Icynene 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 (the reason your car interior is warm even on a very cold but sunny day) in the winter and minimizes radiant heat gain during the summer. The rigid foam reduces conductive thermal bridging at the wall studs where there is typically no wall insulation. 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. Icynene insulation:
The exterior wall and ceiling cavities are filled with Icynene foam that 
expands into each wall 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 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).
This eco foam has no toxic fumes like other foams and makes the home extremely quiet. The ceiling icynene is covered with additional insulation to bring the R value to 49. The walls are R-23, but remember that R-value is just one third of the story.
Watch a 21st Century Home TV show segment on Icynene
Read about the technical benefits of Icynene
These 2 systems combined will make your home extremely efficient, comfortable, quiet, and healthy.
Return to Turn-key Homes page
