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CORNERSTONE GREEN BUILDING TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

SIPs are high-performance building panels for floors, walls and roofs in residential and commercial buildings. Each panel is typically made using expanded polystyrene (EPS), or polyisocyanurate rigid foam insulation sandwiched between two structural skins of oriented strand board (OSB), but other surfaces are also available to meet your needs. The result is a building system that is very strong, predictable, energy efficient, and cost effective.

Are Structural Insulated Panels More Expensive?

Building with SIPs may cost about the same as building with wood frame construction, when you factor in the labor savings resulting from shorter construction time and less job-site waste. Other savings are realized because less expensive heating and cooling systems are required with SIP construction. Depending on your location and plan design, SIPS may cost slightly more than quality stick construction (you can build a "cheap" stick house). The following illustration reflects an example of savings from building a SIPS home.

	Non-SIPS Home	SIPS HOME
Purchase Price	$250,000		$253,000
Down Payment	$50,000		$50,600
Loan Amount	$200,000		$202,400
Interest	5.50%		5.50%
Monthly Payment	$1,136		$1,149
Average Monthly Utility	$150		$60
Total Expenses	$1,289		$1,209
Monthly Savings	$0		$77

In addition, there is a $2,000.00 federal tax credit and some states including Oklahoma have an additional $2,000.00 to $4,000.00 tax credit available for building to specified energy efficient standards. http://www.natresnet.org/

SIPs Homes OutPerform Traditional "Stick Built"

SIP buildings are vastly more energy efficient, stronger, quieter, and more draft free than other building systems, such as stud framing with fiberglass insulation. Fiberglass is sometimes used for furnace filters because air moves through so freely. Rigid insulation is used as solid component insulation in almost every industry for its inherent efficiency and lack of air movement. These attributes are built right into a SIP building. Less air leakage means fewer drafts, less noise, lower energy bills, and a much more comfortable indoor environment.

SIPs Outperform Stick & Batt (Oak Ridge National Labs R-Value Test)

When someone says "R-value", what they're really talking about is resistance to heat flow in a given medium, such as fiberglass insulation. The higher the number, the greater the resistance. So when a builder is asked "What's the R-value of this wall?", the natural inclination is to think of the material that most commonly specifies its rating. More often than not, it's the insulation, and the response is something along the lines of "Oh, that wall has an R-value of 24" - fairly impressive, but also strikingly inaccurate.

It's not that the builder is intentionally misleading his client or associate, but that he's just following common practice. In reality, this reasoning doesn't take into account all the other components that go into making a wall: wood or steel studs every 16" or 24", bracing, nails or screws, wiring and switch boxes - any number of things that are not insulation, and in all likelihood, have R-values that fall well short of the stated R-24.

A new study by the Oak Ridge National Labs (ORNL) proves that a 4-inch SIP wall outperforms 2"x4" stick and batt construction, and even edges out 2"x6" construction in terms of thermal performance. Because SIPs are the structural elements, there are no studs or braces to cause breaks in the insulative action. The end result is a more comfortable, energy efficient structure that performs up to spec in real-world conditions. Unlike stick and batt construction, which can be subject to poorly installed - even missing - insulation, the nature of SIPs is such that the structural and insulative elements are joined as one. There are no hidden gaps, because a solid layer of foam insulation is integral to panel construction.

By contrast, state-of-the-art technical analysis of whole wall performance indicates that the losses in a stud wall are much greater than you might think: on average, the other standard components in stick and batt construction can reduce R-values in as much as 30% of the wall area. Fortunately, that's not the case with structural insulated panels. The ORNL study found that SIPs perform at approximately 97% of their stated R-value overall, losing only 3% to nail holes, seams, splines, and the like. Wiring chases are precut or preformed into the foam core, providing a continuous layer of insulation keeping the elements at bay and the interior free of drafts and cold spots.

A SIP wall also outperforms stick and batt when it comes to maintaining consistent interior temperatures, and that translates to improved occupant comfort. As shown in the graph below, the interior surface temperature of frame construction drops precipitously at every stud, while the SIP wall remains consistent across its entire surface. No temperature dips mean improved occupant comfort, regardless of where you are in the room. That's a big part of what people are talking about when they say they can immediately "feel the difference" in a SIP-built residential or commercial space. With SIPs, thermal efficiency and comfort are built in at the factory, and now the lab results prove it.

Interior surface temperature comparisons indicating constant temperature for SIP wall and reductions in temperature at stud locations for 2"x 4' and 2" x 6" wood frame walls (ORNL).