Ultra-Efficient Insulation
Heat travels through a wall or ceiling in 3 different ways, via heat conduction, air convection and solar radiation. Typical homes only care about heat conduction (R-value) and completely ignore air convection and solar radiation, leaving a huge gap in the homes performance.
A Solar Village Home attacks all 3 ways heat moves using
the following two systems:
Foil faced rigid foam: 
The outside of a Solar Village Homes’ exterior walls are completely sheathed with a foil faced rigid foam. The foil face minimizes solar radiation heat losses in the winter and radiant heat gain during the summer (the reason your car interior is warm even on a very cold but sunny day). The rigid foam reduces conductive thermal bridging at the wall studs where there is typically no wall insulation (wood has an R-value around 3). Since studs make up 20-25% of most walls this is a major performance issue for typical homes, the rigid foam dramatically improves the walls performance. Spray foam insulation:
The exterior wall and ceiling cavities are filled with spray foam that 
expands into each cavity to maximize R value, minimize conduction, and seal all wall and ceiling penetrations to minimize convective air movement. The typical home uses fiberglass batts only, which do nothing to stop convective air movement (can you say cold drafts). In fact testing by Oakridge National Labs shows that loose fill insulation like fiberglass can lose 50% of its effectiveness due to convective air movement (so an R30 ceiling performs like R15).
The ceiling and wall spray foam is covered with additional insulation to bring the R value to 49 in the ceiling and approximately R-23 in the walls, but remember that R-value is just one third of the story. The combination of the spray and rigid foam also makes the home extremely quiet, strong, and comfortable.
A well insulated and sealed home will dramatically lower your heating and cooling costs so this is always the more important step in creating a Solar Village Home.
These 2 systems combined will make your home extremely efficient, comfortable, quiet, and healthy.
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