SCIP Panels
Structural Concrete Insulated Panels
There is a fair amount of misinformation about energy efficiency
and SCIPs, SIPs, and ICFs
So here are two links for starters
http://www.ornl.gov/sci/roofs+walls/research/detailed_papers/thermal/index.html
Although the words SCIPs SIPs and ICFs are not used if you know
the products you know what and the difference between them are,
(Walls containing foam
core and concrete shells on both sides)
(Concrete wall core and insulation placed on both sides)
(Walls where the insulation material was concentrated on the
interior side)
(Comparative
analysis of sixteen different material configurations showed that the most
effective wall assembly was the wall with thermal mass (concrete) applied in
good contact with the interior of the building. Walls where the insulation
material was concentrated on the interior side, performed much worse. Wall
configurations with the concrete wall core and insulation placed on both sides
of the wall performed slightly better, however, their performance was
significantly worse than walls containing foam core and concrete shells on both
sides)
Most of the misinformation is about the wire trusses going from
one side of the panel to the other. They make un substantiated claims so here
are some facts
1. ORNL
conducted thermal experiments in 1987 that tested concrete sandwich panels:
http://www.ornl.gov/info/reports/1987/3445602788810.pdf
a. This paper states
that there is only a 7% reduction in the thermal properties of concrete panels
with 32 – 3 mm diameter stainless steel connectors in a 103”x103” wall compared
to walls without connectors or with fiberglass-composite ties.
b. The report
evaluated the isothermal planes method (also called series-parallel method) of
calculating the R factor for the wall assemblies and found that the method
predicted a 5% decrease in the thermal properties which is very close to the
measured difference.
c. The isothermal planes
method for concrete walls is contained in ACI 122R “Guide to Thermal Properties
of Concrete and Masonry Systems” which we used to calculate the R-factors for
the GCT TER.
d. The walls also had
a thermal lag of 5 to 6 hours, which helps to reduce the impact of daily
high/low temperatures.
e. The thermal lag
indicates the capacity of the wall to store energy and is useful for designing
passive solar systems.
