Radiant Barrier | Energy Efficiency

According to the Paolo Alto Daily News, saving energy is Ross Koningstein’s hot button, and he’s pushed it to the extreme with 5,000 square feet of bubble wrap. In fact, every wall, rooftop, nook and cranny of his California home is covered in a double layer of radiant barrier.

An engineer with Google, Koningstein’s says the radiant barrier, which is inside the walls, blocks 95 percent of heat, meaning it stops warm air from entering the house in the summer and prevents it from escaping during the winter.

“That’s the difference between needing an air conditioner and not needing an air conditioner,” Koningstein said. “Radiant barrier possibly the cheapest building material you can buy.”

Along with the radiant barrier, Koningstein is using water through an intricate network of hydronic pipes to heat and cool the house. His garage has a three-kilowatt solar system to help reduce his electricity bill. For lighting, Koningstein is installing lights with nine tiny LEDs that use one-sixth the power of a normal light bulb. And all of that warm water going down the drain during a shower? Koningstein is harnessing it and using it to warm up unused water on the way to the showerhead.

To be sure it’s all working, Koningstein installed 15,000 temperature-reading sensors throughout the house that will send numbers to a tiny computer in the basement. To figure out how much air is escaping through the walls, he set up 10 larger sensors that can read the actual heat transfer.

“I’m doing that as a scientific experiment,” Koningstein said. “I want to know how much of a difference this is making.”

All of these energy-saving measures come at a cost, of course. The solar panels for heating and electricity top the list at about $33,000. The hydronic plumbing cost about $12,000. His shower re-heating system was $300. And so much radiant barrier costs around $2,000.

“It’s an up-front cost with long-term savings,” Koningstein said. “But not installing an air conditioner, I’m actually saving money. I’m not trying to be insane about energy-efficiency, but I am trying to build a comfortable home.” And long-term, radiant barrier is an important, cost-efficient component.

Fi-Foil, America’s leading manufacturer of insulation solutions for masonry walls, metal buildings and radiant barriers, has announced that it is offering a 20-year transferable warranty on one of its most established and popular products.

Fi-Foil’s Silver Shield Radiant Barrier saves energy, reduces attic temperatures up to 30 degrees F, improves duct and insulation performance, and is the industry’s highest performing radiant barrier application.

The product is also sold to builders as part of a Radiant Barrier Program – a turn-key marketing program that builders can, in turn, sell as an option to their homebuyers. The builder program includes interactive displays for builder sales offices and design centers, as well as onsite training for the builders’ sales staff.

The company’s groundbreaking 20-year transferable warranty assures customers that Fi-Foil’s Silver Shield Radiant Barrier will be free from defects and comply with Fi-Foil’s published specifications under proper usage.

Fi-Foil manufactures and distributes a complete line of reflective insulation, radiant barriers and facings for residential, commercial and agricultural applications, and has been a pioneer in the industry for more than two decades.

For more information on the company’s new 20-year transferable warranty or its complete line of reflective insulation products, call Fi-Foil Company at 1-800-448-3401.

Commercial and residential builders now have more energy-efficient solutions to offer customers with Fi-Foil’s reflective and radiant barrier insulation products. With potential homebuyers and business owners becoming increasingly concerned about the cost of energy, Fi-Foil offers a variety of cost-effective products that have been recognized for their thermal performance, ease of installation and value.

Studies have proven that by installing Fi-Foil’s attic radiant barriers in homes, consumers can save energy and improve comfort. It also provides the added benefit of improving year-round comfort in areas such as garages and lanais, which usually aren’t air-conditioned or heated.

Builder’s have been displaying Fi-Foil’s radiant barriers in their design centers to show their customers the advantages of installing this cost-effective option in their home.

Along with its proven radiant barrier products, Fi-Foil is also in the process of developing a number of paperless products that help manage moisture and prevent mold. The first of these, M-Shield, is a reflective insulation product for use in masonry walls.

Firmly committed to the principles of sustainable construction, energy conservation, life-cycle performance, and minimal landfill impact, Fi-Foil has been on the cutting edge of research, development and manufacture for more than 20 years. The company’s radiant barrier and reflective insulation products are Energy Star® compliant and meet or exceed various performance and code criteria established by national, regional and local governing bodies. For detailed information, contact Fi-Foil at 1-800-448-3401.

