DOE/CE-0180
January 2008

Department of Energy
Assistant Secretary
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy


The ZIP-Code Insulation Program will tell you the most economic insulation level for your new or existing house. To produce your insulation recommendations, the program needs to know many things. Use the following pages to define your house and climate. You can change any number that appears in a box that looks like this:

When you see a box that looks like this, use the arrow to review the possible choices and make your selection by clicking on the desired value.

This program will let you customize cost and construction factors to give you a more accurate assessment of potential insulation options. For general information about residential insulation, please read the Insulation Fact Sheet.





Requirements for running the ZIP-Code Insulation Program:

This program requires a minimum screen size of 800 x 600 pixels. To check or change your screen size, start the "Display" program in the "Control Panel" folder or right click the mouse in an unused area of the desktop window and select "Properties". The screen size is on the "Settings" tab. Your web browser must be restarted after changing the screen size.

This program also requires that the SUN Java Runtime Environment (JRE) be installed as an addon to your browser. Really old versions of Java, including the now defunct Microsoft Java, may not work with the 2008 version of this application. If you do not see a white box above that allows you to enter the first 3 digits of your zip code, please refer to the SUN Java JRE downlaod and instructions page.

Alternately, you can use the R-Value Recomendations Calculator which has less options than this program but does not require Java. Another option is to use the 2002 version of the ZIP-Code Insulation Program, which uses 2002 cost data but runs on very old versions of Java.

If you are using a Windows computer and have the Java JRE installed and are still having trouble running this program in Internet Explorer, you may need to adjust the security settings to enable Java. An easier solution might be to install the Mozilla Firefox browser.

If you are able to run this program, but you do not get a results page at the end, it may be due to problems we are having with server overload. In this case, please try the program at a later time. We would appreciate your notifying us about such problems by emailing to the address given below.

Building Envelope Research
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

For more information, contact the facility manager for Building Envelope Research:

Andre O. Desjarlais
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
P. O. Box 2008, MS 6070
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6070
E-mail desjarlaisa@ornl.gov

CountZ.com
CountZ.com