Heat the house with a candle

[GH85Carrera]

I want some aerogel!

Superinsulating Aerogels Arrive on Home Insulation Market At Last | Popular Science

[hardflex]

Impressive. I hope it gets developed further.

[island911]

It's not that impressive. ...unless you're insulating a weight-sensitive item.

They claim 2x - 4x better than typical insulation. That just means that where you might need 2"-4" of insulation thickness, you can get the same performance with 1" of this (likely more than 4x expensive) stuff. --So, for a house it's not such a big deal.

Think of the material as fuzzy fiberglass. ....like a cashmere sweater, as opposed to a Rayon sweater.

[red-beard]

When I was in college, I took a Solar engineering course. They were basically able to prove to us that Solar doesn't work. Passive yes, but active, no.

But, we played with the models for houses and looked at Super Insulation. 2 foot thick walls with 24 inches of fiber glass. Extreme-R triple-pane, vacuum windows, 4 feet of fiberglass in the roof, etc. These houses required no heating in the winter. The people were enough. They had an article on a house in Rochester, NY like this. You had to have counterflow heat exchangers with air ventilation.

Adding stuff like this at the time of construction, an extra 10%. And extra 10% for basically no heating bills. That is huge.

[porsche4life]

Originally Posted by island911

It's not that impressive. ...unless you're insulating a weight-sensitive item.

They claim 2x - 4x better than typical insulation. That just means that where you might need 2"-4" of insulation thickness, you can get the same performance with 1" of this (likely more than 4x expensive) stuff. --So, for a house it's not such a big deal.

Think of the material as fuzzy fiberglass. ....like a cashmere sweater, as opposed to a Rayon sweater.

No it means where you would put 2-4 of regular stuff.... you put 2-4 of this stuff and have UBER insulation...

[RWebb]

right

it will be real nice to use in your car too...

[GH85Carrera]

It would be great over the firewall to keep heat out of the car.

[red-beard]

After reading the comments of some of the people at the popsci site, even the stupidist person here is a towering genius by comparison.

[RWebb]

I think they top out at ~ 12 years old.

[1990C4S]

Originally Posted by red-beard

After reading the comments of some of the people at the popsci site, even the stupidist person here is a towering genius by comparison.

Tech Forum, OT, or PARF?

[red-beard]

Where are we, hmmmmm?

[Normy]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

I want some aerogel!

Superinsulating Aerogels Arrive on Home Insulation Market At Last | Popular Science

The RC model airplane guys are starting to build model airplanes from this stuff. A 4 pound airplane now weighs 2.5 pounds if built from Aerogel. They are getting away from glow-engines and moving toward electric engines with lithium batteries- eliminating the noise issues that many RC model plane fields experience.

N!

[Lazarro]

Aerogel header wrap. Hot side turbo wrap?

[ramonesfreak]

Originally Posted by red-beard

When I was in college, I took a Solar engineering course. They were basically able to prove to us that Solar doesn't work. Passive yes, but active, no.

But, we played with the models for houses and looked at Super Insulation. 2 foot thick walls with 24 inches of fiber glass. Extreme-R triple-pane, vacuum windows, 4 feet of fiberglass in the roof, etc. These houses required no heating in the winter. The people were enough. They had an article on a house in Rochester, NY like this. You had to have counterflow heat exchangers with air ventilation.

Adding stuff like this at the time of construction, an extra 10%. And extra 10% for basically no heating bills. That is huge.

interesting..im from rochester and i collect old architecture books...i have an old 70's/80's book on solar houses and there is a featured house from rochester in it which is why i bought the book...i wonder if its the same article. its in storage at the moment otherwise i would scan it and post

[Porsche-O-Phile]

This is a HUGE advance. You guys aren't understanding the full implications of this for building design.

With a "super insulated" building you get the obvious benefit of a smaller mechanical system and lower energy costs - most people get that. HOWEVER, consider the secondary implications of this:

- less structure required to support the weight of a smaller mechanical system (structure is big $$$)
- ability to use different/radical building materials as part of the exterior envelope
- far greater flexibility in use of daylighting and/or natural ventilation (reductions in electrical loads and even further reductions in mechanical system requirements)

I'm sure there are issues with this material - is it toxic? Does it present a fire hazard? Emit VOCs? Can it be readily attached to substrates or does it require special treatment? I'm sure all this stuff can be addressed, but one does need to think of these things. Also, there are potential problems if a building is TOO closed to ventilation - you can get air change problems and mold unless the ventilation provided is carefully considered and designed.

All-in-all though this is a HUGE advance and I'm looking forward to seeing the potential of this stuff. I'll do some digging and see if I can find a catalog and/or spec sheet on this.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by srandallf

interesting..im from rochester and i collect old architecture books...i have an old 70's/80's book on solar houses and there is a featured house from rochester in it which is why i bought the book...i wonder if its the same article. its in storage at the moment otherwise i would scan it and post

If the article talks about heating the house with a 100 bulb, or a couple of them, it is the same one. I think there was also mention of a football game and they had friends over and had to open windows, in Winter.

I found my Solar book, but it wasn't in there. It wasn't a solar house, it was a Super Insulated House. I seem to remember this was a magazine article, photo copied and distributed.

[island911]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

This is a HUGE advance. You guys aren't understanding the full implications of this for building design....

you do realize this stuff , in many forms, has been around for decades...
It's great that someone has made a less fragile version, but still it's just an airier silica than typical (cheap) fiberglass.

Their sales graphic:


it's all about mfg cost vs performance.

[island911]

Originally Posted by red-beard

After reading the comments of some of the people at the popsci site, even the stupidist person here is a towering genius by comparison.

Pop-Sci ...Discovery channel..

They make money by hyping the crap out of things. They seem to love to play on people's imagination. ...play on people's hope for a massively fantastic future. (it sells; reality doesn't) ---Hey, where the hell are all of those flying cars ... it's been well over half a century.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by red-beard

If the article talks about heating the house with a 100 bulb, or a couple of them, it is the same one. I think there was also mention of a football game and they had friends over and had to open windows, in Winter.

I found my Solar book, but it wasn't in there. It wasn't a solar house, it was a Super Insulated House. I seem to remember this was a magazine article, photo copied and distributed.

My first thought was I have way more than one light bulb in my house. I have TVs, computers and a lot of heat generating items. Would I have to hook up a fan to vent that extra heat in the winter? What if I turn on the oven?

[DARISC]

Originally Posted by island911

It's not that impressive...

Hey, you're not that impressive!

Originally Posted by island911

Pop-Sci ...Discovery channel..

They make money by hyping the crap out of things. [/COLOR]

Yeah, like Smithsonian magazine does, published by that scam "museum" in D.C.

For example this crappy pile of hype!

The Secrets Within Cosmic Dust | Science & Nature | Smithsonian Magazine