Foam packing peanuts as insulation.
Can you use packing peanuts as insulation.
Yes packing peanuts are excellent insulators because they are made out of styrofoam.
Most packing peanuts are made of polystyrene.
If they get wet they ll dissolve and they re made to be highly biodegradable so they ll break down pretty quickly anyway.
In the course of some framing it seems that there are spaces which get closed off and won t get insulated unless the gc does it on his own nickel during the framing process.
If the packing peanuts are newer they won t work.
The r value of polystyrene is about 4 0 per inch.
But the problem with using packing peanuts for attic insulation is that while the individual peanuts may have an r value of about 4 0 per inch the peanuts have large air spaces between them which allows air currents to easily flow through a layer of packing peanuts.
Plastic peanuts hold air that helps cushion whatever is being shipped.
I m not sure when they switched to the new kind but it wasn t more than five years ago or so.
New packing peanuts are made from a type of corn starch.
Osborn a former associate editor replies.
The very reason why plastic peanuts work well as packing makes them a bad choice for wall insulation.
Styrofoam is designed from air bubbles that are trapped to prevent heat energy from escaping.