Erik sent me an email asking if anyone had considered Arogel insulation for a tiny house? I personally had not heard of it before so with Eriks help did a little investigation. If you are not familiar with it I’ll give you a small overview and than you can decide if this might be an option when you build your own tiny house.
Here is a brief description: Nicknamed “frozen smoke,” aerogel is extremely lightweight material, with a density only 3 times that of air. Only a small fraction of a volume of aerogel is the material itself. Most of the volume is filled with air. This makes aerogel an excellent insulator. (Aerogel provides nearly 40 times the insulation of fiberglass insulation.)
It is very expensive so has not made a big move into the building industry. NASA and other high tech companies have used it extensively up to this point.
A company called Themoblock is one company trying to bring it to main stream construction. Thermablok material is available both in sealed strips for stud insulation, and in bulk roll form.
Thermablok’s thin 1/4″ (6.35mm) profile allows it to fit between framing and sheathing without altering standard construction. It is applied in strips with a peel-and-stick adhesive backing or staples. It can be customized to fit on headers, rim joists, corners, rafters, window flashing and other hard to insulate areas. This makes ThermaBlok aerogel insulation an effectively universal solution for enhanced insulation value in any building partition.
Thermablok’s space age core component is an aerogel composite material that is over 90% air, making it a highly effective insulator. It has the lowest thermal conductivity of any solid material (0.0078 Btu/ft-hr-F).
In Thermablok, aerogel and micro fibers have been engineered into an extremely strong, durable, thin and flexible insulation material that is up to eight times more efficient than traditional insulation.
Architectural Team Looks to Win Department of Energy Competition
Using Thermablok™ Aerogel Insulation
When students from the California College of the Arts (CCA) and the University of Santa Clara, California began preparing for the competition, they approached Thermablok™ President and founder Lahnie Johnson for information regarding energy-conserving Thermablok aerogel insulation.
You can read more about this insulation by following these links below.