New techniques help measure thermal transfer in walls

17 Jun 2002

What's the R-value in your walls? The answer used to be simply the R-value of your wall insulation. For standard wood frame construction, determining R-value, or resistance to heat flow, based solely on wall insulation was not too far off. But because of the increasing use of metal frame systems and other more conductive materials, such as masonry and concrete, in our walls, R-value should now be determined by studying the whole wall, not just the insulation. How? By using a new wall testing and rating procedure developed at the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).

"We've created a procedure to help users measure the ability of whole walls to hold in heat in the winter and keep out heat in the summer," says Jeff Christian, program manager for Building Thermal Envelope Systems at ORNL's Buildings Technology Center.