Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Home Insulation/Sealing question

Is any here familiar with Aerobarrier? This is being offered as an upgrade on a house we are building. What I have read sounds like it is worth the extra $, looking for some perspective. Here is some more info:

https://zeroenergyproject.org/2018/07/16/is-aerobarrier-the-future-of-air-sealing/

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFifVCE06Ik

Thanks for the help!

I suppose it would beat the canned spray foam I use for the same purpose.
How toxic is it if it burns? Hate to have a over abundance of toxic fumes if a minor fire were to occur.

It will make your house super tight. Make sure you have an air to air exchange system in place. It's not cheap that is for sure.

A LOT more goes into energy efficiency than just air sealing, although that is important. Energy efficiency is more of a package of things you do during the build process to arrive at a total reduction of energy usage. Air sealing is one. Perhaps a radiant barrier properly employed is another(most people do not understand how these work). Type and amount of insulation, type and color of roofing, structural design of strucure(solar exposure/ mitigation), type of windows, even type of flooring can all have major effects on energy usage, and are all dependent on environmental factors in play where the structure is located.

Being airtight is not always best, nor even good, for a home. There are significant problems that can arise from a home being too airtight, and spending money to tighten the envelope, and then spending more money to install the air to air exchange system to let fresh air into the house you paid to tighten, can be the height of folly. Much depends on how younwill live in the home.

Unless you are willing to educate yourself and move forward with a total energy efficiency strategy(not easy for a novice), or are willing to hire a consultant that is competent and reputable to do this, my recommendation is to build conventionally and avoid potential gimmickry.

I say this as a man who built my own custom 1800 sf. home with high vaulted ceilings throughout, and heated the home in a MO winter(not as severe as some, more so than others) plus cooked with a propane stove for over a year on 200 gallons of propane. Propane was $.99/ gallon at that time, so we effectively heated our home and cooked for a year for only 200 dollars. We used a catalytic gas wall heater for heat, and could not turn it above the low setting(6000 btu) without the temperature climbing above comfort level in the home. This would have been impossible with an airtight home, as this heat method would create both humidity and air supply issues in such a structure. I planned to use this heat, so designed the building with that in mind. I simply built with 2x6 wall framing, R19 wall insulation, R 38 attic insulation, all fiberglass batt, and Anderson casement windows. I was careful about air sealing, taping around windows and joints in the radiant foil I wrapped the home with. This foil did nothing to help heat the home, in fact reflecting solar gain that would have had some benefit in the winter. It was wholly designed to assist with cooling load reduction in the summer which it did spectacularly well.

All of this is meant to show what can be accomplished without special processes and expensive gimmicks. As an anecdote of the other side of this coin, I know one fellow here who built a nice home, spent big money to insulate with spray foam. Got that sucker tight, alright. He has to leave the window open in his utility room or his propane water heater won’t heat water. All modern propane appliances have a sensor that shuts them off when a low oxygen condition is detected. His house is so tight, the water heater starves for air unless he leaves a window open. Not the best plan.

I had a inch of foam sprayed in all my exterior walls, floor joist ends, and truss heels. After the foam cured they filled the rest of the space with treated cellulose.

They can spray the whole 6 inches of wall space with foam but my friend who does insulation said he doesn't recommend it. He said if you spray it that thick there's a chance it won't cure properly and will off gas and cause problems. He said an inch seals everything and ties the sheeting and studs together better.

My last home was about 4000 square feet with no foam just cellulose and my east idaho winter gas bills could get up to $200. My new home with 1 inch foam and 5 inches cellulose and is 5200 square feet and I don't think I've had a gas bill over $100 in the 2 years I've been in it.

I like the way they did my new one. It wasn't much more expensive to do the first inch in foam. I think it was less than $2000. I think it will pay for itself in a few more winters. It may help with my summer ac bill too because this house has been cheaper to cool than my last one too.

Bb

I really like that inch of spray foam to seal up everything, it also helps alleviate the onslaught of asian beetles and boxelder bugs we get around here.

I should have provided a bit more info. This house will be in Prescott, AZ, a fairly moderate climate. There will be an air exchange system in place. Slab will be insulated and foam insulation throughout. I was thinking that this would be enough, just wondered if the investment in the Aerobarrier would be worth it. Many of the home builders I spoke with in the area claimed they were using it standard.

It would seem to be redundant if using spray foam.