Insulation plays a vital role in your family being comfortable in your manufactured home. It does this by keeping heat out of your home in the summer and in your home during the winter. By lowering the heat transfer, insulation helps your home to maintain a consistent temperature.
Lucky for you, all Clayton Built® homes are constructed with quality insulation so you know you’re making a House Smart® choice. This means, your heating and cooling system doesn’t have to work as hard to maintain a consistent temperature which can help you save money in energy costs.
Are there different types of insulation in manufactured homes?
Different levels of insulation are used in manufactured homes depending on the location of where the home is placed. The insulation in each manufactured home must meet the HUD Code thermal zone requirements and cannot exceed the HUD Code maximum of heat transfer.
The quality of insulation in a manufactured home is rated by the “R-value” number. This number rates how much resistance the insulation has against heat traveling through it. The higher the R-value, the higher the resistance.
Clayton Built® manufactured homes come with different insulation for each part of the home based on the home’s location. For example, a home with the upgraded Energy Smart Home package comes with:
- R-11 in the walls
- R-22 in the floors
- R-33 in the ceiling (R-30 for a vaulted ceiling)
Manufactured home ceilings usually have the highest R-value because heat rises, so this helps prevent any heat from escaping through the roof area.
How well are manufactured homes insulated?
Since the HUD Code was implemented in 1976, manufactured homes have been built to meet certain standards, including specific requirements for the insulation. For instance, the HUD Code outlines a maximum U/O value, which is the transmission level for manufactured homes.
Maximum heat transmission levels vary by state and are split into zones. The U/O Value Zone Map (pictured below) determines the insulation that goes into your manufactured home to ensure that it doesn’t exceed the HUD Code maximum.
Thermal Map Photo from Manufactured Housing Institute
Insulation Safety Requirements
HUD Code also has fire safety requirements for insulation inside manufactured homes. To help improve fire safety, manufactured homes abide by flame-spread rating requirements.
In addition, HUD Code outlines smoke-developed rating requirements for insulating materials. The smoke-developed index measures how much smoke a material gives off as it burns, so having a limit in place for manufactured home insulation helps increase homeowner safety in case of a fire.
Each Clayton Built® home has quality insulation as we construct our homes with families like yours in mind. Our insulation complies with proper requirements to help keep you and your family safe and comfortable year-round. Now that you know more about what goes inside a Clayton manufactured home, you can learn more about how the exterior walls are built.
Kenneth (Kalley) Young's Content 