Warmer weather is just around the corner, but there’s a way to help keep rising energy costs from driving your air conditioning bills skyward.

Radiant barriers have been proven to be an effective method for helping to maintain energy costs at their lowest possible level by reducing winter heat loss and summer heat gain.

As your roof heats up during the summer, heat radiates from the roof surface. Some of that radiant heat is transferred to the air inside your attic or the air space between your ceiling and the roof, heating the air in that chamber. If your air conditioning ducts are in the attic, reducing the attic’s air temperature will also cut down on the heat gain in your air conditioning ducts.

Insulation traps air, providing a barrier that goes a long way toward keeping the hot attic air from radiating into the living spaces of your home. Radiant barriers work with insulation, but in a different way. Radiant barriers reflect hot air away from the living space.

Your greatest energy savings can come from combining both insulation and radiant barriers.

The reflective material on a radiant barrier is generally a thin film of aluminum bonded to a paper, plastic or cardboard substrate and comes in rolls or sheets.

To find more about out the effectiveness of radiant barriers, contact Fi-Foil at 1-800-448-3401.

The agricultural industry has recently been dealing with a natural phenomenon known as the “Black Globe Effect” – a condition that affects livestock when they absorb too much solar heat. The Black Globe Effect has a pronounced stress factor relating to the cost efficiency (or inefficiency) of weight gain in meat producing animals and birds.

Studies show this can result in lower body weight, decreased milk production and increased mortality rates to livestock housed in an unprotected environment.

Whether an animal is outdoors or indoors, in temperatures exceeding 78ºF, it absorbs a greater amount of radiant energy from the sun. Although the animal may be confined to a building, the “black globe effect” on the animal is the same as if it were 10 to 20ºF higher than the air temperature.

Tests have shown that the way to stop the Black Globe Effect is through proper insulation. Fi-Foil’s RBI Shield™ Radiant Barrier – a low-cost reflective bubble insulation designed for use in agricultural applications – blocks over 97% of solar radiation and contains additives that reduce flammability.

Using a product like Fi-Foil’s RBI Shield™ Radiant Barrier in the agricultural industry, an increase of as much as 10% in milk production has been noted by dairy farmers. They have also seen a conception rate improvement of nearly 24%. Broiler house feed conversions went from averages of 2.3 to 2.8 lbs. of feed per lb. per bird to a much-improved 1.99 feed conversion. Death losses from heat have been greatly reduced. In winter, indoor heat is reflected back into the living space to produce greater comfort and energy savings.

Fi-Foil’s RBI Shield™ Radiant Barrier for agricultural applications was designed to reduce thermal radiation, increase comfort and improve overall energy-efficiency. It also offers easy installation for both new and existing/retrofit buildings. Not even the company could have forseen that it would someday help save livestock and the industry from a new and deadly plague.

At Fi-Foil, we began designing our reflective insulation products and radiant barriers for residential homes, commercial buildings and agricultural applications more than 20 years ago. And more than 20 years ago, we were committed to the principles of sustainable construction.

Our products – including radiant barriers for residential homes, radiant barriers for commercial buildings and radiant barriers for agricultural applications – are designed to be energy-efficient, so we started out thinking in terms of energy conservation, life-cycle performance, and minimal landfill impact. Our radiant barrier and reflective insulation products are Energy Star® compliant and meet or exceed various performance and code criteria established by national, regional and local governing bodies.

The Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) was developed and is administered by the U.S. Green Building Council, a national non-profit organization formed in 1993 to promote environmental responsibility within the building construction industry. Fi-Foil’s radiant barriers for residential homes can contribute LEED credits for “Energy, Materials & Resources” to residential building projects, confirming our commitment to you, the industry and our world. And by using Fi-Foil radiant barriers for residential homes, you can earn up to 17 LEED points.

To find more about out Fi-Foil’s commitment to the future of Sustainable/Green building, and how the company’s radiant barriers can contribute project credits, contact Fi-Foil at 1-800-448-3401.