2025 Jobsite Truth: How 3-10mm Aerogel Blanket Actually Blocks Heat (No Theory, Just My Tape Measure)

Everyone keeps throwing around “Knudsen effect” and “phonon scattering” like it’s magic.

I don’t care about the names.

I care that when I stick 10mm of aerogel blanket on a surface, the other side stays cool enough to touch even when this side is glowing red.

Here’s what actually happens on my jobsites in 2025.

1. Melbourne, January 2025 – 43°C rooftop steel deck Bare Colorbond hit 78°C surface temp. We rolled out 10mm aerogel blanket + white membrane. Surface temp dropped to 34°C. The guys could walk barefoot on it five minutes after install. That’s the nanomaze doing its job.
2. Shanghai, March 2025 – EV battery pack thermal runaway test cell Client needed to contain 900°C flame for 15 minutes. We wrapped the test module in 5mm + 3mm double-layer aerogel blanket. Outside surface never went above 110°C. They signed the purchase order for 120,000 m² before lunch.
3. Sydney, July 2025 – cold winter morning on a steel-frame house Steel studs were ice-cold bridges pulling heat out like crazy. Wrapped every stud with 10mm aerogel blanket before plasterboard. Infrared camera showed the studs completely disappeared – surface temp even across the whole wall. PHPP recalculated and we passed EnerPHit with 8% margin.

How the “three blockades” feel in my hands (no PhD required):

Block 1 – Solid conduction

almost nothing to touch

The blanket is 98% air held by tiny silica strings. There’s barely any solid stuff for heat to travel through. I can squeeze it in my fist and feel almost no resistance.

Block 2 – Air convection can’t move

The holes are so small (20-40 nm) that air molecules just bounce off the walls instead of flowing. I’ve blown a heat gun straight at it and the air on the other side doesn’t even wiggle.

Block 3 – Radiation gets lost forever

Above 200°C you start seeing the glow, but even then a 10mm blanket knocks infrared down so hard I can hold my hand 2 cm from the back while the front is 600°C.

Real numbers I measure every day with my $200 Flir One:

• 10mm blanket on 300°C steam pipe back side 42°C
• 5mm blanket on lithium-ion cell wall limits spread to adjacent cells for 22 minutes
• 3mm blanket between curtain wall spandrel and glass stops summer solar gain dead

The only two things that actually matter on site in 2025:

1. It must be hydrophobic forever. I’ve cut open 9-year-old samples from Brisbane roofs – still beads water like new.
2. It must be A1 fire-rated with zero smoke. I’ve done the blowtorch test in front of clients more times than I can count – they always buy after that.

Everything else is marketing noise.

Bottom line after 13 years of installing this stuff:

The nanomaze isn’t science fiction.

It’s why my phone doesn’t burn my leg when it’s charging, why my clients’ heating bills dropped 60%, and why the fire blanket hanging in my mum’s kitchen is aerogel, not cheap fiberglass.

Want the infrared photos, the cut-open samples, or just to see how easy it is to install?

DM me. I’ll send everything.

Ruibin An

Hebei Woqin Trading Co., Ltd

ruibinan395@gmail.com