An Introduction To Insulation

With the students only present for two days and our project in between major steps, this week has been an uneventful one for the House-Build class.

Therefore, the staff decided to provide the students with a brief preparatory lesson regarding the next part of our project: installing insulation.

Although the students appeared disappointed when they learned they were going to spend the majority of our class inside our makeshift classroom (job-site trailer), rather than engaged in the physical construction of our house, their interest seemed to heighten when they realized the lesson was more of a review.

In order for the students to gain a strong understanding of how the insulation in our house functions, they first needed to understand what it aims to limit: heat transfer. Drawing on the concepts learned from their Physical Science class, the students quickly understood that the three main forms of heat transfer (conduction, convection, and radiation) are the driving forces behind heat loss or gain in our house.

After realizing that the insulation in our home functions in order to limit that process of heat transfer, the students were then briefed on the different types of insulation and the manner with which we will be installing it in our home.

Understanding the concepts of heat transfer and insulation in residential construction will provide our students a sound base as we being to install our insulation system at the end of this week.