Polyicynene Insulation

LESLIE: Judy in Florida is looking to insulate her home. What can we help you with?

JUDY: Hi, I’d like to ask a question about using foam inside a new home that we’re constructing and wanted to know the pros and cons.

TOM: (overlapping voices) OK.

JUDY: And we were looking at the – closed-cell? Closed-cell.

TOM: Are you referring to polyicynene?

JUDY: Uh-huh. Something similar to that.

TOM: Yeah, good choice; very, very energy efficient; has to be installed at the time the home is constructed but does a great job of not only insulating the home but also sealing against drafts, because it does fill up all of the cavities and all of the bays. It’s an expandable foam. So when it’s sprayed, it expands; it takes up all the space and it’s trimmed and that really does a good job.

You know, when you just put fiberglass bats in there, there’s still a lot of air that can get in around that.

JUDY: Right.

TOM: But the expandable foam insulations eliminate that problem.

JUDY: Uh-huh. Any problems with it being too tight? Making the house too tight?

TOM: No, absolutely not. And in fact, if your home was too tight that would be a good thing because you would then put in an air-to-air heat exchanger which will let in fresh air but it will trap the heated or the cooled air on the way out so you don’t have to reheat or recool.

So, you don’t have to worry about whether or not the insulation will make the home too tight. If it is too tight, there is another appliance that could be installed that will fix that and it’s called an air-to-air heat exchanger.