Therma Seal insulation makes the difference in creating better indoor environments!
Courtesy of Icynene Corp.
When it comes to safeguarding the warmth and well-being of people and products in a building, it's important for residents to ensure that they're putting the best services into place. If there's a problem with the kinds of insulation, method of placement or overall effectiveness of the resources placed in a home, it's likely that residents won't be able to get as much out of these additions as they might otherwise. This is commonly the case when buildings aren't using enterprise spray foam insulation. Therma Seal offers the best in total sealing and insulating with Icynene.
Reducing airborne problems Therma Seal believes there's a number of ways that people can enhance their home environments, but few compare to the benefits of Icynene. This product allows for a variety of effective cost savings that can deliver a specific assistance to people of all kinds, no matter where their homes are located.
Specifically, the source pointed out that Icynene spray foam insulation helps residents increase the quality of the air they breathe by creating a comprehensive air seal all throughout a home. This not only serves to keep in warm air and block any leaks from occurring, it also strengthens the filtering power of a home such that it's able to keep bad particles out of the air people breathe every day. As most individuals spend around 90 percent of their time indoors and at home, it's vital that residents have access to resources that can keep their airways safe at all hours of the day and night.
Icynene spray foam insulation offers one of the industry's best R-values, with uniform thickness and general protection in all parts of a home where this material is used. What's more, the source pointed out that around 90 percent of Icynene insulation is actually made up of air, making it very durable and structurally sound. Taking advantage of this substance is therefore much easier than with traditional options, as it generates a total seal using more natural assets than comparable products.
Buying the best That's also where Icynene fits in to major building projects, whether they be large-scale complexes or just a single-family abode. Therma Seal's experts conclude, the presence of Icynene spray foam insulation in the walls, floors and attics of buildings makes these structuresbetter suited for maintaining a constant levelof comfort.
Unlike other kinds of insulation, Icynene generates a total seal and fits exactly in every space where it's sprayed. The end result is much better heating and cooling oversight that makes it easy to save money for residents in any kind of building. Additionally, as buildings see their operations expanding, it's necessary for these entities to ensure they have resources in place that facilitate the best kinds of responses and oversights for a number of different enterprise issues.
Call Therma Seal today to learn more about the positive outcomes you can achieve by adding this kind of spray foam to your infrastructure. With the right combination of total coverage and better oversight of home life, residents can easily experience an increase in quality of life while eliminating the harmful particulates that might otherwise reside inside your home.
A 40-year-old, 4,000-sq.-ft. ranch-style home in the Miami area can cost a lot of money to cool.
Steven Dan was frustrated by the $500 monthly utility bills during the summertime. So he checked out the insulation in his attic — old, blown-in fiberglass. A neighbor suggested he look into icynene, a spray foam insulation that would better protect his home from the summer sun.
He found a south Florida company called ThermaSeal that sold icynene but was deterred from proceeding with the project by the $10,000 cost, which he would have had to pay upfront.
Later, ThermaSeal called him pitching a new program called PACE run by the Ygrene Energy Fund. “I didn’t get it at first,” Dan says, but became enamored of the idea when he understood how the program worked. One attractive feature: He wouldn’t have to make the first payment until his property tax bill is due.
“This seemed to me to be a very trouble-free way of doing it,” Dan says. “I didn’t have to go through the bank process of getting all my tax returns and getting an appraisal. It felt like a lot less hassle.”
After submitting the paperwork through Ygrene, ThermaSeal installed the icynene in his attic in July. He won’t pay the first $3,500 assessment of his five-year term until 2014. He ended up financing $15,000 due to the expense of removing old insulation and financing costs.
Meanwhile, his first post-icynene utility bill was $380 vs. the typical $500-plus his bills usually are in the summer. But that could be because he was on vacation some of that time. “I can’t wait to start charting this over time,” he says. “I’m expecting a minimum of $100-per-month savings.” Still, Dan says it could be as long as nine years before he breaks even.
The billionaire entrepreneur talks to us about his very unsexy, but very important new project: How to make it affordable for property owners to retrofit their houses to make them more efficient.
Even people who don't believe in climate change would probably acknowledge that improving the world's energy efficiency makes sense. Using less power saves money and reduces pollution--and, in many cases, the investments are easy. Years of upgrades show that property owners usually make their money back within a few years.
