Walls are erected in order to protect your home from outside noise, the elements and to achieve a comfortable living space. When it comes to insulating these walls, R-value alone is not an adequate measure. A high-performance air barrier system such as EcoLogic delivers protects your home making it energy-efficient while saving you money.

Heat Loss
Fiber Insulations slow convection, but do not eliminate it. Convection occurs when heat is transferred through air currents creating a pathway for energy and heat loss. Where other traditional insulating material simply slows convection, EcoLogic Spray Foam Insulation is specifically designed to STOP convective heat loss and air infiltration. Studies show that 1/4 inch of EcoLogic Foam stops nearly one-hundred percent of convective heat loss.

The Science of Heat Loss
Inside a building, heat loss occurs when defaults appear in the form of; cracks, crevices, cavities and other fault lines. These weakened areas create pathways allowing moisture, mold, air, and pollutants to gain entry into your home or work space.

Room temperature fluctuates when air movement occurs around windows, doors, ceilings and walls. This occurence kicks the home heating and cooling units into overdrive in an attempt to regulate the temperature. R value or Thermal Resistivity typically assumes of the position of being the prime suspect in heat loss, responsible for stealing the air quality.

Reality Check
Convective heat loss accounts for as much as seventy-percent of total heat loss. Thus, an insulation material which allows air movement through it, such as fiberglass, cannot match a foamed wall with the same R value. The foam barrier is three times more effective in sealing the building than fiberglass, adding to the structural integrity and value of the building.

Air Leakage
Like water, air leaks through walls of homes with traditional insulation by any means possible. Cracks, holes, crevices and other weakened areas of the structure create the pathways for this invader. With enough air pressure, the stability of the structure is compromised affecting the performance of the insulating material. Products unable to properly seal these leaks do not function as reliable insulators.

Moisture Issues
As air travels through a building wall other components hitch a ride: water vapor, pollutants, dust, odors and allergens. Some experts estimate that the ratio of moisture transported by air flow compared to vapor diffusion is ten-to-one or even higher.

Without effective control of air flow, vapor retarders are completely ineffective.
-ASHRAE 2001 Fundamentals

Air Barrier Control
A furnace is generally sized to heat a volume of air 40% larger volume of air than that enclosed by the home into which it is installed due to air movement through walls.  When wall systems fail to prevent air leakage, HVAC equipment goes into overdrive to work to stabilize the temperature. This results in higher energy costs. An effective air barrier system such as EcoLogic Spray Foam Insulation, allows for the installation of smaller HVAC units which minimizes upfront costs during the design phase of the building.  The smaller unit will also cost less to operate on a monthly basis.

According to the DOE: “Sealing air leaks is ten to one-hundred times as important as installing a vapor barrier.”

Creating an Air Barrier
The National Building Code of Canada defines the air barrier system as “being constructed of materials with an air permanence rating of less than 0.02L/sm2 by 75 Pa.” The system must create a continuous barrier throughout the building envelope, withstanding both positive and negative air pressure without displacement. The system must be durable enough to last the lifetime of the building.

There are many air barrier systems available, but not all of them allow for easy installation especially when dealing with complex building designs. The only proven insulation and air barrier combination: closed cell, spray applied foam, a fully tested system, proven repeatedly to form a monolithic barrier without compromising gaps. It is a two-component product manufactured on site but engineered at the molecular level to meet performance criteria suitable for every code and climate. Requiring no fasteners, adhering to any wall surfaces, eliminating thermal bridging and condensing surfaces while increasing installation speed and reducing labor costs, EcoLogic Spray Foam also improves structural strength.

Testing conducted by the National Association of Home Builders Research Center shows closed-cell SPF insulation between wood-and-steel-stud panels increases rack and sheer resistance two to-three times over stick built components and glass fiber insulation when sprayed onto gypsum wall board and vinyl siding. Racking strength increases fifty-percent when sprayed onto oriented strand board (OSB).

It should be noted that EcoLogic Spray Foam Insulation offers these benefits based on repeated testing by:

• The U.S. Department of Energy
• Oak Ridge National Laboratories
• The Canadian Mortgage Housing Corporation
• Canadian Construction Materials Center

Results show that EcoLogic Spray Foam Insulation is the most cost-effective, energy efficient, environmentally-friendly insulation product on the market today.