Twenty-Five Years of Polyiso

Transcription

1 Twenty-Five Years of Polyiso The Energy and Environmental Contribution of the Polyiso Insulation Industry: Prepared for the Polyisocyanurate Insulation Manufacturers Association TEGNOS Research, Inc. April 17, 2012

2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This study was commissioned by the Polyisocyanurate Insulation Manufacturers Association (PIMA) on the twenty-fifth anniversary of its founding. The mission of the study is to analyze and quantify the energy and environmental contribution of polyisocyanurate ( polyiso ) board insulation over that 25 year period based on historic shipments from polyiso manufacturers and state-of-the-art energy modeling techniques. The study first identified that the total square footage of polyiso insulation produced and sold from 1987 through 2011 amounted to more than 50 billion square feet of insulation boards at an average 2 thickness. This is the equivalent of nearly 1800 square miles of surface area, or enough polyiso insulation to cover the entire land area of the state of Delaware. Based on the estimated square footage of polyiso insulation manufactured over the twenty-five year period, the study calculated that this quantity of polyiso insulation when compared to typical insulation materials previously used in commercial roof construction saves over 700 Trillion BTU in building heating and cooling energy on an annual basis. In addition, the study calculated that cumulative savings over a typical twenty-year roof system service life will be in excess of 14,000 Trillion BTU. Finally, the study calculated the equivalent reduction in global Carbon or CO 2 provided by this quantity of polyiso to be in excess of 4 million metric tons annually, with cumulative CO 2 reduction in excess of 80 million metric tons over the service life of the product.

3 INTRODUCTION Polyiso Insulation. Polyiso is a closed-cell, rigid foam board insulation consisting of a polyisocyanurate foam core sandwiched between two facers. The facers are composed of various organic and inorganic materials, typically paper, fiberglass and aluminum foil. It is used in both residential and commercial markets for a wide variety of roof and side wall applications. Over the past twenty-five years, the polyiso has been used predominantly in commercial roof applications, with a long-standing market share exceeding 70% of the nonresidential roofing market in North America. However, recent advances in building energy codes are increasing polyiso market penetration in both residential and nonresidential wall applications. Polyiso is the most thermally efficient rigid board insulation available in the marketplace; offering the highest R-value per inch of thickness. The foam core of polyiso is moisture-resistant and it provides excellent dimensional stability. Compared to other figid foam insulation products, polyiso offers superior performance in fire tests, meeting the standards of both FM and UL for internal fire resistance. As a result of industry advancements in blowing agents, polyiso is manufactured with zero ozone depletion potential (ODP), helping to preserve the earth s vital ozone layer. In addition, current blowing agents have near-zero global warming potential (GWP), leading to formal recognition by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for polyiso s responsible impact on the environment. PIMA. The Polyisocyanurate Insulation Manufacturers Association (PIMA) is the national trade association that represents polyiso insulation manufacturers and suppliers to the polyiso industry. PIMA advances the use of polyiso insulation and is one of the nation s foremost industry advocates for energyefficient practices and policies and had been recognized by both the Evironmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Sustainable Building Industries Council for advocacy and products that both contribute to this country s efforts to promote energy efficiency and combat global warming. STUDY OBJECTIVE The objective of the study was to is to analyze and quantify the energy and environmental contribution of polyisocyanurate ( polyiso ) board insulation over period from 1987 through 2011 based on an estimate of total shipments from polyiso manufacturers and state-of-the art energy modeling techniques. METHODOLOGY Calculation of Historic Polyiso Shipments Starting in 1998, PIMA began collecting and compiling annual product shipments by its membership. Because PIMA members account for the overwhelming majority of polyiso manufactured and shipped within the United States, these annual shipment figures provide a reasonable baseline for annual polyiso use between 1998 and These annual PIMA shipments may also be compared against overall roofing industry market reports available from the National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA) and other sources to accurately model annual polyiso shipments for the years from 1987 to Using the

4 combination of actual polyiso shipments from 1998 to 2011 and estimated polyiso shipments from 1987 to 1997, a twenty-five year estimate of shipments was developed, as shown in Table 1. Table 1: Estimated U. S. Polyiso Shipments (Billions of Board Feet) Year BBF TOTAL Conversion of Polyiso Shipments to Effective Surface Area Because PIMA industry shipment records have been maintained using a volume measure (board foot), it would be useful to convert this volume measure into a relevant surface area measure that would best represent the actual usage of polyiso on rooftops over the twenty-five year period. Based on discussions with industry sources, it was determined that an average 2 thickness for polyiso roof insulation would be reasonable over the study period. Because a board foot is based on a volume of material 1inch thick by 1 foot wide by 1 foot long, the 100 billion board feet estimated in this study would be the equivalent of 50 billion square feet at a 2 average thickness. To provide additonal context for this estimated roof surface area covered by polyiso during the past twenty-five years, this would equal a unifiorm coverage of 1790 square miles, which would be: Sufficient to cover the total land area of the State of Delaware at a 2 thickness. Sufficient to cover the District of Columbia five feet deep.

