How SIP Construction Helped Rebuild a 125-Year-Old Synagogue Without Losing Its History

August 25, 2026August 24, 2026 by ACME PANEL

Finished exterior of Sag Harbor Synagogue renovated with SIPs

How SIP Construction Helped Rebuild a 125-Year-Old Synagogue Without Losing Its History

Structural insulated panels (SIPs) are high-performance roof, wall, and floor building panels made of a rigid foam insulation core structurally bonded between two structural facings, used in place of conventional stick framing. They deliver a tighter building envelope, lower heating and cooling loads, and faster on-site assembly. At Temple Adas Israel in Sag Harbor, New York, they did something SIPs rarely get asked to do: help rebuild a 19th-century sanctuary from the inside out while keeping it looking exactly like itself.

Temple Adas Israel, originally known as Mischan Israel, is the oldest synagogue on Long Island. Services were first held in the building in 1898. By 2021, the congregation needed more than the original structure could give it: a basement level, real handicap accessibility, expanded classroom and community space, and a sanctuary big enough for a growing congregation. None of that could come at the cost of the building’s identity. The renovation had to add square footage without erasing 125 years of history.

Project Highlights

→ Renovation and expansion of an 1898 synagogue, the oldest on Long Island, with a two-year congregation displacement during construction

→ Three wall panel thicknesses (4 5/8″, 6 1/2″, 8 1/4″) and two roof panel thicknesses (8 1/4″, 10 1/4″), matched to different parts of the building

→ ACME jumbo panels precut at the factory, including circular and domed window openings

→ New basement and sub-basement housing classrooms, a library, and the building’s original mikvah, plus HVAC and electrical

→ Architect Bill Chaleff of Chaleff & Rogers, builder RLW4 Builders

→ Runner-Up Classic, Renovations category, 2026 SIPA Building Excellence Awards

The Project

The scope was not a simple addition. The original 1898 building actually sits beyond its own property line, with the historic entrance on Atlantic Avenue leading straight up a flight of steps into the sanctuary. The renovation, led by architect Bill Chaleff of Chaleff & Rogers Architects in Water Mill, added roughly 12 feet to the front of the building to expand the sanctuary, then recreated the original corner pillars and their triangular caps, which had been lost decades earlier. From the street, it still reads as the same building. Chaleff even used the siding pattern to preserve the visual impression of the old front staircase, though the real entrance moved to the side of the building.

That new entrance opens into a glass stairwell that connects the main level to a new basement below, with an elevator serving both levels for accessibility. The main level added a community room with a barrel-vaulted, coffered ceiling, its wood panels held in place by gravity and designed to be replaced with stained glass down the road. Sturdy folding panels separate the community room from the sanctuary, so the two spaces can open into one for larger gatherings. Below, the new basement holds three classrooms, a library, and the building’s original mikvah, the ritual bath once used by the congregation’s Orthodox women, preserved behind glass as part of the building’s history rather than removed. A tall sub-basement below that houses the HVAC plant and electrical controls the older building never had room for.

The project wasn’t simple to build, either. What began as a $6 million bid grew to $7.3 million as COVID-era shortages forced material substitutions across the two-year build. Construction started in 2021. The congregation, displaced to Sag Harbor’s First Presbyterian (Old Whalers’) Church for two years, returned home in a procession in May 2023, carrying each of the temple’s four Torahs, including one presented to the congregation by Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders and another restored through the Memorial Scrolls Trust. The project reached full completion in 2025.

Why SIP Construction Mattered for This Renovation

The congregation itself set the direction: “Environmental stewardship is an important aspect of the Jewish faith, so they wanted a building that would be very energy efficient.” That, combined with a large, complex scope, made panelized construction the right fit for a building that needed to add a basement level, improve accessibility, update its interiors, and expand its footprint, all while keeping its original identity intact.

That kind of performance isn’t a design preference. It’s physics. A stick-framed wall has a stud every 16 or 24 inches, and every one of those studs is a thermal bridge, a path for heat to escape in winter and slip back in come summer. A SIP wall replaces that whole assembly with a single, continuous layer of rigid foam insulation bonded between two structural facings. No studs breaking the insulation. No gaps at the seams for air to leak through. The result is a building envelope that holds its temperature instead of constantly fighting to recover it, which means the HVAC system works less, the electric bill runs lower, and the space inside stays steadier, warmer in January, cooler in July, without a furnace or air handler running overtime to keep up. On a building built in the 1890s, long before anyone engineered for airtightness at all, that’s not an incremental upgrade. It’s a different building envelope entirely.

