The 3 most common insulation methods for tilt up concrete construction.
Tilt up concrete wall r value.
The standard r value of ready mix concrete used in the tilt up industry including the air film is 1 49 for an 8 inch wall panel.
But like all concrete systems tilt up offers high thermal mass and airtight construction.
As building codes require greater energy efficiency the thickness of insulation increases.
However insulation can be added easily to any tilt up panel.
The r value of an uninsulated 8 inch thick basement wall built using normal weight concrete is 1 35 based on data from the 1993 american society of heating refrigeration and air conditioning engineers handbook.
As we said before the r value measures the thermal resistance of a material.
However since it s easy to add insulation to any tilt up panel this number can rise substantially.
Walls can range from r values of about 2 for uninsulated panels up to about 32 for walls containing thicker layers of insulation.
Astm c1363 effective r value testing typical physical properties wall assembly description eff.
You will notice in the findings shown in the isothermal analysis that the thermomass wall panel has a material r value of r 11 49.
What s the r value of a tilt up concrete wall the simple answer to the question is solid tilt up concrete panels have very little r value 0 08per inch.
In fact concrete allows energy to flow through it roughly 60x faster than insulation.
For instance if you have a material with an r value of 12 attached to another material with an r value of 3 then both materials combined have an r value of 15.