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Live Green New Orleans recently sat down with Jeff Haag, Founder of EnviroGreen Insulation, for a lesson in spray foam insulation. As the cold air lingers in New Orleans, this may be a great time to see how to re-insulate your home using environmental-friendly, local materials from envirogreen.

LGNO: There has been a great deal of chatter on the street about “green” building with energy efficiency being touted by various businesses. When should a homeowner re-insulate “green”?

EnviroGreen: It’s our belief that improving the energy efficiency of a home by adding
insulation is, in itself, a “green” practice. Nobody will argue that having a solid foundation is the most important feature to building or renovating your home. Sealing and insulating should go hand in hand. The actual effectiveness of insulation is minimal at best if air and moisture are passing right through it. We cover the INS & OUTS of spray foam insulation on our website (HERE). Once the walls are up, it’s too late. So, I guess the answer is “always.”

LGNO: At LGNO, we encourage people to support 100% locally made, green business. I see that EnviroGreen insulation contains over 75% “green material” versus the competitors 80% petroleum-base.
What makes EnviroGreen different?

EnviroGreen: What makes us different from other “greenies” is the education we provide homeowners along with actually having the local exclusive contract on the world’s greenest spray form which is 100% made in Louisiana product-

LGNO: –Not a Betty Crocker mix then?

EnviroGreen: Not at all. This spray foam has left the “big boy” foam and plastic manufacturers scratching their heads saying, “…it’s too good to be true. There is no way these little guys from New Orleans can do this.” And, here again, it goes back to education and our desire to share it.

EnviroGreen’s motto is “Advancing energy efficiency performance through an educational approach” because that is exactly the platform of our business model. I believe this education is our foundation. We feel that even the name “EnviroGreen” is representative of our honesty since we do offer the only true green and local spray foam. We run into situations all the time where we keep shooting ourselves in the foot for being honest! Now homeowners are finally beginning to ask questions that they weren’t asking until EnviroGreen launched onto the green – no pun intended. And, more importantly, through the education EnviroGreen is providing, New Orleans businesses and homeowners are getting that extra boost of real “green” knowledge that it desperately needs to go along with what they already have… great food, music and people.

LGNO: Is it true that spray foam insulation shortens the life of the roof shingles due to overheating?

EnviroGreen: No, spray foam against the under-side of the roof decking, or creating an unvented attic will NOT age the shingles faster by over-heating them. There will also be several pages devoted to this myth coming soon on our website. Florida Solar Energy Center, Oakridge Laboratories, Building Science Corporation and may other organizations have done research on this topic for decades and have found negligible data at best indicating this claim to be true. What they all have found, however, is that the color of the shingle has the largest negative impact on its lifespan. Also, the amount of rainfall has a great impact on the life of the shingle.

LGNO: What does Open cell vs. Closed Cell mean to me, as a homeowner? Why is one more important than the other?

EnviroGreen: Many homeowners believe that Open cell spray foam is supposed to be sprayed under the house. However, the TRUTH is: Open cell spray foam CAN NOT go under a house, outside a house, or be installed in any application that it does not have vapor protection. I would say that over 90% of the spray foam placed under our homes in the Greater New Orleans Area is open cell. Unfortunately the spray foam contractor didn’t read the manufacturer’s material and installation data sheets or their profit margin took precedence over right and wrong. There will be several pages devoted to issue coming soon to our website with facts, research, building science, etc as back up.

LGNO: Tell me about tax credits and rebates. If a homeowner uses EnviroGreen, how can you help them navigate the tax credit paperwork? Tax season is upon us, and folks will want to take advantage of every rebate!

EnviroGreen: We’ve got them covered …just click on our website (HERE).

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 9:00 am and is filed under Green Growth, Green House, Live Green Picks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.