Insulated Concrete Forms for Energy Savings

 

Does anyone have anything good or bad in building a home out of ICF
technology in order to save energy.  It seems that this technology brings
lots of benefits towards energy savings.  This with the addition of solar
technology would be a great combination.

Any positive or negative comments would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Ray

 

The claim is R36 and with concrete poured into it's form R50. Lots of thermal
mass but when does concrete have an R1.5 per inch? The forms at close range do
nt apear to have 7 inches of foam either. 4 maybe?????

Very quiet from external noise if that is wanted.

There is a lot of rebar to support the complete structure, including the second
floor (if two story) and the forms for the second story before the concrete is
filled in. I don't know how it supported all that beofe the pour.

The wiring is done with a chainsaw, with a depth stop, to make a slot into the
wall, the wiring pressed into it and caulking covering it. The electrical boxes
are special units, extra flat???? and the drywall is then glued on. No vapour
barrier required.  Not sure how the plumbing goes in or how they get away with
wiring that close to the surface let alone the plumbing problems.

They are claiming no A/C will be required...ROFLMFAO

Looks very interesting but a pain to build with all the special items and
related costs. Person in my future neighbourhood has spent all year with lots of
family help building his home while the one beside me started later and has
passed him, working completely alone on a lstandard umber home with bigger
dimensions. To be fair, the lumber home guy is a renovator by trade and the
styrofoam guy is just a financial guy.

When doing a heat loss study, one soons finds out the walls are not the major
heat loss areas.

The ceilings and floors aren't going to be changed by the walls. It may be just
cheaper to insulate further with lumber construction and foam clad.

 



A friend of mine built a cinder block home partially in the North East top
of a hill.  From the front, which is on the southwest side, it looks like a
single story, but on the back side it is a 2-1/2 story.  There is a stone
patio on the sun side, with some sort of plumbing tying it to the house.

This is in an area where summer temperatures are 110f for several days in a
row.  He has some deciduous shade foliage on a trellis on the sun side of
the house.  He has no A/C.  I haven't been in the house on a hot day, but
my wife has, and she said it is quite comfortable.

---
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA  38.8,-122.5

 

dold@XReXXInsul.usenet.us.com wrote:


I used to live in Flare's neighborhood, and I can attest that a well
insulated concrete block building _can_ have very good energy efficiency,
but "no" A/C means you have to be willing to endure a few really horrible
days :-)

I now actually have an ICF home.  I can't see that it is particularly
efficient.  My solar-home builder friend hates them - he says it's a waste
of thermal mass to put the concrete behind insulation - but I think I've
got plenty of thermal mass inside the insulation so that's not really a
consideration.
--
derek

 

If we averaged 65 deg F outside all year long Plus or minus a few I could see it
but that thermal mass in our humid summers would just be another way of not
sleeping in the summer.

We rely or A/C or low thermal mass, for those without A/C to cool our houses
down at nights in order to get some sleep. Summer of 2005 was an exception. It
got hot and 95% humidity in June and stayed until a few weeks ago with the
nightly lows at 22-23C (74-75) all summer. Large thermal mass would have just
made the 93F temps continue into the morning and no sleep would have been had.

Big insulation is good almost anywhere but large dumb, thermal mass is only good
where average temperatures are OK. Say 90F during days and 50F at nights. The
average is what we want inside.

My trick in my next home is to phase shift this heat some with perhaps 2000 gal
of water mass and hydronic distribution. From day to early morning would be good
but for a week or two would be even better.

Now to tap into the earths core. Isn't that a real earth source heat pump?...LOL
Anybody sell a hot lava container?