Know the ins and outs of Wall insulation
For any wall insulation, the most crucial part is its performance. All across the globe, superinsulation and continuous insulation are the most important elements of sustainable and net-zero projects. Other such products that have insulating qualities are living walls, green roofs, and rain screen enclosures. The new addition to this list is mineral wool, which is also fire resistant.
For any wall insulation to be effective, the industrial electrical consultants suggests a lot of other factors.
Such as:
Assessment of the need for wall insulation and the process of installation
Evaluate Insulation’s permeability
Insulation within the wall has to be located properly
Minimize Thermal bridges
Meet Continuous insulation requirements
It has to comply with the NFPA 285
The insulation should manage the movement of vapor and air leakage.
Choosing the right insulation should not be purely based on the R-value and its availability. But should finalize on a lot of other factors such as the flow of heat, air, vapor, and water. The older building envelopes could be quite leaky.This improves the potential for drying in comparison to the tighter and R Valued envelopes, which does not allow thermal flow. When there is a large amount of water /air or vapor leakage, moisture retains in the envelope and leads to development of molds, dry rot, and corrosion.
The wall insulation System of Liberty University – A Case Study
Liberty University chose a good model of the wall insulation system in its plan to rebuild its campus. It was a $500 million project. It hopes to provide its existing as well as prospective students a renewed and modern style of learning, living, and experience through this revamp. Through this rebuilding project, the university is trying to improve the energy efficiency of the campus. It also ensures that there is comfortable accommodation for all its students. The nine-story hall has a high performing and medium-density foam wall insulation made of Icynene. Industrial electrical consultants had made the decision to insulate all the walls of these new accommodations with these high-performance foams. This was to facilitate the university’s need to be more energy-efficient. So they follow this concept right from the beginning of the design.
Revamp
The council also decided to focus on the feeling of community, in order to make the campus more interactive. So they also had built quite a lot of community /open spaces, for all the resident students to engage, interact, play and study together. They also tried to incorporate an eco-friendly method of construction by using sustainable raw materials along with maximizing the energy efficiency of the building.
This revamp was aiming at the renovation of the existing sixteen champion residence halls. These halls was built in the 1970s. Residential Commons I, the newly opened hall was completed right on schedule at the beginning of the 2014-2015 academic year. It was designed as 2 bed and 1 bathroom for each room model.It can house up to 1200 residents. This capacity is larger than all the other halls put together. The construction schedule was quite tight with having around 60- 100 contractors a day to build the wall panels, steel framing, floor slabs as well as the building insulation. It was the result of continuous and meticulous hard work of a productive industrial electrical consultants team. To ensure an optimal thermal capacity, they did high-performance foam insulation. This was also for the betterment in energy management.
Conclusion
The wall insulation and air sealing of the residence hall was carried out by a licensed contractor of Icynene, AC &R Insulation of Elkridge Maryland. They apply MD-C-200 closed-cell spray foam of Icynene on all the exterior walls. To facilitate a higher performance, they apply closed-cell spray foam . Also, this is a solution for air barrier for the outer surface of the wall frame. Industrial electrical consultants has proved, this system enhances and is compatible with any design of architecture or approach. The material is quite suitable for completely covering all areas which might otherwise drain the energy.