That performance is also where the environmental benefit actually lives. Heating and cooling is what burns most of a building’s operating energy year after year, and that energy carries a carbon cost, whether it comes off the electric grid or out of a furnace. A continuously insulated, low-leakage SIP envelope needs meaningfully less of that energy to hold the same temperature a stick-framed wall would need far more energy to hold. Less energy burned means less carbon produced to keep the sanctuary warm on a February morning or cool during an August service, every single year the building stands. For a congregation that told its architect this mattered as a matter of faith and not a talking point, that reduction is exactly the kind of concrete, measurable outcome the building itself now delivers, year after year it’s in use.

The building’s design also created a real engineering puzzle: three different wall thicknesses and two different roof thicknesses, each suited to a different part of the structure.

Wall panels: 4 5/8″ (3 3/4″ EPS core, R16), 6 1/2″ (5 5/8″ EPS core, R24), 8 1/4″ (7 3/8″ EPS core, R32)

Roof panels: 8 1/4″ (7 3/8″ EPS core, R32), 10 1/4″ (9 3/8″ EPS core, R40)

Three key benefits stood out on this project:

Installation speed: ACME’s jumbo roof and wall panels cut down the number of individual panels installed, which cuts down the number of seams, which cuts down the time and complexity of getting the building closed in.

Energy efficiency: SIPs gave the addition an extremely well insulated, tight envelope, reducing the load on the HVAC system and the building’s electricity use. That’s a real upgrade over a structure built in the late 1800s, long before anyone was thinking about a building envelope at all.

Precut precision: The panels arrived from ACME’s factory already cut to spec, including the intricate circular and domed window openings the design called for. Cutting those shapes on site, in a historic building under a tight schedule, would have cost real time. This project didn’t have to spend it.

Using three wall thicknesses and two roof thicknesses across one building would have been a genuinely complicated job with stick framing and field-installed insulation, matching different framing depths and insulation types by hand, room by room. SIPs simplified it: each thickness and R-value was built into the panel at the factory, so the variation was handled before the panels ever reached the job site.

Between the tighter envelope, the faster installation, and the precut precision, SIPs gave this project the modern building performance the congregation asked for, without disturbing the historic character it was just as determined to keep. That’s a building that asks less of the land it has stood on since 1898, and less of the congregation that will keep heating, cooling, and maintaining it, for however many generations gather there next.

Recognition

2026 SIPA Building Excellence Awards Runner-Up Classic, Renovations category. The Structural Insulated Panel Association recognized the project for design and structural engineering innovation, creative use of SIP construction, and environmental sustainability, judged against projects across the country.

Project Details

Location	Sag Harbor, NY
Building	Temple Adas Israel, built 1898, oldest synagogue on Long Island
Architect	Chaleff & Rogers, Water Mill, NY (Bill Chaleff)
Builder	RLW4 Builders LLC, Southampton, NY (Roy "Buddy" Wines IV)
SIP Supplier	ACME Panel
Construction	Began 2021; congregation returned May 2023; project completed 2025
Total Project Cost	$7.3 million
SIP Walls	4 5/8" R16, 6 1/2" R24, and 8 1/4" R32 EPS core panels
SIP Roof	8 1/4" R32 and 10 1/4" R40 EPS core panels
Recognition	Runner-Up Classic, Renovations, 2026 SIPA Building Excellence Awards

Renovating a building people care about?

Historic buildings, additions, and architecturally sensitive renovations all bring their own constraints. We will tell you plainly whether SIPs are a fit for yours before you commit to anything.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can SIPs be used to renovate a historic building?

Yes. Structural insulated panels can be manufactured to match the exact dimensions, openings, and detailing a historic renovation requires, including custom shapes like the circular and domed window openings used in the Temple Adas Israel project. Because panels are precut at the factory, complex historic details can be built into the panel before it ever reaches the site, which reduces the on-site fabrication work that historic renovations usually require.

Can a single project use SIPs of different thicknesses?

Yes. Different parts of a building often call for different wall or roof thicknesses depending on structural loads, energy targets, or how a space is used. The Temple Adas Israel project used three wall panel thicknesses (4 5/8″, 6 1/2″, and 8 1/4″) and two roof thicknesses (8 1/4″ and 10 1/4″) across a single building, each manufactured to the R-value the application needed.

Do SIPs work for additions to older buildings?

SIPs are well suited to additions on older structures because the panels arrive from the factory ready to install, which limits the time a historic building’s original structure is exposed during construction. They also let a project add modern energy performance, a tighter envelope with less thermal bridging, without changing the original building’s exterior appearance.

What is a mikvah, and how did the renovation address it?

A mikvah is a ritual bath used in Jewish practice for spiritual purification. Temple Adas Israel’s original mikvah, no longer in active use by the congregation’s Reform practice, was preserved in a glass enclosure in the building’s new basement level as part of the renovation, keeping it visible as part of the synagogue’s history rather than removing it.

Want to Learn More About SIPs?

