Understanding Heat Transfer

Insulation rating, insulation values, insulation r factor, insulation r values, radiant barrier, thermal barrier, thermal insulation, Thermal Transfer… Understanding what all these terms mean and how they apply to energy efficiency.

All the materials that are used in the construction of your home or business absorb and transfer Heat. 80% - 95% of this heat is transferred, from the warmer side to the cooler side by one or more of the following ways.

1. CONDUCTION is direct heat flow through matter (molecular motion). An example of conduction, if you lay one end of a butter knife on the burner of your stove, the heat travels by conduction through the metal to the other end that you are holding and it soon becomes too hot to hold. Heat is always conducted from warm to cold never from cold to warm.

2. CONVECTION is the transport of heat within a gas or liquid. Example-hold your hand above the stove burner and you soon feel the heat being emitted and transferred thru the air upward.

3. RADIATION is the transmission of electromagnetic rays through space. We experience infrared radiation every day. The heat that we feel from sunlight, a fire, a radiator or a warm sidewalk is infrared. Although our eyes cannot see it, the nerves in our skin can feel it as heat.

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