Insulation Solutions

Found­a­tion - Su­per

This is an ex­ample of a well-per­form­ing, af­ford­able ra­di­ant floor & stem wall in­su­la­tion as­sembly, and can be used with the Su­per Wall In­su­la­tion as­sembly above. All in­teri­or liv­ing spaces are in­su­lated from the build­ing's struc­tur­al frame, and all in­su­la­tion is en­cased in a seam­less, weath­er-res­ist­ant coat of amcorite Ferrocement.

Dis­claim­er

NB: De­tails are not to scale, and may omit con­struc­tion ele­ments not rel­ev­ant to in­su­la­tion in­stall­a­tion.

Wall - Ba­sic

This is the least ex­pens­ive as­sembly which meets the min­im­um IBC & IRC code re­quire­ments.  The out­er sur­face of am‑cor walls is made of seam­less am­cor­ite Ferrocement. Be­cause there are no junc­tions or gaps, in­su­la­tion in am‑cor walls func­tions bet­ter than stand­ard ap­plic­a­tions be­cause the seam­less Fer­ro­cement skin elim­in­ates air in­filt­ra­tion.

Roof - Passiv

Su­per­insu­la­tion is a ma­jor part of the Passivhaus philo­sophy. Build­ings built to the Passivhas spe­cific­a­tion have a lower car­bon foot­print, and re­quire very little en­ergy to heat or cool – con­sum­ing min­im­al fossil fuels or elec­tric­al power to cre­ate a com­fort­able en­vir­on­ment all year round. Passivhaus designs of­ten fea­ture a com­plete un­broken thermal break between the in­ner and out­er struc­tures. Many European ex­amples are framed with wood. This Passivhaus am‑cor roof util­izes an in­su­lated ceil­ing space with an in­su­lated drop ceil­ing cross frame sep­ar­ated by aero­gel thermal breaks, and is framed in gal­van­ized steel. This as­sembly elim­in­ates thermal bridging from the build­ing's struc­ture to the con­di­tioned in­teri­or.

Roof - Ba­sic

Sim­il­ar to the Ba­sic Wall In­su­la­tion As­sembly above, this Ba­sic Roof In­su­la­tion As­sembly with at­tic is an in­ex­pens­ive as­sembly and ac­tu­ally ex­ceeds the min­im­um IBC & IRC code re­quire­ments.

Ex­ample Roof In­su­la­tion As­sem­blies

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Wall - Passiv

Su­per­insu­la­tion is a ma­jor part of the Passivhaus philo­sophy. Build­ings built to the Passivhas spe­cific­a­tion have a lower car­bon foot­print, and re­quire very little en­ergy to heat or cool – con­sum­ing min­im­al fossil fuels or elec­tric­al power to cre­ate a com­fort­able en­vir­on­ment all year round. Passivhaus designs of­ten fea­ture a com­plete un­broken thermal break between the in­ner and out­er struc­tures. Many European ex­amples are framed with wood. This Passivhaus am‑cor wall util­izes a double wall sep­ar­ated by aero­gel thermal breaks, and is framed in gal­van­ized steel with a gal­van­ized Car­bon steel Fer­ro­cement coat. This as­sembly elim­in­ates thermal bridging from the build­ing's struc­ture to the con­di­tioned in­teri­or.

Wall - Bet­ter

This as­sembly ex­ceeds build­ing code re­quire­ments, and of­fers good per­form­ance at a re­l­at­ively low cost. Its av­er­age R value is sim­il­ar to the av­er­age func­tion­al R value of many SIPS, ICF, and oth­er man­u­fac­tured in­su­lat­ing wall pan­els. However, since the am­cor­ite struc­tur­al Fer­ro­cement skin is seam­less, there is zero air in­filt­ra­tion through the am‑cor wall.  Air in­filt­ra­tion in nor­mal walls re­duces man­u­fac­tur­ers' stated R val­ues by up to 50%.

