During our cold Pittsburgh winters, many homeowners experience cold drafts, icy floors, high heating bills, and a number of other issues related to the cold weather. Our Limited Time FREE home energy audit will show your the REAL reasons for your discomfort. Thank you for taking a few moments to view our site! Our goal at Insulwise Energy and Comfort Solutions is to help homeowners make the smartest choices possible when improving the energy efficiency and comfort of their homes. Whether you are adding blown in insulation to your attic, upgrading your heating and cooling units with more efficient systems, performing air sealing measures, insulating your walls, or installing new windows, we believe it all starts with a free home energy assessment.
Using dense packed cellulose for your wall insulation needs achieves two big energy-efficiency-improving functions. First it insulates 2×4 stud bays to an approximate R-Value of R-15. This improvement alone dramatically reduces heat loss. But the other thing achieved when cellulose insulation is dense packed into your walls is that it permanently tightens your home's "air barrier." This air-sealing characteristic drastically reduces air infiltration year round, further cutting energy loss. The overall impact of insulating your exterior walls with the dense pack cellulose process should be a 20-30% reduction in your utility bills.
With rates of asthma and other breathing issues at record highs, the issue of Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) has become increasingly important to homeowners. Most people don't think about it, but their home is where they spend 90% of their time when they're not working. Insulwise has two key services that can sharply improve indoor air quality as well as reduce dust in their Pittsburgh area home. The most important service we offer that can improve indoor air quality is duct cleaning and sealing. According to Energy Star, the average home's duct system has a leakage rate of between 20 - 30%.this is massive!
The big deal with your home's attic insulation in the Pittsburgh area is that it's the most important component in your home's thermal barrier! This is because during the winter, the bulk of your home's heat loss occurs through the attic (because heat rises). And during hot summer months, the majority of a home's heat gain often occurs through the attic as the sun heats the roof to temperatures of 160 degrees and above! When your home's attic insulation is increased to a level of R-49 with blown in cellulose insulation, you will instantly and dramatically reduce your utility bills, as well as improve your comfort year round!
That the U.S. Department of Energy Estimates That the Average Home Loses 20-40% of its Conditioned Air Through Leaks in the Air Duct System?! Air duct leakage is a major contributor to comfort problems, energy loss, and indoor air pollution in nearly all homes with forced air heating and cooling systems. Duct leaks occur wherever there are seams in your sheet metal, where there are holes (more common than you'd think!), and where there are hidden disconnections. If you take a quick look in your basement, we guarantee you'll be able to find a few.
I started Insulwise in 2008. The reason for creating the business was to give homeowners in the Pittsburgh area a modern, building-science based option for addressing their home's insulation and duct sealing needs. Although there were other insulation companies out there when I got started, most were (and in many cases still are) using practices that were badly outdated (not air sealing attics or dense packing walls) and were in my opinion selling homeowners a dubious service. I knew that if I could offer homeowners a superior value for their money, that the business was likely to succeed.
Insulwise was started in 2008 because there was an opportunity in the Pittsburgh area to provide homeowners with a building-science based, best practice solution for air sealing and re-insulating their existing homes. But it was also started because it was recognized by the owner, Andy Haak, that properly air sealing and insulating an existing home is among the best things a homeowner can ever do for the planet. Why is this? According to the US Energy Information Association (EIS), about 61% of the energy used by homes in the Pittsburgh area goes to heating and cooling needs (scroll down to page 13 of the report, Pittsburgh falls into the cold/ very cold region).
Many homes have basements that are cold during the winter. A key reason is air infiltration that comes through the rim joist area. The rim joist is where the wooden frame of your home sits on top of the block wall foundation. This area is naturally porous due to two different building materials being sandwiched together (cement block and wood). A steady inflow of 20 degree air during the winter is more than enough to make your basement feel chilly! An essential reason why cold air infiltrates into your home through the rim joist is stack effect.
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