Midwest Eco-Design - Your home for eco-friendly construction, remodeling & housing choices including prefrabricated homes, cabins and other sustainable material choices.

Insulation is one of the most important aspects of energy-efficiency in a home.  There are many types of insulation , the majority used for thermal purposes.  Insulation reduces unwanted heat loss or gain and can decrease the energy demands of heating and cooling systems.

Over the past years we’ve seen leaps and bounds towards creating cheaper, thinner, more breathable materials with higher R-values. Aerogel is one of the top contenders for most efficient & “green” product used for insulation.  This space-age material has the lowest bulk density of any known porous solid as well as some incredible insulating qualities, and recently two companies rolled out Aerogel sheets that make installations a breeze.

It is made up of a gel that has had its liquid component replaced by air — in fact the material is 99% air. It’s quite thin, breathable, fireproof, doesn’t absorb water, and is very strong considering it doesn’t weigh much. What makes it such a great insulator is its low thermal conductivity (14 mW/m-K) and results in an R-value of 10.3 per inch, which is twice as much as rigid foam board. In fact you can light a blow torch on one side and it won’t burn a hole through it or even get hot enough to light a match sitting on the other side.

Unfortunately the material is still fairly expensive and out of the price range for the average homeowner. NASA has used it as insulation for a number of projects including the Mars Rover and space suites. Two companies currently have a commercial product available – Aspen Aerogel and Thermoblok. Aspen Aerogel offers a roll of the material in 0.2 or 0.4 in thicknesses and 57 inches wide. Thermoblok has 1-1/2″ wide strips, which are used to cover framing studs and help prevent thermal bridging and costs about $1.99/ft.

Aerogel a great material for renovations where size matters, and would make great insulation for shipping containers. Due to it’s incredible R-value and thin form factor it’s one of the best insulative materials out there, and we hope to see prices come down so that it is more affordable for the general public.

Chuck Leavell, a musician (keyboardist) for such legendary acts as The Rolling Stones, Gov’t Mule, Eric Clapton, and George Harrison, is also a conservationist and tree farmer.  He and his wife own the Charlane Plantation in Dry Branch, Georgia, and have been recognized by several conservation organizations.  Leavell is also the only two-time recipient of the Georgia Tree Farmer of the Year award.

While a traditional home is built by workmen on a site, a prefabricated house is built in a factory. In other words, sections of a prefab home are built in large pieces in a factory, transported to the owner’s land and then simply assembled and placed onto a pre-existing foundation.

Modern prefab homes are also popularly known as modular homes as you can put together any number of rooms to create the kind of home you wish.

Prefab homes are increasingly witnessing high demand due to a variety of reasons:

Speedy construction

The construction of a prefab home is much faster than a custom built home. Within two months of order time your home is ready.

Since each room is built in a factory, all you have to do is to place your order with the prefab house builders and your house is built, transported to your site and then put together. On the other hand a traditional home can take few months or even a year.

Life nowadays has become very fast and people are perennially short of time. Prefab modern homes are an ideal option as they are faster to build and hassle-free.

Better Insulation

The insulation of prefabricated walls is superior to traditional houses as they are built in a factory. Although site-built walls are thicker than prefab walls, they still tend to sag over a period of time.

Protection from Bugs

Since modules of prefab houses are built in the factory, they are better protected from bugs. In contrast, traditional homes take a lot of time to build so the timber and other parts are more exposed to damage.

Money Saver

Once your prefab home is built, you can save a lot of money on electricity due to superior insulation. Precious money is also saved on lumber. It generally reduces construction and design costs to a great extent as compared to a traditional home.

Design the Way You Like

With a prefabricated home you get the benefit of designing your own home according to your whims and fancy. You can choose the number of rooms you want, their size, designs, etc.

Environment- Friendly

Prefabricated homes are less damaging to the environment as they are made from recycled, renewable materials, use less energy and don’t pollute. As people are becoming more conscious about environment, the demand for eco-friendly green prefab homes is growing.

In fact, there are green home building websites now that offer aesthetically designed environment-friendly prefab houses, modern outdoor and indoor furniture, home accessories, etc.

Better Equipped to Handle Natural Disasters

Prefab homes are stronger than traditional homes. Particularly, for an area which has experienced hurricanes or tornadoes, a prefab is an ideal choice as they can withstand violent storms and other natural disasters better than traditional homes.

Lower prices, faster and easier to build, and a range of designs to choose from are the chief benefits of prefabricated homes. The popularity of prefabricated homes is thus sky rocketing.

Prefab homes today are built from such advanced technology that you can’t even tell the difference between a prefabricated house and a traditional house. People from all walks of life are now choosing prefabricated homes instead of traditional homes.

Architect Andres Duany, best known for work designing New Urbanist communities (walkable, small-scaled, mixed-use) has shifted gears a bit to create a light, expandable shelter known as the “core house” for Haiti’s homeless. The house, designed to stand up to earthquakes and hurricanes isn’t Duany’s first foray into disaster relief housing: several years ago he helped develop the prefabricated “Katrina Cottage” as an alternative to the widely criticized FEMA trailers.

Duany’s house for Haiti is small– 8′2″ x 8′2″ x 19′8″—but can sleep 8. Essential for cost-reduction and ease of distribution—can be packed flat in a package less than two feet thick. It’s designed for quick assembly from a strong, lightweight, and waterproof composite material Duany describes as miraculous. Can this work in Haiti? We hope so. At present, there are at least a million people without homes in the hurricane-battered country.

Rendering courtesy of Jetson Green

This post originally appeared on www.refresheverything.com, as part of GOOD’s collaboration with the Pepsi Refresh Project, a catalyst for world-changing ideas. Find out more about the Refresh campaign, or to submit your own idea today.