In older buildings with thin walls, would putting insulation on the inside of walls be energy smart?

Question

Perhaps decorative, adhesive foam panels.

Answer 1

Beaware of fire ratings with the use of exposed foam.

A few years ago in RI "The Station" nightclub fire was caused by exposed foam catching fire....(over 200 died)

Also be aware of trapping moisture between the new insulation and wall. A moisture barrier is supposed to be installed on the warm side of the insulation. By placing additional insulation on the inside you are effectively moving an existing moisture barrier to the middle of the insulation layer. Moist air entering along joints and openings (not count permiation as well) would encounter the vapor barrier and be trapped resulting in condensation build up and mold growth....

Answer 2

In my opinion as an old air conditioning and heating technician, no. I say that based on the fact that adhesive foam panels quickly produce toxic smoke in a fire. I've only dealt with interior wall cavity insulation. You might want to look up TIM (Thermally Improved Materials). The thing you want to look at is "pay back," that is if you spend a few hundred dollars with the foam, but only save a couple of pennies per month, it will take decades to see a pay back on the investment. Sorry I couldn't give you that magically definitive answer.

Answer 3

What is "energy smart?"

Would the cost of making the insulation, transporting it to the site, installing it, and then placing the new surface, (inside or outside) take more energy than the savings for the rest of the building's life?

Realistically, if a building has a certain know energy cost, the decision to insulate better depends on the cost of the insulating project, compared to the savings in energy over the life of the building.

Answer 4

confident you need to use foam board insulation for the partitions. i'm assuming which you're finding to get carry of a significant R-value for the long term. finding on the place you reside will ascertain the quite r-value required according to the development Code. In a development geared up contained in the 50's many situations the quite wall hollow area intensity would be an quite 4" as against the present development practices that are 3.5" throughout widespread 2X4" approaches. in case you have an quite wall hollow area intensity of four" then 2 layers of high quality foam board provides you with an R-value of approximately 20. If the wall cavities are below 4" with the obtrusive objective to end over then it quite is rather helpful to evaluate a mix of two" foam board and closed-cellular spray foam insulation to fill contained in the gap. in case you thoroughly crammed the wall cavities with closed-cellular spray foam then you will acquire the main suitable r-value a threat in this area. in case you experience which you will get a sturdy r-value for the fee by using purely foam board or a mix of froth board and closed-cellular foam then you would desire to truly choose that determination. keeping off fiberglass is unquestionably a sturdy concept surprisingly contained in the attic the place moisture builds up and air high quality is an obtrusive situation.

Answer 5

It would be energy efficient if such walls were so thin that even insulation could not be BLOWN in.. But first it would be wise to see if it could be BLOWN in between the outside brick part and the inside walls

Answer 6

Yes, but even smarter would be to build more nuclear power plants and have all of the energy we'll need for 10 thousand years. Bury the waste in the desert.

Once we are energy independent, we can then look for "cleaner" sources of energy.

Answer 7

well it would be warmer in winter and cooler in summer to have the insulation bats ..

AND .. if you live in an apartment etc .. least it would cut down a bit of the noise from the neighbours (gawd knows i need something to cut the noise from my annoying neighbours)

:)

Answer 8

it would be energy smart considering that you will spend less on air-con (on warm days) and heater (on winter).