View Single Post
  #8   Report Post  
Posted to alt.solar.thermal,alt.home.repair
 
Posts: n/a
Default polyiso vs styrofoam

Dennis wrote:

If you can read usenet posts, you can probably post yourself...
Might be worth learning how.


OK. Looks like I got it figured out.


Congratulations!

Now as far as window insulation goes, what about packing peanuts
between the panes?


Sounds rather permanent. The Zomeworks Beadwall system moved small
styrofoam beads into and out of a window cavity with a vacuum cleaner.
It worked well, but the beads required lots of storage space and they
wouldn't flow well through fittings, so each window cavity required
a separate store and vacuum cleaner. And the multiple vacs required
an electrical sequencer to avoid blowing fuses.

"Replacement foam insulation" (filling the space between two glazings
with soap bubble foam at night) seems more practical. It's being applied
to greenhouses now. In one system, a shop vac pushes air through a 100'x2"
pipe with some holes in a 10% detergent solution near the ground, making
bubbles rise to the top of a 100' long quonset-shaped greenhouse. When
the bubbles reach the top, the vac automatically turns off until they
recede, then starts again for a few seconds every hour or so to replenish
them during the night. The bubble system turns off at dawn and a small
blower inflates the space between the 2 plastic glazings with air.

Nick