Plastic peanuts hold air that helps cushion whatever is being shipped.
Can you use packing peanuts as insulation.
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.
I m not sure when they switched to the new kind but it wasn t more than five years ago or so.
Yes packing peanuts are excellent insulators because they are made out of styrofoam.
If the packing peanuts are newer they won t work.
If they get wet they ll dissolve and they re made to be highly biodegradable so they ll break down pretty quickly anyway.
By preventing heat loss packing peanuts make lovely insulators.
Foam packing peanuts as insulation.
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.
Osborn a former associate editor replies.
New packing peanuts are made from a type of corn starch.
In a wall cavity they would offer little resistance to air movement so they would be of limited r value.
The very reason why plastic peanuts work well as packing makes them a bad choice for wall insulation.
The r value of polystyrene is about 4 0 per inch.