Thermal Conductivity

(On this page, “conductivity” will refer exclusively to thermal conductivity and will avoid use of any mention of electrical conductivity

• If you want a component to gain or lose heat quickly, you want it to be very high conductivity so that it quickly transfers the heat to the ambient air. Increasing exposed surface area via wide thin heat fins and moving air across them helps take advantage of this. (See Radiator)

• If you want a component to stay cool or keep heat, you want it to be very low conductivity so that it is slowly losing heat to the ambient air and requires minimal energy to keep at temperature. Minimizing exposed surface area will slow heat loss, so using additional layers of low conductive materials will

A note about vacuum insulation: Typically, commercially available VIPs achieve a thermal conductivity of 0.004 W/(m·K) across the centre of the panel, or an overall value of 0.006-0.008 W/(m·K) after allowing for thermal bridging (heat conduction across the panel edges) and the inevitable gradual loss of vacuum over time

Source Data