Author Topic: Structural Insulated Panels  (Read 1234 times)

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Offline Weisshaupt

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Structural Insulated Panels
« on: June 16, 2011, 10:42:51 AM »
For anyone who was following my solar battery shed discussion, my final solution was structural insulated panels.  Basically its two pieces of OSB with foam injected between them.

Apparently  this kind of construction was use a lot in desert storm ( I have a buddy who was in the Sea Bees)

I am buying from ICS and no, they ain't really cheap - but not too bad.  They run from $6-12 per square foot. However, if you plan on hiring a framing crew, the labor time saved makes up for the additional cost.  They have high R values - and they are assembled quickly -  they tell me my shed should be up in 2 hours. Panels just cam lock together, and in theory the wall structure is R-28 for a 4.5 inch thick wall, and R-42 for a 6.5 inch thick wall..  I ordered  an R42  6x10 shed - its around $3K ,  and will be closer to $4k by the time I pour an insulated foundation and roof it, but it will be housing $15K worth of stuff that needs to be kept as close to 70 F as possible.  With R42 I might be able to heat the place just using the heat from the inverter.  Overkill?  Yeah probably. But it won't seem that way if I end up depending on those batteries for power.  Its monopoly money anyway.

If you are building a TEOTWAKI house you should investigate using these  vs. Insulated Concrete forms. ICS also sells kits - basically SIP panel Yurts . If you are starting from scratch on a piece of land, these are definitely worth looking into. ICS also can make them  in thinner sheets to go around exisiting buildings. So if you re-side the house, you may think about throwing these in for an extra 10-15 R value.

Again its a bunch of greenies pushing the tech ( I hate that so much of the prep money goes to the hippie morons) but in the end every bit of fuel you don't have to burn  saves money