Insulation Institute Blog

Posts By: Stacy Fitzgerald-Redd

Can We Fix the Energy Retrofit Gap?

Millions of American households struggle with energy costs, yet those who could benefit most from home energy-efficiency improvements are often least able to afford them. A report from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) highlights this disparity: lower-income homeowners are less likely to undertake energy-related improvements and spend less when they do, despite facing a greater energy burden.

Closing this retrofit gap requires more than help paying utility bills. It requires making energy-efficiency improvements accessible and affordable to the households that need them most.

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EIA: Home Heat Forecast A Mixed Bag

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its Winter Fuels Outlook, and it’s good news for homeowners who heat with natural gas. According to the EIA, those homeowners will see a 9 percent dip in their fuel bills this winter, while homeowners who heat with electricity will see a 4 percent increase in costs, and those who burn oil will see a 21 percent increase.

U.S. homes primarily use natural gas (53 percent), electricity (32 percent), Propane (6 percent), and fuel oil/kerosene (5 percent) for heating. A smaller percentage of homes use wood or have no heating or other heat sources (2 percent and four percent, respectively).

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Getting Better IAQ in American Schools

Nearly half of America’s kids live in counties with unhealthy air pollution levels, according to a recent American Lung Association report. Most people picture that as an outdoor problem, but the EPA reports that indoor air is two to five times more polluted than outdoor air. That’s a serious issue for schoolchildren, who spend about 90 percent of their day indoors.

Insulation Institute talked with Dr. John Ryan, Chief Strategy Officer at Allergy Standards Limited, and Buddy Combs, Specification Specialist for Knauf, about why indoor air quality needs year-round attention, how ventilation, moisture management, and material selection lead to healthier classrooms, and how school buildings can support student wellness and performance.

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New Guides Offer Expert Instruction for Attic and Roof Options

NAIMA has released two new instructional guides for insulation contractors and other building industry professionals. The guides cover best practices for two common construction options: vented roofs for cathedralized attics and vented attics for new homes.

Vented Attics for New Homes: Solutions That Work

This manual provides information and details on installing a vented attic in a new-construction home. It is organized around building science principles that maximize assembly performance, including proper air sealing, ventilation, and insulation installation to limit energy loss or heat gain.

A properly installed vented attic improves energy efficiency, prevents moisture damage, and extends roof life. This guide helps contractors learn the critical steps to deliver optimal performance.

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The Hidden Grid Resource in America’s Homes

The rapid growth of data centers and AI is creating a new challenge for America’s electric grid. And as demand for electricity rises, communities are increasingly concerned about higher utility costs, new generation and transmission infrastructure, and local impacts of data-center expansion.

A report from the AnnDyl Policy Group, Measurable Energy Efficiency to Meet Data Center Growth, offers an important perspective for the broader energy-efficiency community and data center owners: residential energy efficiency can aid the grid. The analysis examines how home energy-efficiency upgrades could help offset some of the electricity demand generated by data centers while delivering direct benefits to homeowners and communities.

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Buyers Willing to Pay $10K+ for Energy Efficient Features

The Insulation Institute has long tracked the growing trend of home buyers paying a premium for homes with energy-efficient features. Recent analysis from Two Fifty Seven, a residential electrification data platform startup, affirms that including mentions of energy-efficient and clean-energy features in a home listing can increase the sale price and that homeowners pay “measurably higher sale prices” for those homes.

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New Fire Performance Fact Sheet: Three Things Every Builder Should Consider

When evaluating insulation products for fire performance, it’s easy to focus on marketing claims like “Class A,” “self-extinguishing,” or “fire resistant,” but those terms don’t always tell the whole story.

NAIMA has released a new fact sheet on common claims made by spray foam and cellulose insulation manufacturers. The fact sheet highlights three important considerations every builder and specifier should keep in mind.

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Do Bigger HVAC Systems Deliver Better Performance?

By: Ben Green, Green Leaf Air

Most homeowners assume that a larger air conditioner will cool their home better, but that’s not necessarily true. On the surface, it sounds logical, but it’s not necessarily accurate. That’s because an oversized unit can make a high-performance home less comfortable, less efficient, and more expensive to operate.

As homes become better insulated and more airtight, their heating and cooling needs change. Yet many HVAC systems are still sized using outdated rules of thumb or by simply matching the old equipment’s size. The result is a system that may cool the home quickly, but struggle to control humidity, maintain consistent temperatures, and operate efficiently.

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New Analysis Shows What the Latest Energy Code Costs Builders

How much does it really cost to build a home that uses dramatically less energy? According to a new analysis by ICF Consulting, the answer is surprisingly modest. A home built to the 2015 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) uses roughly twenty percent less energy than a comparable home built to the 2009 code, while homes built to the latest 2024 IECC deliver even greater savings. Achieving those gains requires an upfront investment of only a few thousand dollars. In return, homeowners receive decades of lower utility bills and greater comfort. These long-term benefits stand in sharp contrast to claims by the National Association of Homebuilders that modern energy codes add tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of a new home. By measuring the cumulative costs of the prescriptive requirements in the 2015 and 2024 IECC, the analysis offers builders, policymakers, and homebuyers a detailed picture of what today’s energy codes actually cost.

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Pipe Insulation: The Unseen Superstar in Buildings

Every day, buildings lose energy through uninsulated or under-insulated piping systems. The result? Higher utility bills, greater carbon emissions, and reduced system performance. Fortunately, pipe insulation offers a simple solution with outsized advantages.

Pipe insulation is used in nearly every type of building, but it is most common and most extensively specified in commercial and industrial buildings to improve energy efficiency, safety, and system performance. This week, we look at the benefits of pipe insulation in buildings and detail how NAIMA’s 3E Plus can determine the appropriate insulation thickness for the job. Additionally, we’ll highlight NAIMA’s 3E Estimator tool, which leverages calculations from 3E Plus to provide a simple project-level estimate of the energy costs and emissions savings of pipe insulation for decision makers.

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