R-value (insulation) typical straw bale houses have very thick walls and thus are well insulated. Snow is roughly R-1 per inch. Brick has a very poor insulating ability at a mere R-0.2 per inch; however it does have a relatively good thermal mass. Note that the above examples all use the U.S. (non-SI) definition for R-value. When determining the overall thermal resistance of a building assembly such as a wall or roof, the insulating effect of the surface air film is added to the thermal resistance of the other materials. In practice the above surface values are used for floors, ceilings, and
R-value (insulation) Especially in older or historic buildings the R-values defined before construction might be very different than the actual values. This greatly affects energy efficiency analysis. To obtain reliable data, R-values are therefore often determined via U-value measurements at the specific location (in situ). There are several potential methods to this, each with their specific trade-offs: thermography, multiple temperature measurements, and the heat flux method. Thermography is applied in the building sector to assess the quality of the thermal insulation of a room or building. By means of a thermographic camera thermal bridges and inhomogeneous insulation parts can be identified. However,