Continuous insulation: what it means and what it fixes
Continuous insulation is insulation uninterrupted by framing across the whole envelope. Codes increasingly require it because cavity insulation alone cannot deliver the performance the model assumed.
The definition codes use
Continuous insulation is insulation that runs without thermal bridges other than fasteners and service openings, across all structural members. The phrase appears in the energy codes precisely because insulation between framing members is not continuous, and the difference between the two is large enough to matter for compliance.
In practice, continuous insulation is usually a layer of rigid board on the outside of the sheathing. That works, but it adds a trade, a fastening problem and a thickness the cladding has to accommodate.
Why passive house makes it the first principle
The five passive house principles begin with a building envelope that employs continuous insulation throughout, without thermal bridging. It is first because every other measure depends on it: an airtight envelope on a bridged wall still loses heat, and high-performance glazing cannot compensate for a wall that leaks heat through its studs.
A panel whose insulating core is continuous by construction satisfies the principle without a separate layer, which is why panelised systems appear in passive projects.
What Guardian publishes
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Guardian states the Shield™ system is the first, and currently the only, panel system in the US certified by the Passive House Institute US.
Source · Products page; PHIUS certificate
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Passive building principle one, as Guardian publishes it: employs continuous insulation throughout its entire envelope without any thermal bridging.
Source · Products page, passive housing principles
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Written by Data Subsystems, for Guardian Structural Technologies. Last updated .
Drafted from Guardian Structural product literature and published building-science sources. Awaiting Guardian technical review. Confirm any figure against the current product documents or ask us before you rely on it in a design.