Thermablok®
White Paper •
A Safe Alternative
to Continuous Insulation
ThermaBlok® is a flexible aerogel and fiber composite insulation with the lowest thermal conductivity of any building insulation product in the market (0.0078 Btu/ft-hr-F).
ThermaBlok: The 21st Century Revolution
in Aerogel Building Insulation
40% R-Value Increase in a 1/4" Strip
The revolutionary ThermaBlok® insulation technology, used in the Space Shuttle, has the highest insulation value of any material known. Thermablok is now available for use in building construction and energy efficiency retrofits. Most heat transmission through walls is directly through studs to the drywall, known as "thermal bridging". Thermablok breaks this thermal bridging link. Self adhesive Thermablok can be applied in seconds. Thermablok is not affected by moisture or age, and provides major energy savings for the life of the building.
"NASA Names Thermablok® to its Top 50 Product Spin-off Companies for 2009 -
NASA's New Aerogel Technology, the Highest R-value Ever Developed, Now Set
to Change the World
"You
could take a two or three-bedroom house, insulate it with aerogel, and you
could heat the house with a candle. But eventually the house would become
too hot."
- Dr.
Peter Tsou of
NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory,Superinsulating
Aerogels Arrive on Home Insulation Market At Last [Popular Science -
02/04/2010
Known as aerogel (also referred to as "frozen smoke") this amazing substance has been difficult to adapt to most uses because of its fragility. The Thermablok material however overcomes this by using a unique fiber to suspend a proprietary formula of aerogel such that it can be bent or compressed while still retaining its amazing insulation properties. See What is an Aerogel? and our Manufacturing Process Overview [PDF] for more details.
ThermaBlok® is a flexible aerogel/fiber composite material, 1/4" (6.25mm) x 1 1/2" (38mm) wide x 8' (2.44m) long. It is installed directly to the edges of studs in the wall framing, before the installation of drywall. Thermablok has a peel and stick backing for quick and easy installation and is easily cut to size. See the Thermablok Data Sheet [PDF] for a summary of Thermablok's specifications.
Thermablok® Aerogel Energy Conservation
While sounding too good to be true, for something so simple to produce such incredible results, the figures are substantiated by the U.S Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and J. M. Laboratory, which compared two identical (metal stud/gypsum board) walls: One wall with one strip of the material on each 2x4 stud edge (one side only) and the second wall without the material. A 1/4" thickness of the material increased the insulation factor by 30%, and 3/8" increased the insulation factor by 42%.
In the infrared photo above, the ground floor has conventional insulation only, but the upper floor's wall includes ThermaBlok insulation. The mechanical connection from drywall to studs to exterior walls is a thermal short circuit (thermal bridging) that conducts heat through walls, past the conventional insulation between the studs. ThermaBlok breaks the heat transfer link from drywall to studs and framing members for a dramatic increase in net R-Value.
ThermaBlok® is a revolutionary advancement in thermal technology. The use of space age aerogel composite technology has produced a material that not only has the lowest thermal conductivity rating of any thermal insulation product known (0.0078 Btu/ft-hr-F), but has exceptional acoustical properties as well. A single layer of Acoustiblok on each side of a metal stud / gypsum board wall yields an STC of 57 (the virtual equivalent of 24" of poured concrete, STC 58). Adding a strip of Thermablok on each side of the stud signifigantly reduces the remaining sound transmission path - the mechanical link the stud creates through the wall.
Improved energy efficiency achieved with ThermaBlok will provide continuing energy cost and environmental savings. As an example, adding ThermaBlok to a 2400 ft2 Las Vegas residential home with 16" o/c stud framing, R13 insulation, and wood siding should result in a $746.00 annual energy cost savings and eliminate 3.9 tons of CO2 emissions.
ThermaBlok® was developed and brought to market through the Acoustiblok Corporation, an international acoustical research company with headquarters in Tampa Florida U.S.A. While doing acoustical projects in other parts of the world, Lahnie Johnson, President and founder of the Acoustiblok Corporation and a past aerospace person himself, realized the potential of the amazing ThermaBlok technology recently derived from the aerospace industry.
The applications of this product are endless as it solves major energy conservation issues in green technology construction as well as increasing privacy through increased acoustical performance. ThermaBlok has the capability to dramatically alter the way in which we construct buildings and view the overall energy conservation movement. ThermaBlok aerogel technology could not have come at a better time. Energy conservation is of course easier to accomplish and implement with far better results than the more expensive and time consuming route of producing more energy.
- Very significant saving in energy costs
- Stimulus Package tax credits up to 30% available for residential retrofits
- 100% recyclable
- Contains no ozone depleting substances
- Uses >30% recycled content
- Composite material consisting of over 95% air
- Hydrophobic, unaffected by moisture, mold or water
- Easily applied via stick-on-back
- “Class A” fire rated
- Economical
- Virtually no weight means low cost (+ low emissions) shipping
- Adds acoustical isolation
- Is not affected by age as it does not react with moisture of the atmosphere
- Made in USA
