Dana's+Project

**__ Insulation __**
===** An insulator is a substance that does not conduct thermal energy nearly as well as a conductor. Some great examples of insulators are wood, glass, rubber, oil, and asphalt. All of these materials are great insulators because they don't have many free electrons. Unlike conductors, who have many free electrons and have great conductivity, insulators do not have free electrons, which make heat "bounce" off of their surface. This is why we use insulators in our house. If your house was made of a material such as steel, the heat generated from the house would be absorbed by the steel because steel is a conductor, and the heat would move between the molecules because conductors have free electrons, allowing heat to go from molecule to molecule, heating the conductor. Eventually, the heat would escape the steel wall and go to the outside of the house, which sucks up the energy from inside the house, making the house colder. To keep this from happening to your home, try an insulator for your house. The insulator, with almost no free electrons, will never let heat escape from your house because the electrons aren't free, making the heat bounce off of the wall, keeping your house warm. The only question is, what kind of insulation should you buy? If you are struggling with this concept, then you should get the //R-Value// of the object before you put it in your home. R-Value shows the resistance to heat flow in an object. The higher the R-Value, the better the insulator will be. There are different types of insulation, such as: **===

** 1. Blown-in loose fill insulation, which is great for wall cavities and attic floors. **
===** 2. Foam insulation; you can buy closed cell foams and open celled foams. The open celled foam helps water vapor move through the foam much more easily than closed cell foams. Closed cell foams have a higher R-Value than open celled foams, making them great for smaller or colder areas. **===

** 3. Rigid insulation has a large R-Value for places where there isn't that much surface area. Rigid insulation can be used for foundations. **
===** 4. Reflective insulation have aluminum foils covering an insulator, such as cardboard or plastic film. The trick to reflective insulation is you need to set it up so the heat flow won't go right past it. If only one piece of reflective insulation is used and it faces an open area, it is called a radiant barrier. **=== ===** 5.Radiant barriers prevent too much heat from getting in your house and too much heat from getting out of your house. Radiant barriers have a high reflectance ( the percentage of the heat energy the the surface reflects.). **===

[[image:http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/estatics/u8l1d5.gif width="717" height="123" align="bottom"]]
= Here is a table of conductors and insulators. =

Here are some great websites for information on insulation:
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Watch foam insulation get installed here!
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