What are VIPs?
Posted by Jocelyn | Posted on 10:24 PM
So I’m sure you are all wondering what vacuum insulated panels are. Well here’s a little breakdown of their components.
Vacuum insulated panels, also known as VIPs, are constructed of a tight core consisting of an insulated material such as Polystyrene, Polyurethane, Titania, or fumed Silica. The core is encased in layers of metallic or mylar foil that help provide a tight envelop. Maintaining a vacuum tight seal is what creates the high ‘R’ value. A VIP may have an R value of 30 per inch thickness, which for a piece of insulation is well above code requirements.
I hope this description has given you an idea, I will be posting photos and original graphics to show more.
Hey Jocelyn,
I'm not quite sure I understand the concept of how VIP's fit into a wall assembly. If a VIP has such a high R value for only one inch, I would assume you wouldn't need much more than one inch for your wall. Now compare that of batt insulation in a standand 2x6 wall, which will fill up the whole cavity. However, with the VIP it will leave quite a large gap. What do you put in the wall to fill this gap?
Hey Mark,
I was reading a website and eventhough they are R30 for 1 inch they probably should have some type of material to cushion the panel. They should not be installed right against the sheathing because any puncture to the wall could cause the panel to puncture, ruining the panel and high R value. I just have to find out how to do it. Im working on it.
Hi Jocelyn,
My question is closely related to your response to Mark. I'm just curious if each panel is installed individually or as a whole? The reason being, wouldn't it be easier to fix a puncture in just one panel rather than the entire assembly? However, would that be too expensive to vacuum insulate every panel individually? Maybe I am just a little confused because I don't know much about this technology but if you could find information on how to install and fix them, that would be great :)
So I've been looking trying to find how they are installed, and so far its not going well, but I do know they are installed as panels. Think of them as a piece of 2' x 4' foam board that you would buy from michaels with foil around it. Thats similar to what they look like, but the contents are more complex. Then think of a bag of coffee you buy in the store that is so vacuum packed that you can see the granules, thats what they do to the panels which maintains the high R value. I hope that gives you a good image.
Hey Jocelyn, I was browsing SABmag website and came across a small article about your topic, it linked to www.vivodepot.com, It seems you need to sing-up to view the rest of their site but from the article I read on SABmag they are using these panels in Las Vegas. Here's a link to the article that I came across, hope it helps!
http://sabmagazine.com/products.html