How Heat Moves Through Homes — Building Science Podcast Space-
age radiant barriers work great in the vacuum of outer space,
but here on Earth, heat moves by conduction, convection, and
radiation, simultaneously, all the time. In our last episode,
Dr. Joe Lstiburek talked about efflorescence and the serious
damage that water and salt can do to masonry. This week, Dr.
John Straube explains how the three forms of heat flow work, and
debunks the claims of a few common insulating materials. Comfort
is the Primary Purpose of Buildings So, I actually call this
“thermal control, insulation, and thermal bridges,” because
thermal bridges are important. Let’s go back again and say, “Why
do I want to control the heat flow?” Well, there are a whole
bunch of reasons, but we often forget that the No. 1 reason we
want to insulate is for thermal comfort. So, we want to make
sure that exterior walls, roofs and floor slabs — that the
temperature of these components stays above 68° in the
wintertime and below 78° in summertime.