Arkansas HVACR NewsMagazine September 2021

HVACR NewsMagazine September 2021

State National Chapter News

Jefferson’s Monticello was insulated with a form of cellulose in 1772. Many types of cellulosic materials have been used but more often newspaper and cardboard. Modern cellulose insulation, made with recycled newspaper and cardboard using grinding and dust removing machines began in the 1950s and came into general use in the US during the 1970s. Fire retardant was optional with one Arkansas company as recent as 1975. You could order it with or without fire retardant. Thanks to the Federal Consumer Products Safety Commission passing 16 CFR Part 1209, fire retardancy became a requirement. To fire retard cellulose, manufacturers use boric acid, borax, or ammonium sulfate. These are effective flame retardants and help reduce pest issues. Additionally, they aren’t known to be hazardous to people. Cellulose has an R factor of about 3.5+/inch. These days, cellulose is being replaced in popularity by foam. It seems to be the darling of the building industry. For a price, it certainly has the value of cleanliness in appearance once installed. It is available in open cell with a R factor of about 3.25/inch or closed cell with an R factor of about 6/inch. So from Monticello to newspaper in walls to foam today, we have known that insulation makes a home more comfortable and reduces utility bills. Today, we only see newspaper pages in walls when an old house is being gutted. Kind of fun to read the paper. Brings back memories of days gone by. Guess we’ll never see an iPad digital paper be in a wall when today’s homes get gutted. It’s a new day.

Newspaper Insulation

Not too long ago, say 75 years or so, folks lived in houses where the siding boards didn’t come together and wind rushed in like a gale. Thus the expression, “ you could throw a cat through the wall. ” Not that anyone would do such a thing but imagine a cat with legs stretched out flying though a big crack in the wall. Obviously, an exaggeration but it did a good job of stating the frustration of the family wearing coats on a cold winter day while huddling around the Franklin. Old houses provided shelter but not a lot of comfort. In the case of log homes, people understood that chinking was necessary but frame houses, sometimes without interior walls needed something else. Thus, NEWSPAPER! Of course you needed a source of old newspaper but once that was obtained, tack or glue it up on the walls. The newspaper created an air barrier and insulation of sorts. If you had a little more money, you could also add interior walls and man oh man, the house could be warmed much easier. Again, stopping the air was critical. While newspaper as we see in the picture had some value, cellulose as an insulation has been around for centuries.