Tech Blocks are manufactured using a safe, clean, non-toxic, non-polluting process, and the blocks are environmentally friendly in 3 ways:

• The main ingredient of the blocks, polystyrene foam beads, takes decades to degrade when buried. We use polystyrene that is a waste by-product from the manufacture of other products. By recycling this material, we help to save valuable landfill space. 
• The 47.5 R-value of Tech Block will help to reduce heating and cooling costs for the life of the structure.
• The use of our wall system in lieu of the most common method of wall construction in use today - wood studs - will save trees.

North Americans have been building homes with wood for over 200 years. This dependence on wood has reduced our national heritage of forests to 7% of the original stock. Today, the dwindling supply has resulted in increased costs of construction and decreased quality of materials. The current proliferation of alternate wall systems is the response to this alarming situation.

The Tech Block R-value of 47.5 is considerably higher than that of a traditional wood-frame wall. We recognize that the insulative qualities of an exterior wall should take into consideration criteria that are not normally included in R-value, but as a basic measuring tool it is the best currently available.

Essentially, R-value is based on the insulating qualities of wood. An R-factor of 1 is equal to the resistance to heat transfer in 1" of dry pine wood. In the real world, things like design, altitude, latitude, wind exposure, and orientation to the sun will have a greater impact on the comfort level and energy usage of a home than a few units difference in R-factor. In the case of exterior walls specifically, the number, size and construction of the doors and windows and the general 'tightness' of construction will have a large effect on a home's livability. R-value does not take these points into account.

Heat moves through building materials in three ways: conduction , which is heat moving through a material, convection , which is heat carried by air, and radiation , which is heat carried by light. These are simplified definitions, but useful in understanding thermal transference. Exterior walls transfer heat in each of these ways to varying degrees, and the influence of each changes as environmental conditions change (high wind, cloud cover, etc.).

Tech Block resists the radiation of heat and they also greatly inhibit heat conduction and convection. This is because polystyrene is a poor conductor of heat and the air trapped inside the polystyrene beads cannot move freely to support convection.

Expanded polystyrene has an R-factor of about 4.2 per inch. When comparing wall systems that use polystyrene as the primary insulator, such as ICFs, one can estimate the R-value of the walls by measuring the thickness of the polystyrene and multiplying by 4.2. Concrete is a poor insulator and can be ignored. Using this method of calculation, it becomes evident that few, if any, wall systems, except Tech Block, achieve an R-factor greater than 20, no matter what the manufacturers may claim.