Insultation gets an airing!

“A good insulation always knows its limitations….”

After all these decades thermal performance should be pretty non-controversial.  How complicated can it be to insulate a building and make it airtight?  The physics is pretty straightforward.  But then you get salespeople and marketing people involved and the physics gets twisted and people get annoyed.  For the record I like all insulations…yup…all of them…I think they are all good…but they all have limitations…

What is nice about where we are right now…after all these decades…is that we have performance requirements specified in the Model Codes for thermal resistance for roofs, walls, and foundations….and we have airtightness performance requirements specified in the Model Codes for air barrier materials, air barrier assemblies and air barrier enclosures. We also have airtightness performance requirements for duct distribution systems in the Model Codes.  Buildings are required to be airtight…and are tested for compliance.   Ducts are required to be airtight and air tested for compliance.

Read the entire article at buildingscience.com.