Development of a high-performance thermal insulation (thermal resistance or R-value per inch of R-12 h x ft² x °F/Btu x in. orgreater), with twice the thermal resistance of state-of-the-art commercial insulation materials (less than or equal to R6/inch for foam insulation),promises a transformational impact in the area of building insulation. In 2010 in the United States, the building envelope-relatedprimary energy consumption was 15.6 quads, of which 5.75 quads were because of opaque wall and roof sections; the total U.S.consumption (building, industrial and transportation) was 98 quadrillion Btus (98 quads). In other words, the wall and roof contributionwas almost 6% of the entire United States primary energy consumption.

Building energy modeling analyses have shown that adding insulation to increase the R-value of the external walls of residentialbuildings by R10-20 (h x ft²·°F/Btu) can yield savings of 38% to 50% in wall-generated heating and cooling loads.Adding R20 will require substantial thicknesses of current commercial insulation materials, often requiring significant (andsometimes cost prohibitive) alterations to existing buildings. This article describes the development of a next-generation compositeinsulation with a target thermal resistance of R25 for a 2 in. thick board (R12/in. or higher). The composite insulation willcontain vacuum insulation cores, which are nominally R35-40/in., encapsulated in polyisocyanurate (PIR) foam. A recently developedvariant of vacuum insulation, called modified atmosphere insulation (MAI), was used in this research. Some backgroundinformation on the thermal performance and distinguishing features of MAI has been provided. Technical details of the compositeinsulation development and manufacturing as well as laboratory evaluation of prototype insulation boards are presented.