As a surprise to many people, radiant barriers have been used in residential and commercial buildings since the 1920s.  But the road to acceptance and popularity that radiant barriers experience today was not an easy one.

The first wide-spread use of a radiant barrier can be attributed to Infra Insulation, Inc., a company based out of New York City under the direction of Alexander Schwartz that commercially produced radiant barrier in 1945.

Infra Insulation, Inc.

Infra Insulation marketed an accordion-fold style radiant barrier, named  INFRA, that was highly reflective on both sides and constructed to create dead air spaces within itself when unfolded and stapled into wall cavities and between attic rafters.  The product was marketed as easy to install by anyone who could us a staple gun.  One newspaper advertisement even depicted a woman stapling up the radiant barrier in her attic while wearing a dress!  By the early 1960’s, millions of square feet of radiant barrier had been installed in homes and buildings.

But the success of INFRA radiant barrier wouldn’t last for long.  An unfortunate FTC ruling against the company, coupled with the untimely death of Schwartz, led to the demise of the largest radiant barrier manufacturer of its time.   Unfortunately,  due to lack of  proper marketing and product accessibility, the interests in radiant barriers diminished almost entirely at that time.

NASA Utilizes Reflective Insulation

However, thanks to a few NASA scientists, who recognized the proprieties and benefits of radiant  reflective foil, the interests in reflective insulation in the mid 1950’s. has been on the rise especially on commercial, and aerospace industry.  Clark E. Beck, P.E., of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base engineered the development of radiant barrier for the space program.  NASA was faced with a need to protect astronauts from the extreme temperature shifts while on space walks.   NASA engineers knew it would take almost 7 inches of conventional insulation to protect the astronauts and this was obviously out of the question when designing a spacesuit.  Reflective insulation was the answer to designing a feasible and comfortable spacesuit.  The new NASA spacesuits, utilizing  a radiant barrier, reflected the astronauts body heat back towards them to keep them warm while they also kept 95% of the radiant heat from the sun from reaching the interior of the spacesuit.  The spacesuits were breathable and allowed moisture vapors to escape from the interior keeping the astronauts comfortable while maintaining a constant temperature.

NASA also incorporated radiant barrier in the Gemini and Apollo missions.  The reflective insulation was an integral part of the temperature control system allowing the astronauts to work inside the Command Module comfortably outside of their spacesuits.  Today, radiant barrier is still used on virtually all spacecraft to protect not only the astronauts, but also the valuable instrumentation.

Industry Challenges

With the re-focus on radiant barriers brought on by NASA’s use, many companies began manufacturing a wide-variety of reflective insulation products including those that include bubble layers, single-sided aluminum Kraft paper backed barriers, aluminum faced fiberglass, and even aluminum faced cardboard products.  But growth of the radiant barrier industry was not to come easy.  Entrenched corporate interests in traditional insulation such as fiberglass, blown-in cellulose, and rock wool would prove challenging for the marketing and acceptance of radiant barriers in the marketplace.

Millions of dollars where spent by the traditional insulation companies to educate consumers on a need for “R-Value” rated insulation and since radiant barriers don’t have an R-Value (because they work differently than traditional insulation) consumers were wary of purchasing and using radiant barrier foil insulation.

Benefits of Radiant Barriers Scientifically Supported

Thankfully, radiant barriers continued to gain the interests of architects and engineers who became convinced of their effectiveness and continued specifying their use in their building and design plans.  In addition, various well known testing facilities and research organizations began to conduct their own studies on radiant barriers in order to  quantify the results architect, engineers, and builders where claiming as a result of their use.  The Department of Energy (DOE), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC), and Texas A&M  University (TAM), along with others, have now proven the benefits radiant barriers provide.

Radiant Barrier Acceptance

Although radiant barriers have been around for longer than most imagined, the road to recent notoriety and success did not come easy.  But with the determination of energy-efficiency focused engineers, architects, and builders, scientifically supported benefits of radiant barrier have become widely available and accepted by governmental agencies like ENERGY STAR®, builders, and consumers alike as a cost effective way to permanently reduce utility bills and increase the comfort of homes and buildings.