Concrete Homes  Greater comfort and security. Lower energy bills. Lower maintenance. A home that's healthier to live in and easier on the environment. That home is made from concrete.
Insulating Concrete Forms (ICFs) provide all the benefits that have made concrete the material of choice for home building worldwide: Solid, lasting construction that resists the ravages of fire, wind, and time.
But ICF's do plain concrete one better – or rather, two better – by offering two built-in layers of foam insulation. This gives an ICF home some sizable advantages over an ordinary stick-built home. The ICF home provides greater energy efficiency, more peace and quiet, and more day-to-day living comfort.
Building a concrete home with insulating concrete forms (ICFs) saves energy and money. The greater insulation, tighter construction and temperature-moderating mass of the walls conserve heating and cooling energy much better than conventional wood-frame walls. This reduces monthly fuel bills. It also allows use of smaller heating and cooling equipment, saving money in construction.
How much will I save? Houses built with ICF exterior walls require an estimated 44% less energy to heat and 32% less energy to cool than comparable frame houses. A typical 2,000 square foot home in the center of the U.S. will save approximately $200 in heating costs each year and $65 in air conditioning each year.
The energy savings estimates are from a study of 58 single-family houses across the US and Canada. Half had exterior walls constructed with concrete using ICFs made of expanded polystyrene (EPS) or extruded polystyrene (XPS) foam. The other half were neighboring houses with wood-frame walls. All houses were less than 6 years old.
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