Summers are wonderful but the heat is not that pleasant, specially in areas where the temperatures are too high. There are many options to keep your indoors cool by way of Air Conditioning, Air Cooling etc. But we cannot stop the transmission of heat. If we can restrict the transmission of heat from outside to our indoors, these cooling devices will be more effective and less costly to use.
The process of restricting the heat (temperature) from
transmitting is called thermal insulation.
With the increase in temperature in summers, protecting the living
spaces from summer heat is the major problem.
The heat of the sun gradually transmits our living spaces
through the walls and RCC Roof, Tin Shades or any other modern day home, office
or factory. In olden days the houses
were made in such a way to minimize the heat transmission using natural
products. With the use of modern and
sustainable products thermal insulation is a major issue.
Thermal insulation can be done during construction
itself. We are not covering this area in
this article.
We will be covering the
challenge of thermal insulation in existing buildings. Here we are giving the name and introduction
of few products which can be used for Thermal Insulation or in other words, minimizing the transmission of heat in any place. The first and foremost is the air. If you give a gap with air in between any two
surfaces it is a wonderful insulation.
Now let us see the different products available which can
work as a barrier to transmission of heat.
Different Products available for Thermal Insulation:
Glass Wool/Rock Wool
This product range is a very good temperature
insulator. This is also a good sound
insulator as well. The product comes in
shape of fibres. Lately this product is
now available fully covered from all sides.
There are some health hazard issues in this product. The open rockwool or glasswool has lot of
harmful fibres which can easily fly in air thus leading to harmful affect to
health. Every precaution should be taken
to cover this material before using. If
this issue is taken care of this can be a very good product for checking the
transfer of temperature (be it hot or cold).
Mineral Fibre Tiles
The mineral fibre tiles are also used for heat insulation,
but this product is mainly useful in sound insulation and aesthetics. We do not recommend this product for the
purpose of heat or temperature insulation.
Of course this product can be used with other insulating products for
better and perfect effect. However, for controlling
normal issues this product can be a very easy and effective solution. We suggest using Glass Wool, EPS, and XPS
before covering the place with the false ceiling of Mineral Fibre Tiles.
Calcium Silicate
This is a good product which is fire proof and a good
thermal insulator. This product can used
to create drywalls. The Calcium Silicate
Boards can work as a very good thermal insulator again if used with some
additional insulating material.
EPS (Expanded Polystyrene Sheet)
EPS is also called thermocole. Thermocole sheet is a very
good heat insulator. EPS is made by
bonding the EPS balls. This is a common
product and almost everyone is aware of this product. The product is very light weight and density of
the product can go upto a certain extent only.
The product has limited life. But
this product is a very good temperature insulator. A
reasonably thick sheet can work as a wonderful barrier to any thermal
transmission.
XPS (Extruded Polystyrene Sheets)
This is the improved version of EPS. XPS in comparison to
EPS (Thermocole Sheet) is a stronger and better product. It is a block type material made up to
polystyrene. The product is very strong,
has very little water absorption and is a wonderful thermal insulator. To the best of my knowledge, this is the best
product available in thermal insulation as on date.
XPS can reduce the indoor temperature by almost more than
15%. Also it can delay the increase in
indoor temperature in summers. In areas
where evening or night temperatures are cold this product can do wonders, as by
the time the heat transmits the outdoor temperature will start to decline.
Hope this article will be useful to you. For more questions on the subject please feel
free to write me on nikanj@shreeanupamam.com.