Insulation Institute Blog

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Getting Higher Performance at Lower Costs

Maximizing energy performance to cost in new construction homes is every home builder’s goal and every home buyer’s expectation. Research shows that home buyers want energy efficiency but also need affordability. For builders committed to maximizing efficiency, fiberglass and mineral wool insulation products offer both performance and cost-effectiveness.

In this week’s blog, we highlight three publications that demonstrate that fiberglass and mineral wool can be used to meet any high-performance building approach. 

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Grid Modernization, Massive Costs, and Insulation

Electricity prices across America continue to increase even as the price of natural gas for electric generation is near an all-time low. Electric utility costs have increased by 24.8 percent in three years. They will continue to escalate until the Federal Electricity Energy Regulatory Commission acts to protect consumers versus the utility companies that build transmission lines.

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Setting the Record Straight on Low-Carbon Insulation and Buildings

Setting the Record Straight: Insulation and Low-Carbon Buildings

As home builders work to decarbonize construction, sourcing low-carbon building materials (including insulation) is an important objective. However, it can be challenging to make informed choices when misleading information about the carbon impacts of products is commonly cited.

NAIMA’s new guide, Setting the Record Straight: Insulation and Low Carbon Buildings, details the embodied carbon of common insulation products, highlights the rapid payback period, and dispels the myth that cellulose and wood fiber insulation products are carbon negative.

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Report: 89% of Homes Are Under Insulated

New research sponsored by NAIMA and conducted by ICF Consulting shows that 89 percent of U.S. single-family homes are under-insulated, decreasing comfort while increasing energy costs for homeowners.

Using the 2012 IECC as the baseline for home energy efficiency level, ICF used the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) 2024 ResStock database to extrapolate a sample of 1 million U.S. homes for this study. All homes that met energy efficiency targets less stringent than the 2012 IECC were deemed under-insulated.

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As Use of 25C Lags, Contractor Campaign Underway

According to new data released by the U.S. Treasury Department, for the 2023 tax year,  more than 3.34 million U.S. taxpayers claimed at least one of the home energy efficiency tax credits made available in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). In all, more than $8 billion in residential clean energy and home energy efficiency credits were claimed against 2023 federal income taxes.

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As Use of 25C Lags, Contractor Campaign Underway

Recycled Content Use Tops 3 Billion Pounds

NAIMA recently announced the result of its annual recycled content survey, which reports its members’ use of recycled materials. In 2023, NAIMA members in the United States and Canada used more than 3 billion pounds of recycled glass and slag in the production of residential, commercial, industrial, and air-handling thermal and acoustical insulation.  

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Recycled Content Use Tops 3 Billion Pounds

The Urgent Need to Cut Energy Burden for Families

Insulation is one of the best ways to reduce home energy costs, with a national opportunity to save 15 to 45 percent on costs, according to ICF’s Insulation Opportunity Study. With the unprecedented heat making energy costs increasingly unaffordable for all Americans but particularly low-income Americans, this cannot be overstated. A new report from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA) and the Center for Energy Poverty and Climate (CEPC) underscores the need to rapidly expand energy assistance programs and weatherization activities to reduce the cost burden to these communities.

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