My next door neighbor asked my opinion about her insulation --- how could she tell if it was any good? Well, I am not a licensed contractor, nor do I have any construction skills, but over the years I have been able to use simple logic to answer questions like this. For instance, I know that one previous mobile home I lived in had poor insulation, and my current home has excellent insulation. I deduced these things from the way I felt in these homes.
In my last home, I had some cold spots and hot spots. Even with the air or heat on and fans going, the temperature was uneven in my rooms. In addition, if the day began to warm up, the home became unbearably hot without a/c, and in winter if the heat was not monitored, it was easy to get that feeling of sitting in a cold car. But in my current home, the room temperature is even.
Another way I learned to tell how good the insulation is came from something I noticed when I held Open House in vacant homes. On hot days, I ran the air, then turned everything off and locked it up. I could tell a lot by how the home felt the next time I came over. A home with good insulation, that was fairly airtight, reamined relatively cool inside even in 80-90 degree weather.
Good insulation maintains a comfortable temperature, and keeps your utility bills down.
I do not know anything about the interior walls of mobile homes, so I can’t comment on the insulation within those walls. But, I do know a little bit about mobile home roofs (how to care for your older, metal roof will appear in another BLOG). At Rancho Glendora, Licensed Contractor Greg Parker pulled our metal roof off, installed very thick foam insulation, and re-installed the roof over it. We rarely needed anything stronger than a fan in the summer months (although neither of us worked from home, at the time).
