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.
Packing peanuts attic insulation.
The problem comes from the large interstitual spaces between the pieces.
Most packing peanuts are made of polystyrene.
Osborn a former associate editor replies.
Another problem is that newer environmentally friendly cornstarch peanuts dissolve when wet.
In a wall cavity they would offer little resistance to air movement so they would be of limited r value.
If they get wet they ll dissolve and they re made to be highly biodegradable so they ll break down pretty quickly anyway.
Plastic peanuts hold air that helps cushion whatever is being shipped.
Has anyone ever seen this before.
The very reason why plastic peanuts work well as packing makes them a bad choice for wall insulation.
Good insulation works by trapping air.
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.
I m not sure when they switched to the new kind but it wasn t more than five years ago or so.
The older kind might work okay.