|
It is
my understanding that radiant barriers work quite well in hot climates but less
well in cold.
Perhaps this is so because the amount of heat radiated by a building is
far less than that coming from the sun thus the radiant barrier is less
cost-effective in reflecting heat back into a house than preventing it from
entering.
But, ahem, I was an art major, perhaps I'm way off
base.
-- gilbert midonnet
-----Original Message-----
From:
clark ellison [mailto:cellison1@austin.rr.com]
Sent: Thursday, January
03, 2002 3:11 PM
To: Green Building
Subject: Re: [GBlist]
radiant barrier for cold climes WAS tar-paper
I can not answer that question for you but would think you would
want the heat gain we want to reject.
The air space may be the same answer as the tar paper. Here, any
rejection of heat gain is a gain for us.
Our home energy dollars are spent on cooling not heating.
You have to deal with ground heaving from frost, most of us,
ocassionaly have to scrape frost from our car windows, if we leave
them outside overnight. You bury your home water pipes deep under ground,
sometimes we have to wrap a wash rag around our spigots to prevent freeze
damage. Here if the temperature drops to 32F you would think we were under
attack, they ask us not to drive and to stay home and not go to work.
So I do not know if it is conflicting information or just information
adjusted for different climates.
Clark
I've been getting conflicting information re
radiant barriers. Are they useful in cold climates (VT/NH). At the moment it
seems as if it is not cost-effective.
Need to have at air space (3 inches is
most common recommendation) between itself and warm air space
wall/ceiling. Then pile on insulation. It is difficult to retrofit
a house with these specs, and not cost-effective.
--
gilbert midonnet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This message is for the named person's use only. It may contain confidential, proprietary or legally
privileged information. No confidentiality or privilege is waived or lost by any mistransmission. If
you receive this message in error, please immediately delete it and all copies of it from your
system, destroy any hard copies of it and notify the sender. You must not, directly or indirectly,
use, disclose, distribute, print, or copy any part of this message if you are not the intended
recipient.
| 
