Thermal conductivity common use in the construction and textile industries. The construction industry makes use of units such as the R-value (resistance) and the U-value (transmittance). Although related to the thermal conductivity of a material used in an insulation product, R- and U-values are dependent on the thickness of the product. Likewise the textile industry has several units including the tog and the clo which express thermal resistance of a material in a way analogous to the R-values used in the construction industry. There are a number of ways to measure thermal conductivity. Each of these is suitable for a limited range
R-value (insulation) if the SI (metric) units are used. An R-value can be given for a material (e.g. for polyethylene foam), or for an assembly of materials (e.g. a wall or a window). In the case of materials, it is often expressed in terms of R-value per unit length (e.g. per inch of thickness). The latter can be misleading in the case of low-density building thermal insulations, for which R-values are not additive: their R-value per inch is not constant as the material gets thicker, but rather usually decreases. The units of an R-value (see ) are usually not explicitly stated, and