recycling paper also reduces the number of trees used to produce new paper. The amount of Nu-Wool Premium Cellulose Insulation in an average-sized new home is the equivalent of 39 trees!
Manufacturing Process
Cellulose insulation makes efficient use of natural resources. Independent University and lab studies, as well as actual homes, show that buildings insulated with cellulose insulation are heated and cooled more efficiently, using up to 40% less energy than fiberglass insulated buildings, contributing to energy conservation and saving both homeowners and building owners up to 40%* on utility bills.
Using Nu-Wool Premium Cellulose Insulation is more than a smart choice for its comfort and savings benefit, it is environmentally friendly even in the manufacturing process. Fiberglass insulation is made by melting sand and recovered glass in gas-fired furnaces. It takes at least 8,500 BTU’s of energy to product a pound of fiberglass insulation. Cellulose insulation is produced by processing pre and post-consumer recovered paper through electrically driven mills. Estimates for the embodied energy of a pound of cellulose vary from 150 to 750 BTU’s. Converting BTU’s-per-R, it takes at least 10 times more energy to make fiberglass insulation than to produce cellulose insulation