ALO Home Design & Alternative Construction

Soy-Based Spray Foam Insulation

2007-08-31T11:39:00.000-07:00

Soy-based spray foam insulation is making inroads with the surge in "Green" building today. It is a polyurethane foam that instead of using petroleum as a base, utilizes soy beans (a renewable plant source). Among it's many advantages are:

1.) it has NO voc's, NO urea, or NO ozone depleting CFS's or HCFC's.
2.) it has a high fire rating
3.) it is light weight &
4.) it has excellent thermal & acoustical properties. (3.6 R* or better per inch of thickness)

As far as I can tell, there are three major players in the soy-based foam insulation market, with several distributors and installers for both. These two companies are BioBased Insulation with it's BioBased 501 & BioBased 2000, EMEGA Technologies & USSC (Urethane Soy Systems Company) with it's Soytherm 50 product. All have web sites, as you can see, linked here.
According to BioBased Insulation, up to a 50% energy saving can be achieved verses traditional methods. For this savings, you can expect a premium over traditional methods as well. But then again, BioBased Insulation states, for every $1000 premium spent on BioBased Insulation home owners will increase their mortgage by $6-$7. This upgrade is easily surpassed by the first month's and subsequent monthly savings in energy costs. I can reasonably assume that these numbers would be the same for EMEGA Technologies & USSC insulation, or at least the differences would be negligible. You may want to contact each company in order to get their individual take on their products compared to the others. You may also, if so inclined, do some research on each company and what their philosophies are and what business ethical standards they adhere to.

I have just touched on the basics for Soy-based spray foam insulation here, but if you want to do some more searching, please feel free to use the search bar above, or check out these links:

www.abcfoaminsulation.com/faq.html

www.hgtvpro.com/hpro/dj_technology/article/0,2619,HPRO_20157_3679395,00.html

www.soynewuses.org/Plastics/Default.aspx

www.newurbanhome.com/phil_insulation.php

* R-value is a number indicating the resistance of heat or cold flow through a substance. The higher the R-value the more resistance there is to that flow, thus, for insulating purposes, the higher the R-value the better.

Natural Cotton Fiber Insulation

2007-07-03T11:52:00.000-07:00

I was able to find several sites that touched on the qualities and benefits of cotton fiber insulation. It seems that there are really only two products to choose from when deciding on a purchase of cotton fiber insulation; UltraTouch by Bonded Logic & Inno-Therm. UltraTouch has a web site linked here, but Inno-Therm was somewhat difficult to research.

Inno-Therm***, the company, purchased it's technology and equipment from the now defunct cotton insulation company Greenwood. According to the Thoreau Center for Sustainability, Greenwood's technology used 95% post industrial recycled fabric, 25% of which were polyester. The polyester was added to provide strength and recoil characteristics. It's fire retardant, info from The Green Guide, is a mixture of borate & ammonium sulfate.

UltraTouch by Bonded Logic, according to it's website is made of 85% post-industrial recycled natural fiber. It has no VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) concerns, and is a Class-A building product that meets the highest ASTM Testing Standards for fire & smoke ratings & fungi resistance. It's fire retardant is borate, from The Green Guide, again.

Out of all the sites mentioning cotton insulation, one in particular, Build It Green, seemed very thorough. I suggest you start there for more in depth information on cotton insulation.

***I have just recently been informed that Inno-Thern is now defunct. Just to check, I called their toll free and regular numbers, and it would seem Jon, my gracious informer, is correct. Both numbers have been disconnected. Jon did however, direct me to a new company, that I was unable to find while researching for my initial post. InsulTechnologies has Cotton fiber insulation as well as a few other safety & health conscious products. My thanks goes out to Jon, his input is exactly the type of collaboration I strive to achieve with this blog.

Introduction

2007-06-29T09:02:00.000-07:00

Hey there,

As you may have guessed by the title of this blog, I am attempting to distribute, what I believe to be, vital information for the continued development of an ideal that is slowly taking hold. I hope you find the information on this blog very useful. I do hope that any of you that have information to share, correct, or comment on, will do so freely and with some civility. I will try to keep this page as up-to-date as I possibly can, with two young children running about, and a busy life on top of that. Be reassured, I do have big plans for this blog!

If you have glanced at the page already, you may have noticed the links at the right. These are arranged in categories for browsing ease, and it is my intent to constantly add new and exciting products and information to this list. The list is long, and will get longer, so scroll on down to see all of it. Let it be known that I am not affiliated with any of the products or pages. If at any time, I do become affiliated with any product, page, school, or the like, I will provide full disclosure of such affiliation.

I have provided a Google search bar, which will either search the web, or search this page. Yes, I will get paid if you use this search bar enough, but this is just a bonus. This search bar, is a "smart" one, that eventually will, based on the inquiries, slant it's results to be more closely related to this blog. You will not have to wade through as much junk, making your search for relevant information less painful.

You may also have noticed the Google AdSense advertisements at the left as well. They are designed to advertise products related to this site. I will keep an eye on them, to make sure they are somewhat relative. If you like the idea of using these type of ads on your blog or site, click the button on the right.(I do get paid if you sign up for AdSense through this button)

Soon, I hope to have house plans, I have designed and drawn, available for sale. These plans will include a complete set of architectural drawings (plans, elevations, sections, details, schedules, electrical layout) all for a very reasonable cost, which will vary slightly based on the chosen mode of delivery. My ultimate goal for these plans is that, with little effort, they will be adaptable to multiple types of construction. When this feature is up and running, PayPal will be the payment system, and I will provide my PayPal information, or possibly a shopping cart.

Again, I am very open to discussion, collaboration, sharing, & correction (if needed), all in the pursuit of driving forward environmentally conscious (all encompassing term) construction.

Please remember to consult your state & local building officials, and follow all applicable codes in reference to any and all products & means of construction discussed on this site.