For my 750th post here I would like to announce something that was close to my heart since my first article on that topic : aerogel – a fantastic material – is now sold to the general public for insulation purposes.
It is abbsolutely stunning as it is up to eight times more efficient that traditional materials. Three tiny milimeters of this aerogel-based material can literrally insulate your hand from the flame or the ice (cf. video below)
Developped by Aspen Aerogels, Spaceloft and similar materials are due to have a bright future as our needs of insulation materials in buildings are staggering.
Here is a ten-minute video presenting the product :
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Currently, the price is still too expensive to be used massively but I am sure this will change as other companies bring similar products to the markets and as quantities enable decreasing prices. The maerogel developped by Prof. Dr. Halimaton Hamdan could help in that regard.
I personally believe old houses and palaces could seriously benefit from this as they can’t be weatherized with traditional fiberglass. A three-millimeter slim layer of material can be installed in a much more discreet way than ten centimeters of fiberglass.
Aspen Aerogels is currently working on making aerogel completely transparent. If they are succesful we could soon get amazing window insulation.