What Are SIPs?
SIPs are Structural Insulated Panels. Structural Insulated
Panels are panels that are normally formed by two sheets of
7/16" OSB with an Expanded Polystyrene [EPS] core. The
OSB is glued and pressed to the EPS core to form a 4'0" x
8'0" panel that has structural properties allowing it to be a
bearing member [e.g., to hold the roof, second story of a house,
etc.].
PDF
Explaining More About SIPs
What Will SIPs Doe for Me?
SIPs are a flexible building
material - they can be used in many ways.
Because SIPs are structural, you have less bearing requirement for
the headers of doors and windows placed within a SIP panel. If
you want to add a window or a door, it is just a few cuts
away. SIPs can also be used not only for walls, but also floors
and roofs.
Besides the many uses of a SIP panel is the fact that SIPs, due
to the EPS core, are pre-insulated. For most projects, having
the walls and roof pre-insulated will save time and money.
Moreover, with SIPs insulation, you are actually getting more
insulation value than the same type of framed walls. Overall,
you are getting a great value.
Energy Efficiency Studies from around the country have
proved it time after time. SIP panels consistently outperform
traditional framed walls with fiberglass insulation with the same
R-Value rating. Some believe that this is caused because SIPs
do not have any void space in them allowing for air currents,
humidity and other environmental factors. Regardless of the
cause, the answer is clear, a structure built from SIPs will be more
energy cost efficient than the same structure built from
conventional framing with fiberglass insulation.
Learn
More About Heat Transfer
We have assembled a collection of different links of information
about this topic [see list].
However, the simplest, and perhaps best, source of information is
from Colorado Energy. Their R-Value
Information table highlights R-Values for many different
materials including Expanded Polystyrene and Fiberglass.
Building Green
SIPs are considered a
'Green' building product primarily for two reasons. First is
the above mentioned impact on energy consumption. The better
built your house, or cabin, the better the insulation, the less
energy consumed - everybody wins. The second reason gets into
the details of the lumber industry. As many of us have heard,
it is considered environmentally unfriendly to cut old growth trees
- for obvious reasons - you just can't grow a large tree
overnight. The OSB used in the wood panels of SIPs come from
quick growth, young trees that are often on tree farms and not in
the forest.
High Quality
SIPs are assembled - not
manufactured in the proper sense. In being assembled, this
means that components parts manufactured by others are brought
together in an unique way to form the final product - a SIP
panel. Specifically, the OSB is manufactuerd to exacting
standards, the EPS foam core is manufactured to exacting standards
and the binding agent is also manufactured to exacting
standards. The SIP panels are assembled by placing the
component parts into a jig to assure the panels are squared [fit
exactly] and are pressed for a certain amount of time to assure
adequate bonding. The key elements of SIP assembly are the jig
and constant pressure at a specific level of pressure. As
such, the creation of SIPs starts with high quality and ends with
high quality.
Go
to List of PDF Files on Each Component of SIPs
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