23/05/2022
BENEFITS OF LIVING IN AN ICF HOME
Jul 14, 2020 | Disaster Resistance, Energy Efficiency, Featured Stories, ICF Costs, Why ICFs?

When the heat or A/C goes out, ICF homes will maintain steady room temperature far longer than any other wall assembly.
Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs) are gaining popularity as a home building material, and as demand for high-performance homes increases, so does interest in ICFs.
They offer a host of benefits, such as lower energy bills, faster construction times, decreased maintenance and quieter interiors, but the primary reasons behind their growing popularity is their remarkable energy efficiency and strength.
There’s no need to compromise on aesthetics, either. Architects can design an ICF home to look just like a wood-frame house and still take advantage of all the added benefits of building with concrete. The floor plan can match virtually any style, and ICFs are compatible with all popular interior and exterior finishes.
The key to all of this is the remarkable combination of foam and concrete. Regardless of the brand of ICF chosen, all consist of two rigid EPS foam panels which sandwich a core of reinforced concrete. The concrete provides exceptional strength and thermal mass; the foam provides a continuous layer of high performance insulation, and doubles as an ideal substrate for many finishes.
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Let’s talk about energy efficiency first.

Efficiency experts use a blower-door test to determine how drafty a house is, measured in air changes per hour (ACH).
For many years, ICF experts talked about “performance R-Value.” These figures were impossible to verify, and the term has thankfully disappeared. But the concept remains true: The actual energy performance of an ICF wall far exceeds its nominal insulation value, both in the lab and in the real world. This is due to a combination of three factors: More insulation, less air infiltration,
