One of the most common misperceptions about the basics of the business we are in – helping people and businesses save money by using less energy – is the concept of heat transfer.
Imagine you’re sitting in your home or office or you’re in a factory near a window on a freezing winter day. You generally have the perception that when you’re getting colder, the cold is “coming in” the window. But that’s not the case.
What’s Really Happening?
Counterintuitively, it’s the opposite that is happening. In reality, the heat is going out the window faster than your heater or heat vents are replacing it.
Simply stated, heat transfer is the warmer, more energized and faster vibrating molecules transferring their energy to the cooler, slower moving and less energized adjacent molecules to reach a state of equilibrium.
How Thermal Insulation Can Help
By reducing the rate at which heat flows to cold, the most basic task of thermal insulation, you accomplish things like:
- Reducing the rate at which heat comes into your air conditioned house.
- Reducing the rate at which heat goes out of your heated house into the cold winter night.
- Reducing the amount of heat that comes out of the steam passing through a steam pipe in a factory so there is more heat energy when the steam reaches it’s destination to do its work (boil the vat of soup, brew the vat of beer, power the steam engine, etc.)
- Keeping the heat generated by your body from dissipating into the ocean while surfing or the mountain air while snow skiing so you won’t get cold and tired.
Keeping the planet green and healthy is all about using clean green energy and using that energy as efficiently as possible. Thermal insulation, in its many and varied forms, is a great friend in the journey we are all on to make global warming old news and sustainable living and working the way we all do things.
