Insulation for Hot Climates

[@darwinjina]

Observations of a developer-built house in a Thai suburb. (They built about 200 houses in the area). Aerated wall bricks. No other insulation. Radiant barrier under tile roof. (grey roof tiles). No insulation on attic ceiling. Commercial green glass. (I tried describing double pane windows but no one ever heard/seen any). While I did see soffits, I could not see any wind vanes or ridge vents. They emphasized that the overall design is better in order for the indoors to release heat (cool off) in the evening/night.

[@MM-sf3rl]

My brother wrote a book called The Superinsulated House in 1982 (the first book was published in 1976). He lived in Fairbanks, Alaska. You can still find the used book on line for purchase. From your comments, it would appear Thailand is where Alaska was almost 50 years ago. Though Alaska is still building the same sorry house from over 50 years ago too, many are much better, almost exclusively due to a proper vapor barrier, as the insulation in walls is mostly R19. Great to find a knowledgeable owner/builder should I ever build here. Interestingly, my brother pointed out that when they were building the Palace Versailles, they were still stacking brick one on top of the other in Thailand.

[@suppakornsuttisirikul7554]

Very nice presentation!, im planning to build a similar well insulated house here in southern Thailand. I wonder during these extreme heat(april 2024) how much does your insulation help and also how much energy spike during these times.

[@EcoHouseThailand]

Insulation slows the process of temperature equalization inside to outside. I have 8,500 BTU aircons. My living room is 32m2 and is comfortably cool. My condo in BKK has a living room a third of the size with an aircon 3Xs as big and still my tennant complains it’s too hot. As I am off-grid with no electric meter so I’m not too bothered about electric usage as my solar covers it.

[@alfredodino825]

I’d appreciate a video explaining the actual temperature and humidity differences you achieve at different times of the day and night over the full year. In the cooler months do you turn off the HRV and open everything up or keep the system going all year around?

[@EcoHouseThailand]

Several years ago I purchased a bunch of smart Xiaomi temp and humidity monitors. They only work when connected to the Xiaomi China server which I no longer have access to, so they are now just dumb displays. I am about to replace them with Tuya devices to add to my Home Assistant server, this will give me access to historical data. The house is designed to naturally cool and vent via stack effect and as a result we hardly ever (1 or 2 days/year) have aircon on in the living room, meaning that we don’t use the ERV much as well. The only rooms we really use aircon is the bedroom, my office and the cinema. All the aircons in the house are just 8,500 BTU.

[@fredelliott6038]

Have you done any sampling of he air for the degassing of the insulation foam you have installed? I also do not see any mention of ventilating the attic spaces to reduce the hot air 'bubble' there. Next video?

[@EcoHouseThailand]

The foam is entombed in concrete. Regarding "ventilating the attic spaces" I have a fly roof.

[@charnseukiammongkol5472]

Very interesting! 👍👍👍 Just wonder if the ground would actually help making the ground floor cooler considered that ground beneath the footprint tends to be cooler than the ambient. 🤔🤔

[@EcoHouseThailand]

Dirt has a similar R value to concrete so 3 inches of foam would be equivalent to a few meters of dirt. The ground around my house quickly reaches 60C when the sun gets on it and that heat moves quickly. My house is like a foam cooler box, if you removed the foam on the base the inside of the box would not stay cool for long. Any temperature difference inside to out is equalized and the speed of that process is a factor of the resistive index of the walls/floors/roof. The floor of most houses is the coolest part only due to convection as hot air rises and cool air falls.

[@charnseukiammongkol5472]

Ah! Just wonder if insulating the footprint perimeter + top of ground floor would work better. My parents live in SankonNakorn and I plan to build a tiny house there, one that I can later move it elsewhere, with or without wheels. So, I start studying about energy efficient home. I may want to go with SIP system. Love your Viedo on the solar power too! 👍

[@EcoHouseThailand]

@@charnseukiammongkol5472 “would work better” than what? Not sure I understand. I have retrofitted insulation in my wife’s parents house. They wanted aircon but the house wasn’t airtight and had no insulation at all. We created a small bedroom in their open plan living room. Replaced the wooden window with one that sealed, added insulation in the ceiling and added foam to the exterior walls to make them airtight.

[@charnseukiammongkol5472]

According to your cooler box theory, I wonder if all foam insulation to be on the inside, i.e. on the floor slab rather than underneath would work better!

[@EcoHouseThailand]

@@charnseukiammongkol5472 foam on the inside is great as well

[@TheFinalElite]

Brilliantly explained

[@darwinjina]

Did you lay insulation bats on the attic ceiling? Say, like those insulation wrapped in foil that you can get from HomePro/etc.

[@EcoHouseThailand]

The main block of the house where I have aircon have 3 inches of foam in the floor and and the floor above. 3rd floor has a 3m air gap. The white steel roof has foil wrapped foam attached at the factory.