Have you ever wondered how exactly insulation works? Sure, it keeps stuff cooler when it's warm and warmer when it's cold, but why? Read on to find out how exactly the insulation in our dog houses works.
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| Our newest palace design, the Colossal Round Barn. |
How insulation works
To understand insulation, you must first understand heat flow. Heat flow occurs in three main ways: conduction, which is how heat moves through materials (like when you touch a cast iron skillet that's been on the stove for awhile); convection, or the way heat circulates through liquids and gases (like when you're boiling water, and the water on the bottom of the pan closest to the heat source gets warm, so it rises, and is replaced with the cooler water from the top, and the cycle goes on); and radiation, where the source heats anything in its path that absorbs energy (like when you warm your hands over a fire).
Common insulation materials often focus on slowing conductive heat flow, and to a lesser extent, convective. Heat always moves from warmer to cooler until everything is the same temperature. In our dog houses, this means that when it's cold outside, the heat from your dog's body or from your heating system will escape to the outdoors without proper insulation to keep the heat inside. When it's hot outside, the heat wants to flow into the house from the outside. Since our houses are insulated, however, the transfer of heat in and out of the house is slowed down vastly.
Insulation in a doghouse
To prove the value of an insulated doghouse, we conducted some tests. We manufactured a regular Dog Palace with insulation and made a special one without insulation. We used a 100-watt lightbulb to stand in for the body heat of a dog, to keep it consistent, and put it in both houses. We measured the temperature inside each house at five different outdoor temperatures, and this is what we found:
Essentially, at an outside temperature of 40 degrees Fahrenheit, the insulated Dog Palace was 70 degrees inside while the Dog Palace without insulation was 45 degrees. When the outside temperature was 0 degrees, the house with insulation was 30 degrees and the house without insulation was 4 degrees. The insulation makes a big difference. (Note: Please don't try to use a lightbulb to heat the house, this was only done as an experiment to represent the body heat of a dog in a consistent way.)
Insulation in different seasons
For those concerned about the house being too warm in the summer, there's no need to worry. If it's 70 degrees outside, it won't be 100 degrees inside the doghouse. The outside air will warm the house no matter what, but insulation slows down the transfer of heat from outside to inside the house. As the outer layer warms up, conduction will transfer the heat through to the inner layers. To slow this process down, we insulated our houses with EPS foam, which has a low thermal conductivity. That means that it doesn't transfer heat well, so it's harder for the heat to get inside the house, thereby slowing down the conduction process. The air in the doghouse can stay cool and comfortable, shaded from the bright sunlight, and your canine companion can rest in comfort.
Insulation also works in your dog's favor when it's cold outside: your dog's body heat will want to escape from the house, but the insulation keeps it trapped in the house, keeping the air inside the house warmer than the air outside the house. The house provides shelter to keep your dog comfortable and out of the wind, and the insulation keeps the cold air out.
Final thoughts
It's important to keep in mind that perfect insulation is essentially impossible in most settings, and if the house was 100% airtight, your dog would run out of oxygen. Not to mention that dogs can go in and out of their outdoor houses at will, so the flap opens and warm/cool air escapes and cool/warm air replaces it whenever this occurs. Luckily, our
Palace Central Heater has a thermostat to detect temperature changes and will kick on when it notices that the temperature is below the preset degree. Our
Solar Breeze Exhaust Fan runs continually unless out of the sun or disconnected from the solar panel, so that with the added bonus of ventilation through the windows will help keep your pup from overheating in warm weather.
If this didn't answer your question, please feel free to contact us through our form
here!
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Hank loves his Dog Palace it's cozy and warm and sometimes he doesn't want to come out in the winter! |
Written by Skye Isabella Rose Iwanski
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