2010 “It’s About Saving Energy” Building Award Winners

Residential Building

Congratulations to LP Building Products

LP Building ProductsinERGY Homes, LLC in Medford, Oregon installed its Continuous EPS Rigid Exterior Insulation, an alternative to conventional insulation used in stick-built homes, in a 1,550 square foot residence on Brookdale Avenue in Medford, Oregon, in September 2009. InERGY Homes’ Continuous EPS Rigid Exterior Insulation system uses steel framing, a 15/32-inch panel of LP TechShield Radiant Barrier Sheathing, and other materials to insulate all the home’s exterior walls and roof.

During the winter, many Oregon homes experience visible frost melt on the roof and walls. This means there is significant heat loss. LP TechShield Radiant Barrier Sheathing effectively blocks 97% of heat transfer – keeping solar heat out in the summer and blocking heated air from escaping in the winter. In a blower door test- one of today’s most effective ways of measuring energy efficiency – the inERGY home on Medford Avenue achieved 2.7 ACH50 or 259% higher efficiency than what’s needed for ENERGY STAR® certification. The home is all electric, and the utility bill for the chilly month of November, 2009 was just $74.

inERGY has installed more than 600 homes using steel framing and LP TechShield Radiant Barrier Sheathing. These homes have not experienced any of the problems typically associated with conventional insulation: sagging, deterioration, or escaped moisture that can cause mold or fungus. In further testing, inERGY Homes using steel frame/radiant barrier technology demonstrated significant energy savings compared to conventional insulation in stick-built homes.

Frame Building

Congratulations to Prodex

In November 2009 Prodex developed, produced and installed reflective curtains and roof insulation in a 3,000 square foot poultry farm in Alajuela, Costa Rica. The first two weeks of a chick are fundamental. It grows best in a stable temperature between 90 F and 100 F. Outside temperatures in Costa Rica are between 58 F and 105 F. It gets cold at night and without insulation all heat gets lost and great amounts of gas have to be spent to heat the space.

Big temperature fluctuation and extreme temperatures stress out the chick and will slow down the growing process. For the client, the only thing that counts is the rate between the size of the chicken after six weeks and the amount of food and energy used. The perfect environment has to be created to achieve the best rate. The chicks as well as the heaters are huge radiation sources. While the client asked for insulating the roof, Prodex went beyond and realized there were great radiation heat losses through the existing wall system. Prodex developed lateral and cross sectional curtains named PADP 5 – a material specially developed for animal production barns. It is resistant to the harmful ammonia gases. It has great mechanical resistance so it can be manipulated as is the cases with the curtains. It can be washed under high pressure and will not deteriorate over time.

The washing of the curtains is four times faster than conventional curtains because of its finish and rigidness. This results in huge water and chemical cleaning savings as well as labor costs. The lateral curtains avoid heat loss to the outside. They can be lifted and pulled down with a simple swing of a crank to cool the barn in case of extreme temperatures. The cross sectional curtains divide the space and assure that the chick does not use more space than necessary when it is small. During the growing process the curtains open and the barn gets bigger. This avoids excessive use of heaters. Prodex measured a reduction of 40% of gas, an increase of 20% of light compared to the case without curtains. The fluctuation in temperature decreased drastically. Those factors decrease the mortality rate and improve the profitability significantly. The whole project was done within four weeks and with great satisfaction of the client.

Honorable Mentions