I want to buy about a dozen pieces of polystyrene foam board to tape to my windows/doors/fireplace as temporary insulation for the season. Home stores sell them: 1.5 inch x 2 feet x 4 feet for $4. This seems pretty expensive, consider this is what most people throw out after unpacking a boxed product. OK, the ones sold by home stores have an extra plastic sheet (vapor barrior) and R-factors printed on them. I can live without these extras.
Where can I buy foam boards at lower price? I don't need the vapor barrior or R factor.
Why not use the clear plastic shrink film? If you get the taped surfaces clean, the tape sticks well, and I've had no problem removing it in the spring. I've been eyeing my fireplace with the idea of using that same film on the brass insert, but the film hasn't applied itself yet. I'll probably have to do it myself.
I don't understand how you can determine that the home store price is high or low because people discard packaging material. Packing is often a significant portion of the cost of a product and sometimes more valuable than the product. Take a can of peas for example. The can cost more than the peas.
Nope, you use the competitive recycled paper pulp packing material, or the starch based packing peanuts, or bubble wrap or the inflatable air pillows or the foam in place wrap...
That is really not a bad price. That works out to 33¢ a board foot. If you buy TL quantities, you can get better. Raw material today is about $1 a pound, plus conversion, extruding, shipping, etc.
When used as wall insulation, code requires it to be covered with sheetrock.. Fact is, the material is less of a problem than most other items in the room. First, the material must be the modified version of polystyrene (all foam sold for insulation is). That means it has self extinguishing properties. It will not burn unless there is another source of ignition.
Factory Mutual did some testing in their labs some years back. They set up a "typical living room" with different wall coverings. One test was with the vinyl covered paneling that was popular some years ago. Another test was exposed foam insulation. A wastebasket with papers was set in the corner and lit on fire. The paneling made horrific flames and smoke while the foam plastic burned up a couple of feet above the wastebasket and went out on its own.
The main product of combustion of burning styrene is soot. Of course, it makes a fair amount of soot and you don't want to breath it, but it does not produce deadly gasses. It is essentially the same as burning oil, the raw material it is made from.
If the insulation on the windows is burning, you have much more serious problems that the products of combustion from the insulation will cause.
It is a test to see if insulating the windows would lower the heating bill significantly. If it does, then I may upgrade the windows to better ones.
A sheet of plastic film will stop heat loss due to air leakage, but not heat loss due to air convection, or due to conduction. Although, a sheet of film over a window frame traps some air inside and slow down the convection, so it should have some insulating effect.
Huh. I was just remembering the green smoke and acrid smell that would come off the foam scraps I would throw on the construction trash fire as a kid, from the type of foam panels in use in those days (mid-70s). That was generally the blue stuff that felt almost like sandpaper, and fractured like wood when broken, without breaking up into a zillion little balls like the modern white stuff does. I'm no chemist, so I have no idea what the non-dino components of the stuff were.
Your test is a complete waste of time and money. Do you think homeowners upgrade windows or apply window film because their bank accounts were full, so they had to spend some money? OF COURSE insulating the windows works. It always works, and it always makes a difference, unless your attic insulation's not up to par or you have a gaping hole in your roof. And, even if the difference in heating cost is not big and impressive, it definitely makes for more comfort.
I think single-pane windows have an R-Value of about 1 while double-pane windows have an R-Value of about 2.
I've always thought that insulated shutters that you could close at night from inside the house would be pretty nifty.
Also, years ago, I saw a double-pane window someplace (maybe on TV) that had a blower motor that would blow insulation between the panes and then suck it back out again with the press of a button.
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