Honeywell’s Solstice Liquid Blowing Agent — an ultra low-global-warming-potential foam blowing agent — has been used to help insulate a net-zero energy home project at Purdue University, the company says.
The blowing agent, which causes closed-cell spray foam insulation to expand and provides the majority of the foam’s insulating properties, was used to retrofit a residential home in West Lafayette, Ind. It marked the first application of the new blowing agent in spray foam wall insulation. Solstice LBA is already used to insulate high-efficiency refrigerators.
Whirlpool and Purdue University are transforming the 2,800 square-foot home, built in 1928, into a net-zero energy, water and waste structure that will house a world-class research laboratory. They selected Solstice LBA to increase the home’s energy efficiency.
According to Lapolla Industries, the Houston-based company that manufactured the foam, spray foam systems formulated with Solstice LBA demonstrate about 8 to 10 percent better thermal performance compared to the systems formulated with HFC blowing agents.
Whirlpool announced in January that all its US-based refrigerator manufacturing would use Solstice LBA for insulation by the end of the year.