If this project raised questions about how SIPs work on a renovation or addition, these resources are worth reading next.

→ SIP Building Basics: A plain-language overview of how SIP construction works and how it compares to conventional framing.

→ When to Use SIPs: Not every project is the right fit for SIP construction. This page walks through the building types, budgets, and timelines where SIPs perform best.

→ Sustainability & Carbon Savings: How a tighter, better-insulated envelope translates into lower carbon over the life of a building.

Sources for this profile:

Anne Surchin, “A Complicated Task: The Renovation and Addition to Temple Adas Israel,” 27east.com

Stephen J. Kotz, “Temple Adas Israel in Sag Harbor Nears End of $7.3 Million Renovation Project,” 27east.com

Stephen J. Kotz, “Sag Harbor’s Temple Adas Israel Celebrates Its Return Home,” 27east.com

RLW4 LLC

Temple Adas Israel

Why Your SIP Home Feels Different in Summer and Winter

August 25, 2026August 20, 2026 by ACME PANEL

Why Your SIP Home Feels Different in Summer and Winter

You know the walk from a summer parking lot to your front door. The kind of August afternoon where the air feels heavy before you reach the porch, where the car door handle is too hot to touch, where you can feel the heat coming up off the driveway through your shoes.

Then you open the door.

In a lot of homes, the relief is temporary. The living room is cooler than outside, but not by much, and within the hour the air conditioner is working hard to catch up, cycling on and off, never quite settling. The room by the west-facing windows stays a few degrees warmer than the rest of the house no matter what the thermostat says.

In a home built with Structural Insulated Panels, or SIPs, homeowners tend to notice something different before they can explain it. The house feels like it has been waiting for you, at roughly the same temperature it was three hours ago when you left for the pool. No hot spot by the windows. No blast of AC trying to catch up. Just the same, comfortable house you left.

That feeling is not an accident, and it is not really about the thermostat. It is about what is inside the walls.

Key Takeaways

→ SIP walls are continuous insulation, not insulation broken up by studs every 16 inches, which eliminates most thermal bridging.

→ In summer, that means fewer hot spots, less AC cycling, and a house that holds its cool air longer after the system shuts off.

→ In winter, it means no cold walls, no drafts near windows and doors, and a heating system that is not fighting constant heat loss.

→ Lower energy bills follow from the same mechanism: the house does less work, so the HVAC system runs less.

→ SIP walls also block significantly more sound than stick-frame walls, a difference most homeowners notice before they notice anything about temperature.

What's Actually Happening Inside the Walls

Every wall in a home has one job: keep the temperature you want inside, and the temperature you do not want outside. How well it does that job comes down to how continuous the insulation is.

In a standard stick-frame wall, insulation sits between studs, but the studs themselves are wood, spaced every 16 or 24 inches, running straight from the outside of your house to the inside. Wood transfers heat far more easily than insulation does. Each stud becomes a small path for heat to travel through, in summer and in winter. Builders call this thermal bridging: a point in the wall where heat crosses through the structure instead of being stopped by the insulation. Framing takes up a meaningful share of a typical wall’s surface area, which means a meaningful share of that wall is quietly working against the insulation, not with it.

A SIP wall does not have that problem, because it is not built the same way. A structural insulated panel is a solid core of foam insulation sandwiched between two structural facings, manufactured as one continuous piece. There is no stud every 16 inches breaking up the insulation. The wall is the insulation, edge to edge.

Think of two coolers. One is a solid block of foam, thick and continuous on every side. The other has the same foam, but with narrow metal strips running through it every few inches, from the outside straight through to the inside. Both look similar from across the room. Only one of them is actually going to keep your ice from melting on a hot afternoon. That is the difference between a SIP wall and a stick-frame wall, and it is why the two houses feel so different to stand inside.

Here is what that difference actually looks like, room by room and season by season:

Stick-Frame vs. SIP: What You'll Notice

What you notice	Stick-frame home	SIP home
Rooms near west-facing windows in summer	Noticeably warmer by afternoon	Stays close to the rest of the house
Air conditioner behavior	Cycles on and off frequently	Runs steadier, holds cool air after shutoff
Exterior walls in January	Cold to the touch	Close to room temperature
Floors near outside walls in winter	Noticeably colder	Close to room temperature
Outside noise (traffic, lawnmowers, wind)	Passes through clearly	Noticeably dampened
Humidity in summer (Southeast climates)	Sticky even with the AC running	Drier, more controlled

What Summer Feels Like in a SIP Home

The most obvious thing homeowners notice in a SIP home is what does not happen. The house does not develop hot spots. The upstairs bedroom is not five degrees warmer than the living room by mid-afternoon. The room next to the west-facing windows does not turn into the room nobody wants to sit in after 3 p.m.

