The Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Code specifies a minimum insulation on all manufactured homes. The specified R-values and insulation material will depend on your site location and climate or “thermal zone.”
Each site has a unique climate, which was categorized by the HUD Code into “thermal zones.” This depends on how hot, humid, dry or cool your area is and therefore insulation is not a one size fits all solution. There are several variations of insulation from rock wool, fiberglass, blankets, shiny foil in roof ceilings, blow-ins, loose-fills, etc. (1)
Prefabricated homes commonly use fiberglass insulation in either blanket or loose-fill form. These are often found inside your walls, in between your studs and joists. (2)
Why is Insulation Important?
Insulation regulates our home temperature. It can keep the indoors cooler or warmer for longer by preventing that desirable indoor temperature you’ve generated from escaping.
This then makes the home “energy efficient” with lower energy costs! As our electrical systems work less to continually heat the home in winter or cool our spaces in summer, less energy is expended and consumed. (3)
The key term with insulation is “R-Value.” “R“ stands for how much resistance to heat transfer the material has. This can be due to what kind of material you chose as insulation. Spray on? Blanket rolls?
Its thickness and density are also a crucial factor: if we double the layers, we increase the R-Value and therefore have better insulation. If we press our insulation layers thin, this lowers the R-Value and resistance to heat goes down.
Our homes are insulated from head to toe in different levels to give the home its thermal comfort and efficiency. As hot air rises, the ceiling and roof become the hottest parts of the home. For cooler climates, these have the most insulation applied to prevent heat from escaping. Floors would have second highest insulation with the walls as the least. (2)
The exact R-Values needed depend on your local codes as this highly depends on where you’re located.
For example: “For a home in the West Michigan climate, you can find of R-49 in the ceiling, R-38 in the walls, and R-25 in the flooring.”(2)
If you want even more insulation than the minimum, you can opt to have larger wall studs to accommodate a bigger cavity for more insulation. Thicker insulation means a higher R-Value and less heat is transferred for a more comfortable temperature maintained indoors. (3)
A Sustainable Home
True sustainability is not needing to expend more energy than we need. A properly insulated home naturally makes use and reuse of heat to keep our spaces warmer (or cooler) to comfort. Insulation also refers to containing noise or unwanted sound out, making our sanctuary home spaces quieter.
Manufactured Homes are a great deal of a home buy. Each unit assures you the right kind of insulation was specified, applied and installed correctly to code.
References
- Trembath, N. (2019, November 7). The level of insulation in a manufactured home – what you should know. Triad Financial Services. Retrieved May 2022, from https://www.triadfs.com/news/the-level-of-insulation-in-a-manufactured-home-what-you-should-know
- Preferred Homes. (2022, January 18). How well-insulated are modular and manufactured homes? Preferred Homes. Retrieved May 2022, from https://preferredhomesmi.com/uncategorized/how-well-insulated-are-modular-and-manufactured-homes/
- Y, K. (2017, November 20). How thick are manufactured home walls? l Clayton Studio. Retrieved May 2022, from https://www.claytonhomes.com/studio/manufactured-home-exterior-interior-wall-materials/
