Has anyone ever seen this before.
Packing peanuts attic insulation.
Another problem is that newer environmentally friendly cornstarch peanuts dissolve when wet.
The problem comes from the large interstitual spaces between the pieces.
Air with very small temperature gradients will start to float through the peanut pack and transfer heat from the warm surface to colder zones with little resistance.
The very reason why plastic peanuts work well as packing makes them a bad choice for wall insulation.
I m not convinced that it s effective or even safe.
We found millions of packing peanuts loose in the attic presumably intended to function as insulation.
Osborn a former associate editor replies.
The older kind might work okay.
In a wall cavity they would offer little resistance to air movement so they would be of limited r value.
I m not sure when they switched to the new kind but it wasn t more than five years ago or so.
Good insulation works by trapping air.
Plastic peanuts hold air that helps cushion whatever is being shipped.
The r value of polystyrene is about 4 0 per inch.
New packing peanuts are made from a type of corn starch.