NRG Block Architectural Products Magazine

2022 Product Innovation Award Winner

The judge's comment:

"A nice option for highly sustainable projects." (12/15/2022)

NRG Block or Other Insulated Block?

Don't let this happen to you:

An architect specified another insulated block and NRG block as an alternate on a project with 75,000 sq ft of wall. The other insulated block (top left and top right pictures) would deliver over 150,000 thermal bridges (two bridges per block) on the project. NRG (bottom left and bottom right pictures) on the same project would deliver zero thermal bridges. That's an enormous difference. The problem? When masons bid on two alternate materials, they just bid the lowest price material, not the most valuable. In this case, the mason bid the other block, which was about a dollar less than NRG. Yet, NRG would provide more payback to the building owner over the life of the building. Question: Did the owner know this? The end result? 150,000 spots where money and energy are wasted, instead of zero. The owner loses, and the environment loses, for the life of the building. Solution: Architects and engineers can educate owners and developers. Protect the NRG spec with the words: "continuously insulated concrete block with zero thermal bridges".
PLEASE, Follow the science: According to the US office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy website: “Note that even though filling the block cavities and special block designs improve a block wall's thermal characteristics, it doesn't reduce heat movement very much when compared to insulation installed over the surface of the blocks either on the exterior or interior of the foundation walls. Field studies and computer simulations have shown that core-filling of any type offers little fuel savings since the majority of heat is conducted through the solid parts of the walls such as block webs and mortar joints.”
NRG 8 (left) holds energy (money) in the building. Other insulated block (right) allows energy (money) to cross the thermal bridges.