In an environment that experiences drastically changing temperatures it is potentially more energy efficient to use insulative walls that can change their apparent thermal conductivities. This paper suggests a nano-porous material able to change its thermal conductivity by a factor of 3 varying the pressure upon it from 1 to 100 kPa. Thermal conductivity measurements are made in-situ by an airtight guarded heat flow meter....
This study looks at U-values and heat transfer for houses built in Libya, of which the majority studied were built in the 1970's when the locally produced building materials didn't consist of any insulating materials. Measurements of thermal conductivity of the various building materials were made. Additionally, the researchers developed a theoretical model that could estimate U-values from measured thermal conductivity values. It was determined that U-values were quite high, ...
