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The University of Colorado
School of Architecture and Planning at Denver tested the
"real world" performance of cellulose and
fiberglass insulation. They built two structures and
insulated one with fiberglass using R-19 in the walls and
R-30 in the ceiling. The other structure had the same
measured R-Values, but was insulated with cellulose
insulation. The cellulose insulated building was seven
degrees warmer than the fiberglass structure after a nine
hour heat loss test. But more importantly, after three weeks
of monitoring the cellulose insulated building used 26.4%
less energy than the fiberglass structure. The
researchers concluded that cellulose insulated buildings
perform 38% better than fiberglass insulated structures.
Keep in mind that both structures had the same
"measured R-Value."
Fiberglass Batting uses
air pockets as the insulation within the batts. When
installation personnel squeeze the batting and stuff it
around obstructions, it no longer has the rated R-Value. In
fact, if you compress a batt of fiberglass by running your
hand down it, you reduce the effective R-Value by squeezing
together the fibers and reducing the air pockets within the
batting.
The conclusion:
Cellulose has a higher "effective R-Value" no
matter what it says on the outside paper on the roll of
Fiberglass. related
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