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" While trucking seven 30-gallon garbage bags of once mouse-infested fiberglass insulation to the local transfer station, it occurred to me that there must be a better way\u2014not of dealing with construction waste, but holding heat. Then it hit me\u2014a thermos bottle. We should be living in thermos bottles, or at least the equivalent: tightly sealed, double-skinned enclosures with no insulation at all\u2014in fact nothing\u2014in fact: a vacuum. I designed the new structure on the way home. It would be spherical, to minimize joints and create an optimum surface area to volume ratio. And, it would have its own pump to remove any stray atmosphere that found its way in. In fact, by the time I got home, I realized that it was just too obvious\u2014someone must have started work on this. Next stop: Google. It turns out that I&amp;#039;m a little late (although my design scheme does seem visionary, if wanting for some significant technological leaps). Vacuum Insulation Panels, or VIPs have been bouncing in and out of labs for years. In fact several manufacturers, including Dow, make panels for various applications including insulation for refrigeration units and packaging. The panels feature a core material (there are a few variations here) that supports a metallic skin and keeps it from collapsing as the air is sucked out. The really cool part (yes, pun intended)? These panels have an R-value of about 30 per inch. Fiberglass runs closer to 2.5 per inch. So, what&amp;#039;s the hold up, I thought.  Well, there are a few kinks. Even the Dow product, called Instill, was expensive at up to $7 per sq. ft. (other custom panels were a lot more). By comparison, a 4 X 8 sheet of extruded polystyrene (R-5) goes for about $11. But the real kicker is product life. It turns out that most materials (glass excepted) are permeable to some extent. Add to that the need for seams in the skin, and, at best, we&amp;#039;re talking a few decades\u201430 years tops. And finally, as you might have guessed, you just can&amp;#039;t cut a VIP to size and nail it in place. Installation can be tricky business. As for residential use? Interestingly, the NAHB Research Center (National Association of Home Builders) studied the problem and offered its findings in &amp;#039;02. About all they could suggest, based on extensive analysis and discussion with industry professionals, was that VIPs might be used for insulating collapsible-stair hatches. And most stair hatch manufacturers weren&amp;#039;t that interested, claiming that the public wasn&amp;#039;t clamoring for the idea. (The report is here.) Dow, too, seems to have cooled on the idea of using VIPs in the home building industry. As far as Internet exposure is concerned, Europe is working on the problem\u2014at least in terms of larger scale building projects. Several papers on the subject, presented at The 7th International Vacuum Insulation Symposium, are available here. Most are technical, but a few illustrate the scope of VIP use in European projects. So, it wasn&amp;#039;t the cure-all insulation idea I first thought. But there is hope. After all, 40 years ago, we took house insulation fairly casually\u2014and we&amp;#039;ve made great strides since. Perhaps 30 years from now, we&amp;#039;ll have the best insulator of all in our walls: nothing.\u2014Tom Klenck "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/how-to/a743/3455301/>