Wall - Su­per

This su­per-in­su­lated wall sample in­cludes an in­ner frame­work for hanging fin­ishes, sep­ar­ated from the am‑cor struc­tur­al frame­work by Aero­gel thermal breaks. The spe­cified type of spray foam func­tions both as a va­por bar­ri­er and an ex­cel­lent in­su­lat­or. Its av­er­age total R value sub­stan­tially ex­ceeds both codes and most man­u­fac­tured wall pan­el products. This as­sembly elim­in­ates thermal bridging from the build­ing's struc­ture to the con­di­tioned in­teri­or.

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Over­view

These are com­mon in­su­la­tion solu­tions, or­gan­ized by cost, com­plex­ity, and per­form­ance. Ex­ample as­sem­blies and ma­ter­i­al choices shown here should help you get star­ted on the right in­su­la­tion com­bin­a­tion for your cli­mate and your spe­cif­ic pro­ject re­quire­ments.

Pre­in­stalled In­su­la­tion

In con­trast to in­su­lat­ing wall pan­els, such as SIPS or ICF, the am‑cor System is first & fore­most a struc­tur­al sys­tem: by design, pre­in­stalled in­su­la­tion is not in­cluded in am‑cor Kits.
This al­lows you the flex­ib­il­ity to:

• Choose which in­su­la­tion as­sembly is right for your pro­ject, budget, and life­style
• Swap in healthy al­tern­at­ives to en­sure low-VOC, high in­door air qual­ity, and fire safety
• Achieve high­er per­form­ance and a tight­er build­ing en­vel­ope with site-in­stalled in­su­la­tion (no joints = no air leak­age)
• on-site in­su­la­tion al­lows for con­cealed ser­vice runs (pipes & wires)
• Avoid en­vir­on­ment­al de­grad­a­tion caused by tox­ic poly­styrene pel­lets/waste ma­ter­i­al blow­ing around your build­ing site, onto neigh­bor­ing prop­er­ties, in­to wa­ter­ways and gen­er­ally dis­rupt­ing the en­vir­on­ment

See our FAQ entry for more in­form­a­tion:

 

Healthy

In­door air qual­ity and VOCs (Volat­ile or­gan­ic com­pounds) are an im­port­ant con­cern for the longterm health of you and your fam­ily. Ideally, you want products which are:

• sus­tain­ably man­u­fac­tured
• long-last­ing (low-main­ten­ance & non-de­grad­a­tion in per­form­ance)
• non-pet­ro­leum based
• don't sup­port the growth of mold or mil­dew
• don't re­lease tox­ins at room tem­per­at­ure over the product's life­time (low-VOCs)
• don't re­lease tox­ins in case of a fire (in­ert)

While it's un­likely any one product will meet all these re­quire­ments and be af­ford­able, some come close. You can bal­ance your pro­ject's thermal & budget­ary re­quire­ments by us­ing a com­bin­a­tion of healthy & stand­ard products. For ex­ample, many of our typ­ic­al am‑cor in­su­la­tion as­sem­blies in­clude a com­bin­a­tion of safe aero­gel thermal breaks and high per­form­ance batts or poly­is­cocy­a­nur­ate spray foam.

In­su­la­tion op­tions we like: 

• THER­M­ABLOK Aero­gel
• Knauf Eco­Batts
• Icynene spray foam
• In­su­la­tion 3Ht

AT­TN Man­u­fac­tur­ers: Do you provide a healthy, low-VOC in­su­la­tion? We're in­ter­ested! Please contact us so we can test your product with our as­sem­blies.

Roof - Su­per

This su­per­insu­lated roof as­sembly can be used in con­junc­tion with the Su­per Wall as­sembly by con­tinu­ing the wall's in­ner fin­ish frame­work along the roof frame in­teri­or. This as­sembly elim­in­ates thermal bridging from the build­ing's struc­ture to the con­di­tioned in­teri­or.