The Design-Build Process of a Modular Home Using Structural Insulated Panels

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If you are looking for a good quality, super-insulated and super-strong house, a Photo courtesy of EcoStructures, Maidville, WV modular home using structural insulated panels (or “SIPs”) may be the right choice for you. There are two very important benefits. The first is the insulation factor. A SIP home is two to three times better insulated than a traditionally built modular home because the walls are made of solid foam sandwiched between two layers of oriented strand board (or “OSB”), which makes it airtight. A modular home is basically a stick-built home with fiberglass batt insulation that allows warm air to escape in the winter and cool air to escape in the summer. The reverse also happens: Unwanted warm air gets into the home in the summer and cool air gets into the home in the winter, throwing costly heating and cooling costs out the door. The second benefit of a SIP wall system is that it is three to five times stronger than a traditional modular home’s wall system due to its design.  The History of Structural Insulated Panels Photo courtesy of Details Homes of Architectural Distinction, LLC, McLellan, CA 9565 Homes constructed of structural insulated panels are only about 10 years old. In 2000, then-U.S. Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson announced that the first all-energy-efficient foam SIP-manufactured home was built by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in partnership with Champion Enterprises, Precision Panel Structures, Premier Building Systems and other partners. It was constructed to lower heating and cooling costs up to 50 percent compared to a manufactured home built to the minimum housing code. When construction was completed in the manufactured housing factory, the structural insulted boxes were put on trailers and underwent a 300-mile trip to where they were to be set. This “road test” turned out to be a great indicator of the house’s structural performance. There were very few cracks in the gypsum board finish materials used on the walls and ceiling. Cracks are very common in traditionally framed modular homes.  So, during the “button-up” (putting on the final interior and exterior “dressings”) of this SIP modular home, there was very little patch work of the cracks, meant less work to do and less money to pay a contractor.  The University of Virginia’s School of Architecture is just one institution that is looking at alternatives to traditional stick-built houses. It offers a research and design/build/evaluation project called the ecoMOD, which aims to create ecological, modular and affordable house prototypes. In 2004, the students

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