What is Insulation and how does it work?
Insulation is a term describing any material that reduces — resists — heat flow by conduction. Conduction is a physical property of all materials and along with “radiation” and “convection” describes one of three principal mechanisms of heat transfer. The conductance of a material is the rate of heat flow that is induced by temperature differences between one side of a specific thickness of the material and the other. A material’s conductance results in the thermal transmittance — U-value — of a specific assembly of materials — such a wall — that have thickness and density, and conduct heat over specific periods of time. The “R-factor” of a material is the inverse of its U-value. These factors help engineers, architects and code officials calculate energy efficiency of buildings.
