“Out of sight, out of mind” is the perfect adage for insulation. While every commercial and industrial company will need some type of insulation, it’s not necessarily on the top of the list. We recognize that while insulation is our business, it probably isn’t yours. But in order to do what we do effectively, we need to know what you do. So for this article, we are going to bring you into our world and give you a crash course on commercial insulation and how we can possibly choose the best product for you.
Before we dive into insulation, we have to understand heat moves. Heat flow will always involve one or more of these three basic mechanisms:
- Conduction. This is the transfer of heat through physical contact. For example, when you place your hand on the hood of your car after it’s been sitting in the hot summer sun all day.
- Convection. This is the transfer of heat through liquids or gases. You may own a convection oven at home. It’s named that way because the air molecules are heated and then naturally move away from the source, creating a flow.
- Radiation. This type of heat will travel to anything solid in its path. A great example of this is a fire in a fireplace. The radiant heat coming off of the flame will directly heat up anything close to it.
Whichever mechanism is in action, heat will always flow from warmer to cooler until the temperature difference is gone. When you open a door in the winter, the cold isn’t coming inside; the heat is escaping.
An HVAC system will help maintain comfort and suitable conditions all year long by replacing the heat in the winter and removing the heat in the summer. Proper insulation will provide resistance to the natural flow of heat and help that HVAC to be effective. Most insulation materials will help to slow conductive and convective heat flow. The R-value is an indicator of the effectiveness. However, this value does not apply to insulation that works to slow radiant heat.
That is why it is important to have trained professionals assess how exactly heat is being created and transferred inside of the building. Insulating against conductive heat won’t do much good if most of the heat is travelling through radiation. Special insulations that have radiant or reflective barriers will be required in that case.
So there you have it, a quick introduction into our world and the basics as to how we can get started choosing the right product for any project. In regions with extreme weather conditions such as Alberta, proper insulation is integral to commercial and industrial companies. Your products, pipes, and buildings are the heart of your business. Keeping them safe and efficient is the heart of ours.
