THERMAL EFFICIENCY

The installation of the insulating materials performs only a small percentage of conductivity values as specified when assembled. EIOS guarantees a 99.9% Effectiveness of the thermal property testing coefficients of the insulation materials, unlimited term.

Mineral wool, EPS, and XPS are well rated as insulation materials. The conductivity coefficient λ [W/mK] as specified for a product is a value determined by a laboratory testing method on sample material. The ratio between the thermal conductivity λ and the thickness of the insulation material represents the unidirectional thermal transmittance U [W/m²K], namely the U-value, on which an entire envelope assembly is rated. The insulation materials are sold as products, not assemblies, but the resulting U/R-value of the materials is used to evaluate the thermal conductivity of insulated building envelopes.

In an actual real-life scenario, though, the installation of these materials does not perform close to the values of thermal testing properties because the heat flow through building enclosures is much more complicated than heat flow through samples of material.

Informing the general public about thermal insulation efficiency is undermined by partial/dedicated specifications of a material, rather than specifying a thermo-insulating system.

Heat flow through building enclosures is much more complex than the flow through samples of materials. The assemblies are built in a manner that does not replicate the method used during the conductivity testing of the material in question. The diminution factors are, and not limited to:

• Changes in the insulation materials’ property. The insulation material decreases its thermal conductivity by increasing humidity due to condensation and water absorption.

• Airflow and convection. Convective heat flow is the air that carries heat with it, once convection is one of the primary heat transfer modes. Forced convection through air/vapor permeable enclosures generate heat loss by infiltration/exfiltration, wind washing and pumping, re-entrant loop natural convection, and most importanty, the in-cavity looping convection defined as looping in air-permeable insulations and looping through gaps around insulation. (convective loops are due to insulation and the location within insulation). The larger the temperature difference, the greater the driving pressure.

• Thermal bridging. Insulation of walls is often (and always for roofs), installed between studs in wood and steel lightly framed systems. The heat is bridged over/around insulation.

All these factors combined will significantly impact the heat flow control performance of a classically designed water/air/vapor-permeable assembly.

Consequently, in opposition to the specifications on the insulation materials' label the reduction of R-value thermal Resistance [as against the insulation materials’ labeled specification besides the active thermal resistance] in a real building assembly is between 30-50% for continuous insulations applied on the exterior of a wall and 50-90% for low-density insulation placed in the cavity of walls and roofs.

Additional loss is added to those automatic reductions of R-value because of the design to ventilate and drain the condensation and intruding water.

Any of these relating factors contribute to the reduction of thermal resistance and increase in heat flow through a real wall. These factors are not revealed to the customers when an insulation material or insulation system is first installed. It has created the illusion that the benefit after its initial investment is the labeled specification value for the insulation material used and applied to the wall to create the insulation system.

In essence, the person who ignores those factors and does not choose the correct solution for their thermal insulation system buys a delusion, when for that same price they can receive a long-term, continual savings.

An envelope wall that is thermally inefficient and exposed to moistening, mold, and degradation can now be replaced with a wall that is extremely efficient, permanently dry, without the hazard of growing mold and degradation, and which maintains a pleasant and healthy indoors.

The R-99.9% Effectiveness of EIOS Thermosystem makes the difference between Non-Permissive and other permissive-insulations.

EIOS is the first thermo-system that can claim that the in-wall condensation is eliminated from the design stage and the wetting and drying cycles are replaced by the unidirectional drying effect.

EIOS ensures the 99.9% Effectiveness of thermal conductivity λ and the U/R-value associated to the thickness of the insulation material in the real solutions of envelope walls. All mitigating factors of traditional insulations are eliminated, leaving only the benefits of a dry envelope wall and the savings given by a shallow thermal flow. The tested insulation materials’ thermal conductivity (as EIOS Sealboard and EIOS Sealfoam) became a current reality for the EIOS Thermosystem.

Any building and home today can benefit from the design technology to eliminate condensation, and the use of insulation materials in ideal conditions, for an unlimited term, and at the same price as deficient or illusory insulations.