ener­gy-effi­cient home is con­tin­u­ous insu­la­tion

An essen­tial design com­po­nent of an ener­gy-effi­cient home is con­tin­u­ous insu­la­tion (CI). In fact, the ASHRAE 90.1 and the Inter­na­tion­al Ener­gy Con­ser­va­tion Code (2015 IECC) require con­tin­u­ous insu­la­tion, which is defined by the ASHRAE Stan­dard 90.1−2013 as insu­la­tion that is uncom­pressed and con­tin­u­ous across all struc­tur­al mem­bers with­out ther­mal bridges oth­er than fas­ten­ers and ser­vice open­ings. A ther­mal bridge is a sec­tion of a wall assem­bly that allows heat and ener­gy to flow through it at a high­er rate than the sur­round­ing area and reduces the effec­tive R‑value1 of the wall assem­bly. The pur­pose of CI is to stop ther­mal bridg­ing, increase the effec­tive R‑value\ and elim­i­nate con­den­sa­tion. Con­tin­u­ous insu­la­tion stops air leak­age (ther­mal bridg­ing) in a home and saves home­own­ers mon­ey and ener­gy by reduc­ing mechan­i­cal ven­ti­la­tion costs and heat­ing and cool­ing expens­es.