5 Conversion into Net Energy Savings In order to evaluate the net energy contribution of polyiso over the study period, it is first necessary to distribute the total shipments throughout the various climate regions in the United States. Current U.S. building codes and standards identify seven (7) climate zones, but there is significant variability within these zones. In an effort to mitigate the effects of this variability, the current study further divided these climate zones into seventeen (17) regions as shown in Table 2. In addition, total polyiso square feet was distributed among these seventeen climate regions based on population derived from 2010 U.S. Census data. Table 2: Estimated Polyiso Shipments by U.S. Region: (Billions of Square Feet) Region Model Percent Roofing Region City U.S. Pop. Share (States) (B ft 2 ) MA,CT, VT, NH, ME, RI Boston 5% 2.50 NY, NJ New York City 9% 4.50 PA, DE Harrisburg 6% 3.00 MD,VA, DE, DC Baltimore 6% 3.00 OH, IN Columbus 6% 3.00 MI, WI Milwaukee 5% 2.50 IL Chicago 5% 2.50 NC, SC Charlotte 6% 3.00 GA, AL, MS Birmingham 6% 3.00 AR,OK,LA,TX Ft. Worth 11% 5.50 IA, NE, KS, MO Kansas City 4% 2.00 MN, ND, SD Minneapolis 2% 1.00 CO, NM, WY, UT Co Springs 3% 1.50 AZ, NV Phoenix 4% 2.00 WA, OR, ID, MT Portland 4% 2.00 CA Los Angeles 12% 6.00 FL Orlando 6% 3.00 TOTAL 100% As shown in Table 2, a model city was selected for each climate region that could be used for roofrelated energy calculations. In order to provide a reasonable evaluation of the relative contribution of polyiso versus other available insulations over the twenty-five year period, the average thickness of 2 polyiso (R = 12.1) was compared to an identical thickness of perlite or wood fiber (R = 5.6), which were commonly-used roof insulation materials prior to the introduction of polyiso. Roof-related heating and cooling energy demands were calculated for a typical one-story building located in each model city using the National Roofing Contractors Association EnergyWise online calculator. Overall savings were calculated in total BTUs for the allocated polyiso roofing square footage assigned to each climate region. Annual savings for the 50 billion square feer of roofing polyiso studied are illustrated in Table 3. In addition, Table 3 provides a calculation for total energy savings over a typical service life of twenty years for the polyiso insulation. (Studies of roofing service life suggest that a 17 to 20 year service life was typical for roofing systems during the 25-year study period.)

6 Table 3: Roof-Related Energy Savings (Trillions of BTUs) Region Annual 20-Year Model Roofing Energy Energy Region City Share Savings Savings (States) (B ft 2 ) (TBTU) (TBTU) MA,CT, VT, NH, ME, RI Boston NY, NJ New York City ,647 PA, DE Harrisburg ,327 MD,VA, DE, DC Baltimore ,108 OH, IN Columbus ,257 MI, WI Milwaukee ,143 IL Chicago NC, SC Charlotte GA, AL, MS Birmingham ,002 AR,OK,LA,TX Ft. Worth IA, NE, KS, MO Kansas City MN, ND, SD Minneapolis CO, NM, WY, UT Co Springs AZ, NV Phoenix WA, OR, ID, MT Portland CA Los Angeles FL Orlando TOTAL ,547 Conversion into Net Carbon Reduction The net energy savings shown in Table 3 were further refined into CO 2 equivalents using typical BTU CO 2 equivalents for natural gas for building heating and for current average U.S. source energy for electrical cooling. Total net carbon reductions are shown in Table 4. Table 4: Roof-Related Carbon Reduction (Metric Tons of CO 2 ) Region Annual 20-Year Model Roofing Carbon Carbon Region City Share Savings Savings (States) (B ft 2 ) (Metric Tons) (Metric Tons) MA,CT, VT, NH, ME, RI Boston ,856 3,837,123 NY, NJ New York City ,587 9,251,731 PA, DE Harrisburg ,847 7,456,932 MD,VA, DE, DC Baltimore ,351 6,227,017 OH, IN Columbus ,053 7,061,060 MI, WI Milwaukee ,092 6,421,843 IL Chicago ,192 5,543,848 NC, SC Charlotte ,438 4,828,765 GA, AL, MS Birmingham ,348 5,626,962 AR,OK,LA,TX Ft. Worth ,483 5,049,664 IA, NE, KS, MO Kansas City ,191 4,763,823 MN, ND, SD Minneapolis ,658 2,413,169 CO, NM, WY, UT Co Springs ,107 2,742,142 AZ, NV Phoenix ,767 1,555,342 WA, OR, ID, MT Portland ,588 4,051,751 CA Los Angeles ,729 3,234,571 FL Orlando ,076 1,661,527 TOTAL ,086,363 81,727,269