Terrific new insulation
Here’s a new insulation that I’ve been introduced to by a friend who builds her buildings sustainably, and owns one a few doors up from me, Sarah.
It’s called, Polyair:
-1300767776
- www.reflectiveinsulation.com….au
There are five options. All use the same design approach: reflect the hot summer sun with the top layer, have a multi-layer inner core for insulation, use a lower layer to reflect and retain the winter warmth within the building.
Use it with floors and walls and ceilings whether made of concrete, timber, tiles, metal, mud, straw and your comfort levels through the seasons will be remarkable.
Forget bulk insulation such as pink batts. A sillier thing for a hot climate I cannot imagine – it lets the sun’s heat into the building is why. And it’s a poorer investment for a cold climate.
For the different insulation values of the product for timber floors, metal roofs, and other options visit:
-http://reflectiveinsulation.com.au/downloads/Multi%20-%20Technical%20Specification.pdf
Notice how the product can be placed between joists and floor boards and metal bearers and the outside metal and keep down the transfer of heat?
Thanks, Sarah – terrific to find a good new product,
Michael
Chris,
That’s confused me: their site says:
“Bradford Polyair Unicell is an extra heavy duty sarking and reflective insulation material in one product. It is designed for use in a range of roof, wall and floor applications in commercial buildings.”
I’m wondering if they bought Polyair to close it down and sell their product instead?
After I’ve done the technical comparison of the two products I’ve a clear view.
I wouldn’t go with their recommendation. I’ve found Polyair works well on floors even when nailed through; reflection works for cold and heat so I’m unsure about their reasoning; the long term effectiveness of batts (which is what the Optimo is) is less than the Polyair. And batts depend on the width of the batt being maintained which can’t be achieved in many underfloor applications where you’re limited by space or the design – e.g. timber over concrete.
Let us know what you do. Thanks for asking, Michael
Hi Michael
It seems like Bradford may have bought out this company (the website you listed redirects to Bradford). I spoke with them this morning and they are saying that its not for use with floors as its relying on the reflective nature of the product. They recommend their Optimo product for floor insulation. Your thoughts?
Chris
Rachel
The reflective / insulating Polyair works in winter and summer; wool and pink batts only work in winter (it has bubbles of air inside the reflective sheets – check out their web page. The difference is very noticeable. If you use reverse construction (design details in my book, Sustainable House) and in that include 30 mm of air/void you will live happily ever after in any part of Australia, even extremes of temperature such as Goulburn, the southern highlands of NSW, Victoria, Queensland – I’m not sure where you are building. Oh; you must also use a pale, reflective roof; check out Colorbond and other roofing websites for details.
I am so bamboozled about the best insulation to use for a new house we are building. I am doing so much research and can’t conclude the best.
Reflective sounds great. But wool to me appears to be a great insulator with low environmental impact when producing.
I’ve also come across Earth wool which sounds interesting?
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I don’t know what to do?!
James; yes, that’s a good point and I agree the Polyair folk say to use bulk insulation with their product. I use it in cold climates where it snows or gets below zero a fair bit. Elsewhere – places from Sydney northwards, for example – I don’t use it. Instead, I use an air gap – air is free and a beaut insulater when integrated with the design – and allow at least 30 mm for the air gap (where you can run plumbing, electricals, too. In the second edition of Sustainable House there’s a detail for reverse construction (heat holding masonry or other inside, light ‘raincoat’ material on the outside); this works very well just with products like Aircell and Polyair. Thanks for a beaut question. The ratings for insulation like Aircell and Polyair don’t reflect how well they perform on site and I know a couple of folk who are going to get data for the field realities. Michael
James; yes, that’s a good point and I agree the Polyair folk say to use bulk insulation with their product. I use it in cold climates where it snows or gets below zero a fair bit. Elsewhere – places from Sydney northwards, for example – I don’t use it. Instead, I use an air gap – air is free and a beaut insulater when integrated with the design – and allow at least 30 mm for the air gap (where you can run plumbing, electricals, too. In the second edition of Sustainable House there’s a detail for reverse construction (heat holding masonry or other inside, light ‘raincoat’ materil on the outside); this works very well just with products like Aircell and Polyair. Thanks for a beaut question. The ratings for insulation like Aircell and Polyair don’t reflect how well they perform on site and I know a couple of folk who are going to get data for the field realities. Michael
Just a point:
The polyair product looks great, but their site definitely *doesn’t* recommend eliminating pink bats. In fact, their diagrams clearly show that the overall R value is much higher when both polyair and pink bats are combined.
Your thoughts on this?
Cheers, James
Hi! I just found your blog through a link provided on the CarriageWorks website. Very informative! Will be visiting regularly I think!