| Other
important factors to consider for an overall understanding
of energy efficiency are the concepts of intermittent
breaks in the insulation, air infiltration, and thermal
mass. Intermittent breaks are cause by service penetrations,
such as electric boxes, wiring and plumbing in the walls.
Another break is where the insulation doesn’t fit
tightly against the sides, tops and bottoms of the framing.
The effect of these insulation gaps is feeling cold spots
on the walls or air entering the house. Again, this waste
energy and cost you money. Air infiltration is caused
by the top and bottom plates of walls not seating perfectly
with the block or poured walls and by framing around windows
and doors. Another factor is drafts from the attic or
unheated areas because the insulation was not placed properly
in the walls. These air gaps lower the overall efficiency
of your home. The last important concept and one that
have an enormous impact with our wall system is thermal
mass. The effect of thermal mass is the time it will take
for a temperature change to penetrate the wall. With a
conventionally built house a large external temperature
change will affect the interior within minutes as compared
to many hours with our system. Because the thermal mass
in our walls is concrete, the difference between day and
night temperatures has an effect of giving our system
a R-value of 40 to 50, see chart above. How does this
work? In the winter, the daylight hours warm the concrete
within the walls and acts as a stored reservoir of energy.
As the coolness of the night approaches this reservoir
of warmth impedes the cold from entering the home. In
the morning and daylight hours the walls are reheated.
In the summer, the night time air cools the walls and
impedes the heat of the day from entering the home. The
full impact of the summer sun would not be felt until
late in the afternoon. As you can see, this cycling effect
of this wall system greatly reduces the expense of creating
a comfortable environment for you and your family. Conventional
materials have little thermal mass and is impossible to
compare to our wall system. As a result, our "Super
Home" keeps you comfortable and saves you substantial
amounts of money. WATERPROOF
BASEMENT AND DEW POINT:
Many
houses being built today have what is called damp proofing
vs. our waterproofing for below grade basement areas.
What is the difference? Damp proofing is spraying a
rubber emulsion compound to the external surface of
the wall. This application is very thin (5 to 15 mils
thick) and varies over the surface of the wall. When
placing the earth against these walls it is easy to
violate this system thereby enabling water to enter
the basement. In addition, as the walls settle, they
will crack and this creates another possibility for
water to enter.
The above problems have little effect on our wall system.
First, we have more than 2½" thick polystyrene
on both the exterior and interior sides of our block.
Polystyrene is fairly waterproof on its own. This is
the same material that is used for the coffee cups and
inexpensive coolers that you buy at convenience stores.
Second, we use a rubber sheeting that adheres to the
exterior side of the block that is 40 mils thick and
waterproof. In addition we place protective material
against the walls to prevent penetration when backfilling.
This sheeting is wrapped around the footers to give
a good watertight barrier. Third our block creates a
perfect environment for curing concrete. Because of
this it is probable that the concrete will cure greater
than 5,000 psi which is water proof. Fourth we use a
matrix of reinforcement steel in our system which prevents
creaks that will travel through the block thereby minimizing
leakage. With all of this, we feel confident that the
chance of leakage is very slim.
Why is dew point important? This is what can cause a
below ground basement to have a musty smell and damp
feeling even though the basement doesn’t leak.
Because of this you will have mildew and wood spores
growing in your basement which will affect allergy and
asthma suffers. What causes this? Air has moisture in
it and is called humidity. The warmer the air the more
moisture in can hold. In humid climates such as in the
Mid-Atlantic and Southern regions, it is common to have
humidities around 80 and 90%. A dew point is the temperature
where moisture will come out of the air. This is why
on a summer day a cold drink is covered with moisture.
The outside of the glass is below the dew point temperature
and as air comes in contact with the glass moisture
in the air will coat the surface. During June in Maryland
the temperature can be in the seventies and sometimes
a dew point is in the middle sixties. Now to the basement
and it’s environment. The ground surrounding the
basement walls is generally in the middle to high fifty
degree range in temperature. Most basements are of either
block or concrete design with no insulation value and
as a result at the temperature of the surrounding ground.
Consequently, moisture will coat these surfaces and
the wooden framing that are used in most finished basements.
This creates a problem and a need for a dehumidifier.
Our system doesn’t have this problem because we
have insulation on both the inside and outside of our
walls. Consequently the dew point is driven to the outer
surface of the wall and is not inside the living space.
This is why our basements are pleasant and can be an
integral part of the living space and effectively giving
you a larger home. This is a concept that home builders
don’t want to talk about because they have difficulty
solving it.
Our wall system helps solve the waterproof and dew point
problem in basements and builds a "Super Home". |
Super Energy Efficient