For several months now, I have been getting a fair number of telephone calls from product manufacturers that want to tell me all about their new continuous insulation products. I gather from this that folks are paying attention to the new(ish) energy code requirements related to the building envelope. The majority of the callers are offering solutions that involve foam plastic insulation, so the showstopper question I always ask is “Have you got your NFPA 285 testing done?” The answers have included: “NF Pee ay two ayyy—what?” and “We don’t have to worry about that until 2015!” and “No but we’re thinking about it!” I have also received a couple of “Yes” answers but even these have turned out to be “sorta yes” (more on that later).
A short refresher course on the subject will be helpful in understanding the issue. In most climate zones in the U.S., energy codes require exterior building envelope assemblies made of steel studs to be thermally isolated with continuous insulation to eliminate thermal bridging. Although the requirement has been in existence for several years now, it is a practice relatively new to the industry, following in the footsteps of slow adoption of national energy codes and standards.