High-Performance Home Insulation – What is it?

For custom home construction, high-performance insulation is one of the most cost-effective ways to minimize your energy use over time. And, thanks to the rapidly rising cost of energy, high-performance insulation can create a huge ROI for you and for the environment.

What is High-Performance Insulation?

Insulation is different from airtightness – both qualities are essential characteristics of a high quality building envelope, but both have to be achieved independently. Insulation regulates temperature by preventing thermal bridging – or the passing of heat through solid objects. With a strong thermal resistance (R-value), high-performance insulation prevents the leaking of heat into and out of your house – slowing down the loss of heat while preventing drafts. And high-performance insulation is implemented from cavity to stud; it covers the entire surface of your home’s envelope (foundation, walls, roof) – not just the spaces in between.

Benefits of High-Performance Insulation

High-performance insulation:

• Saves you money: High-performance insulation keeps your home at a comfortable temperature, and reduces the need for expensive utilities like heating and cooling. Plus, by asking less of your HVAC system, you’re extending the life of the equipment, delaying those costly repairs and replacements.
• Lightens your environmental impact: By minimizing energy loss and optimizing internal gains, high-performance insulation reduces the burden on the planet and on your community. When you consider that 48% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the US come from buildings, you start to see how energy efficiency in your new custom home can have a significant impact on your family’s carbon footprint.
• Creates a comfortable environment: Research shows that comfort depends on a temperature that’s not only moderate, but uniform. The best insulation prevents temperature variations from one area to another.
• Provides noise protection: High-performance insulation minimizes the amount of sound energy that infiltrates your home while dampening the noise created inside.
• Promotes indoor air quality: Did you know that air contaminant levels inside the average new home are 2 to 5 times worse than the pollution levels outside? That’s particularly troublesome when you consider that the average American spends 90% of their time indoors. But high-performance insulation can help create a healthy home environment by eliminating the harmful chemicals that are present in common building materials, and by controlling moisture that creates mold, mildew, and other contaminants.

Stay tuned next week to learn best practices for implementing high-performance insulation in your custom home building project!

Want to learn how high-performance practices can transform your new home? Give Clarum a call to find out – 650.322.7069