Every insulation supplier publishes a page explaining why their material wins. This is the other page. If your situation appears below, buy something else. We would rather lose an order than be the reason a project spent more than it needed to.
You have plenty of space and a dry environment
The entire commercial case for aerogel rests on thickness, weight or water carrying a cost. If a pipe rack has room, the plant is indoors and dry, and there is no weight constraint, mineral wool will do the job for a fraction of the price. Buy mineral wool.
You need structural or load-bearing insulation
Aerogel composites are not structural. Rigid boards take moderate compression, but if the insulation is carrying real load, calcium silicate or a purpose-made structural product is the right answer.
Your budget is capital-constrained and the payback is long
If the energy saving alone has to justify the spend, and the operating hours are modest, the payback period on aerogel can be long enough that the project should not proceed. Run the number honestly before specifying. If it does not work, it does not work.
You need very high temperature refractory performance
Above roughly 1000 C you are in refractory territory and should be talking to a refractory supplier. Aerogel can serve as back-up insulation behind a refractory hot face, but it is not a hot face material.
Your contractor cannot or will not follow the installation detail
A thin insulation system is less forgiving of gaps than a thick one, and cold service detailing has to be followed exactly. If installation quality cannot be assured and cannot be supervised, a thicker and more forgiving system may deliver better real-world performance than a better material fitted badly.
Why we publish this
Because the fastest way to lose a customer permanently is to sell them something that does not suit their problem. If you tell us what you are actually trying to achieve, we will tell you honestly whether our material is the right tool, and if it is not we will say so.
