Foam Insulation, More Than Just Staying Warm

When many people think of foam insulation they think of staying warm in the winter and saving money on their heating bills. This is especially common thinking in the northern climes where for a while houses were not insulated very well. The idea was that if they added a layer of foam insulation to the outside of their house they would be saving a lot of money on their gas bill.
There are other advantages to foam insulation that I would like to talk about in the rest of this article however and so that is what I am going to do. Foam insulation when compared to fiberglass has a number of attractive benefits. Number one on many people’s list is that it is much easier to work with. It does not make your skin itchy. It does not have to be rolled and it easier to carry. It is lighter as well and is able to cover more surface area than does a roll of fiber glass insulation. And it does all of these things without sacrificing in the “R value” which is the measure of effectiveness of insulation.
In fact because it is denser than the typical fiberglass roll, foam insulation has better insulating qualities per inch of thickness and so thinner applications of the material can give you similar if not better level of protection from the cold.
We have been talking about protection from the cold in our discussion of foam insulation but what most people forget is that protection from the cold in the winter is also protection from the heat escaping your house in the winter. In similar fashion insulation whatever material it may be is also protection against heat coming you’re your house in the summer and if you have air conditioning, cool escaping. So not only will it save you money in the winter and keep you warm, it will save you money in the summer and keep you cool.
So if you are thinking about putting vinyl siding up or have an addition in mind for your house you might want to consider layering the outside with even a thin layer of foam insulation. You will be both hotter and cooler when you want to be, and not the other way around. It is an easy task to tack up some of this wonder material, which means that it wont cost that much more, especially when you consider how much you will be saving in the long run.