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General: Cheap loft insulation?

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  1.  
    • CommentAuthordave45
    • CommentTimeNov 29th 2008
     
    Take a weeks-worth of newspapers and junk mail, a cheap (strip) paper-shredder and a handful of used Morrisons carrier bags.
    Shred the paper and cram it into a carrier bag.
    When full, invert another bag over the top and use the "handles" to lock it into place.
    This produces a regular-sized "bale", approx 37x37x20cm.
    Recycles waste, looks to be good insulation - why not?
    • CommentAuthordave45
    • CommentTimeNov 29th 2008
     
    Here are some I prepared earlier
    • CommentAuthortony
    • CommentTimeNov 29th 2008
     
    then leave in bags? too much heat loss through drafts round bags -- emptied out in loft? easily blown arround -- fire hazard too?
  4.  
    good idea!!

    may be a bit of a fire hazard though
    • CommentAuthordave45
    • CommentTimeNov 30th 2008
     
    I was thinking of leaving the stuff in bags, yes, and as an addition to the conventional loft insulation there already... but using parcel tape to stick the bales together to make big "rafts". I figure if there are any naked flames in the loft area, the house is on fire already!
    • CommentAuthortony
    • CommentTimeNov 30th 2008
     
    There is a severe danger of mould and damp forming under the bags then.
    • CommentAuthordave45
    • CommentTimeNov 30th 2008
     
    Interesting - presumably this is because the plastic will form a vapour-barrier to any moisture percolating up through the ceilings and pre-existing insulation?
    I'd better experiment then - a raft with multiple holes in the bags and a raft without !
    • CommentAuthorludite
    • CommentTimeNov 30th 2008
     
    Don't forget vermin too. Rats and mice would love that.
    • CommentAuthorBluemoon
    • CommentTimeDec 2nd 2008
     
    As waste paper prices have fallen through the floor, how do I reliably compost it, shredded,for soil conditioning.
  10.  
    Stick it in the heap with grass-cuttings.
  11.  
    and then wee on it.
    • CommentAuthorBluemoon
    • CommentTimeDec 2nd 2008
     
    I already wee on my compost bins! But there won't be any grass cuttings for months yet, so it looks like I'll have to stockpile it until the spring. At least, it seems like a better idea than dumping it in the loft. Warmcel is made from paper but it's treated to make it fire-proof. All I need now is something to stop mice from gnawing the Armaflex pipe insulation.
    • CommentAuthordave45
    • CommentTimeDec 3rd 2008
     
    I do all those things with waste paper, and make a little biochar out of it, and there is still plenty leftover for the loft - the bale idea came about as I was batching it up for transporting down the garden !

    You can use shredded paper as a mulch/weed suppressant straight on to the soil, but it tends to look ugly and move around for a while... eventually the worms will munch it up. If you use it in compost bins (soaked or unsoaked) it will form a solid plug unless you mix it well with other stuff. You can also dig it directly into trenches while digging over your soil, but again it will form a solid plug/layer if you aren't careful... but then this may be useful in sandy soils. Remove the windows from window envelopes before shredding... they emerge from compost heaps unscathed !

    You can also make paper logs for your woodburner out of it... but it is rather a lot of effort and I bent my log-making device by standing on it (they are under-engineered in my view ).
    • CommentAuthorBluemoon
    • CommentTimeDec 3rd 2008
     
    Quote: You can also make paper logs for your woodburner out of it... but it is rather a lot of effort...

    What are the implications for using this way to absorb the waste paper mountains. I'm thinking of smoke, CO2, and ash disposal. Not forgetting the heat output values.
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeDec 3rd 2008
     
    Posted By: dave45Remove the windows from window envelopes before shredding
    Whatever happened to good old Cellophane? - made from wood pulp and bio degradeable.
    • CommentAuthordave45
    • CommentTimeDec 3rd 2008
     
    I'm not sure - any smoke is nasty, and any CO2 neutrality depends on replanting policy. I have read that paperlog heat output "can be" the same as the same weight of wood (but who has measured/proved it?) and you get more and a different type of ash. I dump the ash on my garden and compost heap.

    If you mulch or compost biomass, does it not create methane (CH4) which has 22.5 times more greenhouse effect than CO2? So burning may be better from that POV. My guess is that pyrolysis and biochar production (carbon capture!) may be the best compromise, but it aint as easy to do.

    (knock half a dozen holes on the lid of an empty paint tin, and stuff it with sawdust and/or shredded newspaper; then refit the lid and bung the tin in a preheated woodstove. Flames will emerge from the holes and burn for about 20-30 minutes. Remove tin and allow to cool without removing the lid. Contents will be pure-looking carbon: biochar. Add to garden soil to produce your own "terra preta". )

    Of course if the loft insulation idea doesn't work, I can still use the shredded paper as raw material for logs, mulch or biochar :-) And I did see something on the web where a guy built a whole house out of rolled-up newspaper ! now there's an idea - is it any better than straw bales?
    • CommentAuthordave45
    • CommentTimeDec 3rd 2008
     
    • CommentAuthorSimonH
    • CommentTimeDec 5th 2008
     
    I wouldn't recommend what the OP mention - for the same reasosn as everyone else.

    You want to find out what Warmcell do to their recycled newspaper to make it
    a) Fire proof
    b) Vermin repellant
    c) Vapour permable

    I beleive its some kind of thermally resistant rock salt additive, and doesn't taste nice to rats. It maybe be a special formula - or just something like ground up pottasium chloride & sodium sulphate? Then mix in a bucket with water, newspaper + salts, tumble dry to make it fluffy, and then stick in your loft.

    Or you could just buy it for £6 a bale. (Or something like that).
    • CommentAuthorhowdytom
    • CommentTimeDec 5th 2008
     
    SimonH,
    they use borax
    tom

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