The R-Value: Insulation’s Grading Scale
The one great thing about being a consumer today is that you are in the information era. It is extremely easy for any consumer to get information about a company and its products or services. There also happens to be an abundance of user reviews and testimonials making your job of choosing the right product or service, much easier.
So to do our part in the information age, we want to help explain one of the measurements that is paramount to insulation: The R-value. The R-value is something that you want to take into consideration if you are in the market for new insulation. It doesn’t matter whether you need insulation for your home or your office, the R-value doesn’t discriminate or change meaning.
The R-value, quite literally defined, is a measure of thermal resistance. What this means for insulation purposes, is how well the insulation resists against heat transfer. The primary role of the R-value is to measure a material’s, such as insulation, ability to reduce this heat flow.
Specified tests are used to gather this information, putting an insulation’s ability to reduce the rate of heat flow to the test. The greater the R-value, the better the insulation is at reducing the rate of heat flow. Therefore, a higher R-value means you have a more insulated home.
There are some interesting caveats that you should be aware. Increasing the thickness of insulation will increase the overall R-value. For example doubling the thickness of a fiberglass insulation will double the R-value. However, there is a catch. If you try and squash two sheets of fiberglass insulation in an area that only allows for one sheet, you will not be doubling the R-value. Compressing the sheet actually decreases the R-value of the insulation while increasing the R-value per inch.
Even with an incredible R-value insulation, you will still lose heat through other means. Studs and windows allow for heat exchange. So even if your insulation is in between the wall studs, the studs themselves still allow heat transfer. One benefit of our Eco Insulation that is blown into the needed spaces, is that it doesn’t allow for the slight crack between the wall stud and insulation. For example, any fiberglass sheet of insulation can be measured perfectly, but there will still be an almost invisible crack between the stud and insulation. This allows for even more heat transfer. With Eco Insulation this crack is virtually eliminated.
For more information, contact Eco Insulation online for a quote, or call us at 563-223-8681.
