Apart from having to spend money to renovate his home, Edgar says he did not want to have to face paying even more money for a home heating bill that had the potential of running hundreds of dollars each month during Pittsburgh’s notoriously cold winters.

That’s when Edgar got on the Internet and began researching ways he could make his home energy efficient and save money on the dreaded winter heating bills. Edgar says what he discovered from his cyber search was spray foam insulation. InsulRight, a North Versailles Township foam installation company, installed the insulation in Edgar’s home.

Rather than being installed by hand, spray foam insulation is sprayed on by a trained technician into any space, regardless of shape. No portion of a ceiling, or wall has to be removed to install the spray foam insulation. This is not usually the case with the more common fiberglass insulation. The other type of insulation commonly used by homeowners is loose-fill cellulose, which is 100 percent natural. Eighty percent of most cellulose insulation is comprised of recycled newsprint. Both fiberglass and cellulose insulation tend to collect moisture. Spray foam, meanwhile, blocks moisture and does not sag.

Spray foam has a slight yellow tint to it when it cures. Depending on the type of foam insulation that is used, the finished insulation can be hard enough to walk on and can be used as structural support.

Edgar, who tore his walls down to studs, insulated with spray foam and put up new walls during the renovation, says his monthly heating bills during the winter are now around $75. A neighbor down his street, meanwhile, is paying hundreds monthly during the winter to heat his similar-size home. InsulRight also sprayed Edgar’s basement floor, which was unfinished dirt. Only the interior – party - walls were not sprayed, Edgar says.

“When I was working on the house I had three kerosene heaters going to heat the house,” Edgar says. “Last winter I had plywood on the basement door and one kerosene heater. The rest of the house was just fine, even though I had essentially no basement door.”

GROWING POPULARITY

John Washington is the sales manager at InsulRight. He says the biggest growth areas of business for the 12-year-old company are the foam insulation of existing residential homes and fresh insulation in new home construction, adding existing home owners have become more conscious of rising energy bills during the last 12 months and want to make their homes more energy efficient.

Once the temperature begins dropping, as it does every fall, the company’s telephone won’t stop ringing until the weather heats up again, Washington says.

“We do residential and commercial. We’ve sprayed freezers, trailers, even mine shafts.” The company is currently working on a project in the eastern part of the state to insulate a former roller skating rink that’s being converted to offices. InsulRight has insulated the South Hills Retirement Residence and the new physical science building at Washington & Jefferson College.

“This is a growing industry,” says Heather Knox, InsulRight’s director of business development. “It’s nearly recession proof” because everyone wants to save money.

Housing communities where InsulRight has worked include Summerset at Frick Park in the city’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood; The Village of Shadyside and The Village at Washington’s Landing. InsulRight also insulated the Penn Hills home featured in Extreme Makeover Home Edition when the popular network program came to Pittsburgh in October 2008.

OPEN VERSUS CLOSED

InsulRight technicians spray both Open Cell and Closed Cell Rigid Foam, both of which dry seconds after spraying. Both foams are mixed at InsulRight, using materials provided by companies such as Bayer Corp.

A technician, wearing a protective suit and mask, will do the spraying at the home or building. The spray foam expands 100 times within seconds, literally right before your eyes. No harmful chemicals are emitted and the only lingering effect is a slight odor that smells like Kahula liquor, but that quickly dissipates.

As its name indicates, Open-Cell foam is porous, allowing water vapor and liquid water to penetrate the insulation. Closed-Cell foam, meanwhile, is non-porous and not moisture-penetrable, and essentially forms a vapor lock. It is important for the property owner to know the difference between the two insulations because vapor barriers are usually required in most Building Codes, regardless of the type of insulation used.

Closed-cell foam is considered a superior insulator and is strong enough to reinforce the insulated surface, or wall. By contrast, Open-Cell is soft when cured and has little structural strength. It also requires trimming after insulation. Closed-cell insulation does not need to be trimmed.

Both Washington and Knox admit spray foam insulation costs more than fiberglass or cellulose insulation, but say the energy savings more than makes up for the cost. According to www.toolbox.org <http://www.toolbox.org/>, a nonprofit housing information web site, the cost of installed foam insulation can vary from $1.25 to $2.25 a square foot. By comparison, fiberglass insulation that is blown into a wall can run $1.20 a square foot, the web site said.

SAVING GREEN

InsulRight occupies a 6,600-square-foot building on Third Avenue in North Versailles Township.

When the company bought the building, three furnaces were used to heat the space. Washington says the heating bills were $1,400 a month. InsulRight insulated the building with spray foam. One furnace now heats the entire building and heating bills are less than $400 a month.

“Foam insulation came from NASA,” Washington says. “They needed something to insulate the capsules from extreme temperatures.”

According to InsulRight, if every home in Pennsylvania used foam insulation, it would result in $5 billion in energy savings. Plus, more than 19 billion kilowatt hours would be saved.

BECOMING ENERGY EFFICIENT

InsulRight is segueing into the home energy efficiency testing business, which could prove to be a growing area of business if Congress has its way.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the “Cap and Trade” energy bill in July 2009. The legislation says before any real estate, whether it is new or old, commercial or residential, can be sold or rented, the building must meet the new energy standards. Cap and Trade requires such things as making reflective solar roofs mandatory. In addition, the bill, which is now in the Senate, says, double-pane windows, energy-efficient appliances and lighting must also be used.

The 1,400-page Cap and Trade bill calls for newly constructed buildings to be 30 percent more energy efficient by 2012, 50 percent more efficient by 2014 and 75 percent more efficient by 2029. These efficiency benchmarks apply only to homes and buildings built after the bill becomes law. Existing homes and buildings are not affected, according to FactCheck.org. But, a portion of Cap and Trade dubbed “Retrofit for Energy and Environmental Performance (REEP)” calls for facilitating the retrofitting of existing buildings across the country to achieve cost-effective energy efficiency savings of 20 percent or more and significant reductions in water use. As a financial incentive to make these changes, a homeowner would receive $1,000 for a combination of prescriptive measures designed to reduce energy consumption by 10 percent and $2,000 for measures that reduce energy consumption by 20 percent.

The House has said that states are responsible for ensuring that REEP is carried out. States may also contract with private agencies to supervise the retrofitting and measuring of approved efficiency and environmental friendliness. Both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy will establish guidelines for the retrofits.

The Obama Administration plans to fund these financial incentives for property owners by levying a tax on excessive windfall profits from oil companies. There are also discussions about having states and localities to provide loans, or utility rebates to help fund the retrofits.

Knox had her 1,600-square-foot house in Monroeville foam insulated earlier this year without waiting for a possible government rebate. She said it took three days to complete the job and she could not be happier with the results. NH

“I AM ALREADY SEEING A DIFFERENCE IN MY BILLS,”
SHE SAYS. “IT'S ONLY GOING TO TAKE ME A FEW
YEARS TO RECOVER THE COST.”