A report last year by Deutsche Bank Climate Change Advisors and the Rockefeller Foundation found that investing $279 billion in energy-efficiency retrofits across the country would produce a return of more than $1 trillion. The problem is unlocking the investment in the first place. What's needed, the report said, is new types of finance models that knock down the initial barriers.
According to Richard Branson, the British entrepreneur, that model is something called Property Assessed Clean Energy. PACE allows property owners to get funding for retrofits and not pay a cent upfront. They can put in energy-efficiency upgrades (or anti-hurricane measures and renewable energy systems) and then pay back the sum through their property tax bill over 20 years. The amount they save hopefully will be more than what they must pay over that time.
"Energy-efficiency upgrades haven't been taken up more widely because the property owner has had to bear the full burden of upfront cost and associated financial risk," Branson told Co.Exist in an email. "The PACE model turns all this upside down. By providing 100% financing, no upfront costs, and long-term, nonrecourse pay-back, it creates immediate financial incentives for property owners to upgrade their building today."
Currently, 32 states and the District of Columbia have legislation allowing PACE financing for energy efficiency, with another five or six looking at it (the idea originated in California eight years ago, though other types of public projects have been financed this way for up to 40 years). Importantly, the agreement stays with the property, passing from one owner to the next. That means the owner can sell, and not get left with the upgrade cost before seeing any benefits.
Branson is championing PACE through his environmental nonprofit, the Carbon War Room, which is helping to bring the financing together through a partnership with Ygrene Energy Fund. Ygrene strikes exclusive arrangements with municipalities to do energy-efficiency upgrade work in their area. It then markets the improvements to commercial and residential owners, and arranges short-term funding for the projects. Those loans are then bundled into a municipal bond, and sold on as low-risk investments. The government pays the money back through tax receipts.
Ygrene recently launched projects with the cities of Miami, Cutler Bay, Miami Shores, Palmetto Bay, Pinecrest, Coral Gables, and South Miami (its "Clean Energy Green Corridor") to offer retrofits in those areas. Under Florida law, owners can also get financing for hurricane resilience (like tougher windows and water barriers), though the emphasis is on efficiency and renewables, like solar panels.
"In Florida, the state is the insurer of last resort, so the public benefit of not having buildings blow off their foundations is really high," says Stacey Lawson, Ygrene's CEO. "For the owner, it allows them to reinvest the money in a way that doesn't keep them out of pocket. It opens up a whole new vein of capital for them that is only related to energy efficiency."
Ygrene is also working with Sacramento, California. In August, it agreed a $3.16 million retrofit of the city's Metro Center Corporate Park--the biggest energy-efficiency deal to date. The investment, which will pay for things like a new building management system and better lighting, is expected to produce savings of $140,000 a year--which is a 27% decrease in costs for the owner, Metzler Real Estate. Lawson says rates between 25% and 30% are "very typical."
PACE is not the only energy-efficiency financial fix. On-bill financing, in which owners and tenants repay through their utility bills, is also growing popularity. But PACE does seem to have momentum, particularly among commercial projects. Ygrene is only one of at least 10 funds using a similar model.
As usual, Branson has no doubt: "The implications of PACE for the scaled retrofitting of buildings across USA are huge, and couldn't come at a better time for everyone--tenants, owners, financiers, and the planet."
Open-cell spray foam can be used to successfully deliver sustainable, high-performance results. Incorporating open-cell spray foam, such as Icynene’s LD-C-50, into a sustainable building can have a tremendous impact on achieving the core sustainable strategies of energy efficiency, moisture management and whole building design. Today we take a look at how quality open-cell spray foam aids in the energy efficiency performance of a home.
It’s believed that up to 40% of a home’s heating and cooling costs are caused by air leakage. To curb such expenses as well as minimize air leakage and excessive energy waste, the use of an effective, continuous air barrier is recommended. Both open-cell and closed-cell, such as Icynene’s MD-C-200, can help reduce energy costs by up to 50%.
A quality open-cell product has the added benefit of longevity in that 100% water-blown foam does not release emissions that would degrade the material and, ultimately, degrade its performance over the long-term. As a permanent solution that offers longevity, open-cell spray foam insulation helps minimize operating costs and also significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
Selecting a product that provides longevity also eliminates the need for re-installation of additional materials in the future. Furthermore, open-cell spray foam insulation cures soft and remains flexible allowing it to expand and contract within the substrate helping ensure a reliable and permanent air seal. The flexibility of open-cell spray foam maintains integrity of the air seal for the life of the building.
