Don’t Just Insulate – Create A Thermal Barrier

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As temperatures now begin to cool we word that leaves are beginning to alternate colors and drop from our trees, and all of the signs that inform us iciness is on its manner have become extra obtrusive with each passing day. We make sure the children are wearing coats inside the mornings before they head off to school or even the squirrels are actually packing their nests to insulate them from the less warm temperatures which can be properly on their way. Many provide a sigh of remedy that the warmth and humidity of summer season is at its cease and have a good time that we can in the end flip off that air conditioning gadget for the the rest of the 12 months. With this seasonal alternate our mind also flip to our houses insulation desires as we determine whether or not or no longer it desires to be upgraded to a better R thing which they agree with will keep them on their homes heating fees.

What many fail to realize but is that even as preferred insulation does in truth offer a few remedy from the high fees related to heating their houses it is in no way a barrier that keeps thermal leakage at bay. During the route of conducting the bulk of home power audits many are taken aback to analyze of the obtrusive holes that are discovered by infra-red image imagery showing this thermal leakage. These holes allow cold air in while at the identical time it is painfully obvious that their heat is escaping into attic as properly as out of doors spaces. There are a first-rate many products which may be used on exterior partitions to seal in the warmness you pay for however simplest Radiant Barrier movie sheeting can cowl the shell of your entire home.

Radiant Barrier whilst used with insulation materials can lock in thermal temperatures at the same time as preventing outside temperatures from affecting the ones of your homes interior. This will substantially reduce your houses electricity prices of no longer best heating inside the wintry weather months however additionally the wished cooling throughout the summer time months. Applying radiant barrier to your homes air ducts and hot water pipes along with insulation material will have the identical effect on both the HVAC and hot water systems. In fact, a failure to make certain that your house has this sort of thermal protection can cost you as a whole lot as an extra 30% in line with yr in heating and cooling costs.

Higher heating and cooling fees aren’t the most effective negative effects that result from poor thermal safety. Roofing tiles also can be broken via the extreme temperatures that build for your attic spaces for the duration of the summer time months as they climb to in extra of 150F. By creating a thermal barrier for your attic areas with radiant barrier material the temperatures may be decreased by means of as tons as 40%. This also has an instantaneous correlation to the decreased use and operation of each heating and cooling systems saving owners as much as 30% of their annual heating and cooling charges.

Home Performance – Where Is Your Home’s Thermal Barrier

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Headed out on a home energy audit last week and I would like to share some of the things I found that were unusual about this home and what can be done to make this home more energy efficient.

However, before I get into that, I would like to share my frustrations with freeway traffic that is no longer a freeway but more of a parking lot. No accidents in sight, no flat tires, no county mounty with a big rig pulled over, but apparently, just too many cars.

I needed to get going and had not planned on waiting in line on the freeway, so I took a side road that ran along side the freeway so I would be able to race ahead and see how far the plugged up freeway extended. Might be able to get ahead of a wreck or something that was causing the problem.

Trouble was, the car in front of me had the same idea; they took the exit and proceeded down the side road too. Now, there was no place to safely pass on this two-lane side road, so I was stuck behind this car and 40 miles per hour was all this renegade could manage. Now, I am double frustrated.

By the time I reached the next on ramp where I can get back on the freeway, the freeway traffic was going faster than I was. This is called, cannot win for trying. Hope I have better luck with the audit.

The Home Energy Audit

Older part of town, one of those housing developments that was the latest and greatest back in1934. Despite its age, this house has been well taken care of, upgraded, and remodeled several times.

This house is a prime example of paying more attention to the paint job than what is behind the paint.

The upstairs has been remodeled and refinished making room for three bedrooms and a bath. Very nice remodel with a door from the master bedroom directly into the bathroom and a couple neat rooms with low-ceiling balconies for the kids.

There are a number of attic spaces and an equal number of attic access openings.

The Thermal Barrier

I open the first access opening of one of the knee wall attic spaces and find that the homes thermal barrier is not very well defined. This means there is some insulation on the floor of the knee wall, in another area there is insulation on the knee wall itself and yet in another area there is insulation installed between the roof rafters on the ceiling.

To be energy efficient;

  • The homes thermal barrier should be identified and consistent.
  • The air barrier, which should be touching the thermal barrier, should be sealed to stop air leakage.
  • The home is wrapped in a well defined, continues layer of insulation.
  • By randomly insulating different walls, floors and ceiling areas, the nice warm coat that is suppose to wrap this home is fragmented leaving thermal bypass areas and loss of energy efficiency.

The problem with many older homes that have been upgraded and remodeled is:

  • The hardship of determining where the thermal barrier is located.
  • Air sealing the air barrier with limited access.
  • Adding insulation to areas that are now very difficult to get to.
  • At this point, with this home, to adequately insulate the home, some areas with a great new paint job may need to be removed in order to have access to all areas needing air sealing and insulation.

The homeowner feels the furnace is too small for the home and often runs continuously night and day and is interested in installing a larger furnace. Perhaps a better answer to heat this home would be to address the homes insulation needs by defining the air barrier, the thermal barrier and adding necessary insulation.

There are several things you can do to make your furnace perform bigger than it is:

  • Air sealing, stop the air leaks, including the heating ducts.
  • Define the thermal barrier, What’s inside the home and what’s outside the home?

Add insulation

If you are planning an upgrade or remodel project at your home – before you install that new wall covering and that fresh coat of paint – take some time to make sure you have considered the home’s air and thermal barriers and insulation requirements. Hopefully, you can have a great project, a nicer home, and not need that bigger furnace after all.

Specialty Coatings – Finding the Right Material For Your Products

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a worker spraying the paint with the spray gun

Finding the right materials to match an application is exciting at first, but after a while the task has become tedious to the point where you just want something to be picked so you can move on. You know what I am talking about. Every project starts out exciting, but finishing it is somehow more worthwhile. Specialty coatings are designed first on using CAD and engineering services to create what it colors and type of epoxy coating works best for the project you are working on. There are plenty of examples of clashing ideas in fashion, art and commercial settings. If you are unsure or uncertain which epoxy coating is right, trust those experienced.

Technology brings coating processes capabilities to meet any challenging need. Coating materials include soft touch, textured, antibacterial, and low-friction among other possibilities. Antibacterial is interesting and would work perfectly for those metal powder coating materials, like movie theater seats. I know that between each movie showing they clean they are, but how often are the seats wiped down? I don’t know that answer; so using antibacterial coatings are great for populated environments. Epoxy coating services assist in the decorative designs on substrates. Engineering can help design and build fixtures that properly hold the parts during coating processes. Engineers in all sectors of the business have taken the green initiative seriously and provide companies with environmentally friendly specialty coating options. Automotive and military industries are a couple of examples to take advantage of epoxy coating.

When colors clash, it’s noticeable. When colors and materials clash is even more noticeable to the touch. Coatings should mesh well with the product they are using. Trusting the experts will get you what you want. Plastic coatings and metal coatings offer both offer nylon, plastisol and powder coatings. You will often see nylon coatings on your office chair; or see copolymer on your child’s pitching mask in baseball. On metal materials, you will see nylon coatings on your home flashlight. No matter metal or plastic you still get the same properties: noise reduction, chemical resistance, or high impact resistance for example. These are examples of what combines engineering and design ideas. You want your products to look good so making the right decision is important. This may take time; it may not. Some materials have distinct coatings that work best with it. For example, automotive industries are more likely to continually use the same material for their products to get the same effect.