[Greenbuilding] FW: How green is cellulose infill? / thermal bridging?

[Keith Winston]

Are you saying cellulose is 20% (by weight? by volume?) additives? I 
find that really hard to believe. But thanks for the list of possible 
additives, I think I'll do some further poking around when I have a 
moment. I believe wet spray versions have some glue additives that are 
activated by the water, which you don't mention I don't believe. It 
would be interesting to check into this further: just looking at the 
MSDS for a couple different products would be a good first step.

Keith

George J. Nesbitt wrote:
> Cellulose contains approximately. 20% of the following mix of 
> additives; borax. boric acid, ammonium sulfate, aluminum sulfate, 
> lime, ammonium phosphate, mono and diammonium phosphate, aluminum 
> hydrate, aluminum  trihydrate, and zinc chloride. (from The Healthy 
> House, John Bower) Exact formula will very with manufacture, product 
> line. Caccoon has three mixes, one of which is borate only for wet 
> spray. Don't spray anything not designed for wet spray, I know a 
> subcontractor that had a 10K sqft house that cost 50K to remediate 
> after the client smelled ammonia! Always ask for borate only, no 
> matter how or were you are going to install, dry pack in wall, loose 
> fill on ceiling, or wet spray in open walls.
>
> Borate in enough quantity can abdominal pain, and liver, kidney and 
> lung dysfunction. Personal protection is required, minimize skin 
> contact, safety glasses , and good lung protection.
>
> I was talking with a builder friend the other day about using 
> stainless steel nails in ACQ pressure treated rather than double hot 
> dipped galvanized to reduce corrosion.  And that it wouldn't be a bad 
> idea to use double hot dipped nails everywhere in a house, because 
> when you remodel old houses you find corrosion on the steel nails. 
> Simpson Strong Tie had a chart showing borate treated wood as more 
> corrosive than ACQ, which as it turns out is more corrosive than CCA, 
> and other older treatments.
>
> Corwyn wrote:
>
>> On Jul 10, 2006, at 17:24, Alan Abrams wrote:
>>  
>>
>>> Hmmmm, anyone have any hard data on this issue of thermal bridging?  My
>>> guess is that what is observed (in infrared photography, etc) is to 
>>> a large
>>> extent convection along the edge of fiberglass batts.  How much heat 
>>> does a
>>> 2x6 actually conduct, particularly if it's snugly insulated, say, with
>>> cellulose or sprayed in place polyurethane?  What is the moisture 
>>> content of
>>> wood members, when tested for thermal performance, compared to a 
>>> stud that
>>> lives in a thoroughly dried out wall cavity?  Is wood getting a bad 
>>> rap,
>>> thermally speaking?
>>>   
>>
>> A 2x6  is about R-6.8 (edgewise) counting just the wood  (i.e. not in 
>> a wall at all).
>>
>> An article on whole wall thermal performance can be found at:
>> http://www.ornl.gov/sci/roofs+walls/whole_wall/
>>
>> Thank You Kindly,
>>
>> Corwyn
>>
>>
>>  
>>
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-- 
Keith Winston
Earth Sun Energy Systems
3927 Madison St.
Hyattsville, MD 20781
301-980-6325
keith at earthsunenergy.com
www.EarthSunEnergy.com