Insulation and other materials are all part of the "R-factor."
The "R-Factor" is a way to describe all the variables that you have to consider when comparing the insulation effectiveness of a home or building built with brick or one that's clad with vinyl. The formal, technical term for the "R-factor" is the R-value. Building materials and insulation are all rated and given a numeric R-value. Therefore, if you are considering the overall total "R-factor," you have to take into account the use of brick or vinyl and other materials inside the wall cavity between the outside where the brick or vinyl is used and the wall inside the home or building.
Vinyl
The standard R-value given to vinyl siding is 0.61. The R-value measures the thermal resistance of the siding, and the higher the R-value, the better it performs to insulate the interior of the home from either heat or cold. However, that is just the R-value for the vinyl. Other materials are involved. A typical vinyl-clad home might have a sheet of film, plywood sheathing and drywall, an air film inside the wall cavity and fiberglass insulation. These materials have a combined R-value total of 13.73, according to Colorado Energy.org. So when you add the value of the vinyl, the grand total R-value is 14.34 (13.73 plus 0.61).
Brick
A 4-inch block of brick has an R-value of 0.44. This means that the R-value for brick is about 28 percent less than the R-value for vinyl. Now let's add the total R-value, using the same materials as in the example for the vinyl-clad home. The R-value for the outside air film is 0.17, the R-value for the wood bevel siding is 0.80, the plywood sheathing is 0.63, the ½-inch drywall R-value is 0.45, the inside air film has an R-value of 0.68, and the fiberglass insulation has an R-value of 11.00, which, again, gets us to the 13.73 total. When you add the brick, the R-value climbs to 14.17 for all the wall components.
Comparison of Brick and Vinyl
The total R-value for the vinyl example is 14.34, and the total for brick is 14.17 -- representing a 0.17 difference, which equates to a 1.2 percent difference. So, when you look at the grand total R-value for the wall assembly, the difference between brick and vinyl seems less significant. This is a more realistic way to compare the R-factors and mirrors what takes place in life. Factor the additional materials used to build and insulate a home to compare the two materials fairly and objectively.
Considerations
As you can see, insulation plays the biggest role in determining the total R-value. The 3½-inch blanket of fiberglass insulation has an 11 R-value. However, the "R-factor" will be different if you use a different type or different density of insulation. The R-value of rigid fiberglass is 4.0, and other fiberglass varieties have R-values as high as 4.3. If you selected prefabricated insulated vinyl, the R-value can increase by as much as 25 percent, giving the vinyl a base R-value that jumps from 0.61 to around 0.85 or higher. The "R-factor" for vinyl and brick can increase significantly once you factor every component used to assemble a home from the outside to the area inside the wall cavity.
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