Read Part One Here

After Schwartz’s death and the demise of Infra Insulation Inc, corporate interests in a range of traditional insulation products like fiberglass, cellulose, Styrofoam, and rock wool challenged the growth of the radiant barrier industry. The increasing popularity of radiant barriers posed a high competitive threat to their products. Through lobbying and industry association campaigns, they tried to obstruct the development or acceptance of radiant barriers in the marketplace.

The traditional mass insulation industry spent millions of dollars in marketing campaigns and consumer education to convince the public that an R-Value rated insulation product was what they needed. These products absorb or slow down convective (the transfer of heat in fluids, such as rising heated air, steam, and moisture) and conductive (the transfer of heat flowing through a substance ‘molecular motion’ or to another touching substance), heat transfers to insulate, but they do not block heat. In time, 100% of the heat absorbed eventually transfers through the insulation. The rate in which this heat eventually transfers through an insulation material is the material’s R-Value. Since radiant barriers do not meet these criteria because they work differently than traditional insulation, consumers were discouraged from purchasing and using reflective radiant barrier insulation products.

However, consumer confidence in radiant barriers grew as word started to spread in the insulation industry of the benefits of radiant barrier products. Several well-known testing facilities and research organizations, as well as The Department of Energy, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, The Florida Solar Energy Center, and Texas A&M University, conducted their own studies to calculate and prove the substantial benefits that radiant barriers provide, and radiant barrier technology gained the confidence and support of architects and engineers.

Since the Gemini and Apollo missions, NASA has been using radiant barrier insulation as the key element of the environment control system that has enabled astronauts to work inside the Command Module without having to wear bulky space suits. During the decades following these missions, the space program on practically all spacecraft, including unmanned missions for instruments requiring thermal protection, has used radiant barrier.

For the past three decades, NASA’s radiant barrier technology has been public domain. Besides its use in space blankets and numerous other applications, reflective insulation is now commonly used for energy-saving home insulation, awnings and canopies, agricultural insulation, automotive insulation, and the protective wear that is used by firefighters.

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