Energy Efficient Home Wall Construction

The point of building an energy efficient home is moot if you do not begin with energy efficient home wall construction.

Start your home with energy-efficient walls.

The walls in your home are both the first and last defense against energy loss due to the elements. The following four examples are common ways in which a home loses energy.

• Inside: Energy efficient home wall construction prevents exfiltration. This means that the walls inside your home prevent warm air from escaping during cold months and cool air from escaping during warm months.
• Outside: Energy efficient exterior walls prevent infiltration. If you haven't already guessed, infiltration keeps the cold air from seeping into your home during the winter months and prevents the hot air from coming into your home during the summer months.
• Conduction: This occurs when heat moves through the walls. During the cold months, the heat inside your home moves through the walls to the outside and during the warm months, the heat outside of your home seeps inside.
• Convection: Put simply, convection is the movement of air. For example, during a blustery winter day, you will have to turn the heat on your thermostat up higher than you normally would due to the convection, or movement, of air outside.

There are many ways in which you can protect yourself from heating and cooling losses on the exterior and interior of your home.

Exterior

• Insulating Concrete Form (ICF): Used in construction of exterior walls, ICFs are permanent structures and come in either interlocking blocks or panels made of insulation materials. When ICF is used for the exterior walls of a home or building, two rows are constructed, with a gap in the middle. As the walls are being raised, this gap is filled with additional building materials.
  • Flat ICF systems are constructed by pouring concrete at a constant thickness between the two layers of ICF.
  • Grid ICF systems have a grid construction on the interior of the ICF. This varies the thickness of the concrete when poured between the two layers of ICF.
  • Post and Beam systems have randomly placed posts and beams that run both vertically and horizontally. This allows for the concrete to be poured in various places within the two layers of ICF.
• Structured Insulated Panels (SIP): SIPs are constructed of two exterior panels of either plywood or Oriented Strand Board (OSB) with insulation materials sandwiched in between.
• Pre-cast concrete walls: These are pre-fabricated and delivered to the construction site. The walls are reinforced with steel fiber and have the insulation built in.

Interior

• Insulation blankets: Insulation blankets come in rolls, usually pink, and are most commonly made of fiberglass. Install these insulation blankets between the wall studs. Insulation blankets are easy to install yourself and can be found at any Home Depot or Lowe's store.
• Cellulose: Constructed out of old newspapers that have been shredded into tiny pieces and treated with a fire retardant, most cellulose insulation is installed by a professional.
• Polystyrene boards: This type of insulation is basically Styrofoam. It comes in either expanded or extruded forms and is used when insulating foundation walls (in a basement, for example).
• Vapor barriers: Using a polyethylene plastic vapor barrier that is at least four to six millimeters in thickness also helps to prevent energy loss through your walls. Air, whether cold or hot, cannot flow through vapor barriers because they are impermeable.

• Seal air leaks: Leaks occur most often around doors and windows on both the inside and outside of your home. Seal these leaks with the appropriate caulking (exterior caulking for the outside and interior caulking for the inside).
• Install vapor barriers on the "warm" wall: Although what is considered the "warm" wall is up for contentious debate, it is generally on the inside of you home, after the insulation and before the final wall material.
• Pay attention to R-values: All insulation is rated with an R-Value. The R-value is the measure of the insulation's ability to stop the flow of heat. Insulation with a higher R-value will offer you greater protection against heat loss. The level of R-value necessary for you home depends a great deal upon the climate in which you live.

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