Rethinking Energy Savings

For over a century, traditional mass insulation materials like fiberglass and cellulose have been used to prevent heat from escaping or entering American homes. But times are changing, and mass insulation alone isn’t enough to hold down the rising costs of heating and cooling.

Today, builders and homeowners are discovering that adding reflective insulation offers dramatic gains in thermal efficiency – far greater than the same investment in additional mass insulation.

What is Reflective Insulation?

Reflective Insulation employs two highly reflective (low emittance) surfaces to resist radiant heat transfer, a feature not offered by traditional mass insulation. These reflective surfaces are joined to a substrate that contains closed air spaces to help prevent conductive and convective heat transfer. ESP Low-E® reflective insulation products use a patented closed-cell polyethylene foam and high-purity aluminum facing design that offers an unmatched combination of radiant, conductive and convective resistance – making homes more comfortable at lower cost.

Best uses for Reflective Insulation

ESP Low-E® Reflective insulation’s lightweight, easy-to-install construction absorbs no moisture and serves as an excellent vapor barrier, making it the perfect partner for mass insulation in attics and as a housewrap. It’s also ideal for hot water heaters and pipes, overhead doors, crawl spaces and many other insulation applications.

Low-E® reflective insulation has met growing acceptance among:

Home Builders

Low-E® reflective insulation housewrap, when used as a weather barrier under exterior siding, allows a builder to meet the strict new exterior wall building codes for energy efficiency with traditional two-by-four stud walls – saving the costs of two-by-six wall construction.

Homeowners

Low-E® reflective insulation, installed in an attic (on the rafters, between the rafters or over the mass insulation on the attic floor), above the crawl space or in the garage, can cut heating and cooling costs by as much as 25%. In most cases, reflective insulation in the attic delivers the fastest payback of any energy-saving improvement a homeowner can choose. And, ESP reflective insulation is the only radiant barrier or reflective insulation product that has passed the stringent fire safety tests required by building codes for attic use.

Commercial Builders and Owners

Low-E® reflective insulation is ideal for making industrial and commercial buildings livable in both summer and winter, lowering heating and cooling costs and improving employee productivity and morale.

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