energy efficient walls & Homes
Exterior wall construction and insulation are crucial to get home energy-efficiency, comfort and sound-proofing. Homes may lose 2 to 3 times more heat through their walls than through ceilings and attics - and that makes energy efficient walls a major issue. .
To get an energy-efficient home and a built-to-last and eco-friendly building you need energy efficient walls, and that demand you to choose the right type of wall insulation, the right type of materials and the right type of technology for your walls.
Wall insulation
Typically, older homes have too little wall insulation. Ancient building codes did not demanded enough wall insulation (even modern codes don’t), and most builders used to apply too little insulation (they still do).
However wall insulation is often much more important to get energy efficiency homes than attic and ceiling insulation. Walls involve a larger surface, and that makes energy efficient walls particularly important to get comfort and energy-savings.
See also:
Wall Insulation & Energy Efficiency
Wall Cavity Insulation
Batt Insulation
Rigid Foam Insulation
Blown in Cavity Wall Insulation
Sprayed foam insulation
Sprayed fibrous insulation
Recommend insulation Values for energy efficient walls
When building a new home, bet on high levels of wall insulation to get energy efficiency. Reduced insulation levels are a costly mistake. See: Recommended (Wall) insulation levels for home energy efficiency
All types of walls demand insulation (except in some hot tropical climates).
Cavity walls and common wood-frame and steel-frame walls should be insulated both in their cavities (see Types of cavity wall insulation) and on their surfaces (foam insulated sheathing).
Solid walls will also benefit from insulating sheathing in their exterior surfaces, or, in some cases, their inside (see: Solid Masonry Wall Insulation and Inside Wall Insulation).
Image, Cavity Wall Insulation: UK Energy Saving Trust
New energy efficient wall building systems
The wall framing system is also particularly important for an energy efficient home. If you are about to build a new home, you should pay attention to existing techniques...
- Wood frame construction
- Concrete frame construction
- Steel frame construction
and the set of materials associated to each of them.
There isn’t a perfect material or technique. All have benefits and disadvantages and mainly different costs and impacts on the environment and on the energy efficiency of your home and, consequently, on your cooling and heating needs and bills.
New wall construction systems
There are now new wall construction systems with built-in layers of insulation, providing not only structural strength but also high insulation value. Consider them as newer and higher-efficient alternatives to timber-frame or cavity walls... They are excellent to get high energy efficient walls.
See, namely: SIP Walls Construction and ICF Forms.
New Wall framing techniques
There are also some new framing techniques, to get energy efficient walls and homes.
In the wood-frame category pay attention to Engineered timber.
In the concrete-framing category, see the Aerated AAC Homes and Walls (and ICF forms).
Walls and thermal mass
In some cold and sunny climates, masonry and concrete walls (and concrete and other hard floors) may assume a special role in energy-efficiency: they can be used to store the sun's heat during the day, and to release it during the night, when temperatures are colder. Something that is deeply associated to thermal mass issues.
See: Thermal mass walls and floors and also Trombe walls and energy efficiency
Cooling, air-conditioning and insulation in tropical climates
In some hot-tropical climates wall insulation should be restricted to some special cases. In most case, in these climates, insulation is not synonymous of home energy efficiency, and energy efficient walls, in that case, do not mean well insulated walls.