Because the envelope is airtight and continuously insulated, outside heat has a much harder time working its way in, room by room, than it does in a stick-frame home. The temperature in the kitchen stays close to the temperature down the hall in the bedroom, at any hour of the day. That is a small thing on paper. In practice, it is the difference between a house where everyone agrees on the thermostat and a house where someone is always too hot, reaching for a fan, or too cold, reaching for a sweater.

That consistency changes how the air conditioner behaves. Instead of racing to catch up every time the sun hits one side of the house, the system settles into a steadier rhythm: it runs, brings the house to temperature, and shuts off, without the constant short cycling a leakier envelope demands. And when the system does shut off, the house holds onto that cool air. Homeowners moving from stick-frame homes into SIP homes are often the ones who notice this first: the air conditioner turns off, and the house stays comfortable for hours, not minutes.

In the Southeast specifically, there is a second piece of this that matters just as much as temperature: humidity. A tight, well-sealed envelope gives your HVAC system the control it needs to actually manage moisture in the air, instead of fighting a house that keeps pulling in humid outside air through gaps and seams. That control is a real part of why a SIP home does not just feel cooler in summer. It feels drier, and less sticky, in a way a thermostat reading alone will not tell you.

What Winter Feels Like in a SIP Home

Walk toward an exterior wall in a lot of homes on a January morning, and you can feel the cold coming off it before you touch it. Stand near a window or an exterior door, and there is often a faint draft, even with everything shut tight. Step out of bed onto the floor near an outside wall, and it is noticeably colder than the floor in the center of the room.

None of that happens the same way in a SIP home. Because the walls are continuously insulated and the panel seams are sealed tight during construction, there is no gap for cold air to sneak through and no thermal bridge carrying outside cold straight to the interior wall surface. Exterior walls stay close to room temperature. Floors near the perimeter of the house stay close to room temperature, which matters more than it sounds like it should. It is the difference between kids who will actually sit on the floor to play and kids who will not, because the floor by the window is too cold to sit on. Windows and doors, installed and sealed correctly, do not become a source of draft either.

The heating system notices the difference even if you do not think about it directly. A tighter, better-insulated envelope means the furnace or heat pump is not working all night to replace heat that is leaking out through the walls. It runs less, because the house is not losing the heat it already made. That is the unglamorous mechanism behind why SIP homeowners tend to see lower heating bills: not a gadget, not a trick, just a house that does not need to be reheated every few hours because it was never really losing its heat in the first place.

Even in the cold months, my 3,000-square-foot home stays warm without needing to use my gas fireplace, and my heating costs have remained surprisingly low. After three days without power due to a winter storm, with temperatures ranging from 20 to 30 degrees, my SIP-built home never dropped below 67 degrees inside.

– ACME Panel Homeowner

What This Means for Your Energy Bills

There is no single percentage that applies to every SIP home. Savings depend on your climate, your home’s size and layout, your HVAC system, and how you live in the house.

What we can tell you plainly is the mechanism. A SIP home does less work to hold the temperature you set. Less heat escapes in winter. Less heat gets in during summer. Because the envelope is doing more of that work on its own, your HVAC system does not have to run as hard, or as often, to make up the difference. Less running time is where the savings come from. It is not a marketing claim. It is what happens when you remove the thermal bridging and air leaks that most homes are quietly losing energy through, every hour of every day.

For a closer look at how the upfront cost stacks up against long-term energy savings, see our Economics of SIPs page.

The One Thing That Surprises Most Homeowners

Ask ACME homeowners what surprised them most after moving in, and temperature is not always the first answer. Often, it is quiet.

A SIP wall is a solid, continuous panel, not a cavity with gaps between studs. The same construction that stops heat from moving through the wall also does a far better job of stopping sound. Traffic noise, a neighbor’s lawnmower, wind against the siding, a car door closing down the street: all of it comes through noticeably softer in a SIP home than in a comparable stick-frame home.

Homeowners do not usually go into a SIP build expecting this. They are thinking about energy bills and comfort. Then they move in, and the first thing they mention to a friend is how quiet the house is when the doors are shut and the world is happening outside. A nursery on the street side of the house that does not pick up every passing car. A home office where a video call does not compete with the neighborhood. It is a small thing to describe and a significant thing to live inside.

Is This What You're Building Toward?

Underneath all of this is a simple idea: a house should not work against the people living in it. It should not have a room everyone avoids in the afternoon. It should not have a floor that makes you flinch in January. It should not require you to think about the thermostat every time the weather changes outside.

That is not just a technical outcome. It is a family outcome. It is the difference between a house you manage and a house that quietly takes care of you, season after season, year after year. If you are planning a build and you want a home that feels as good as the numbers say it should, that feeling is not an accident. It comes from how the walls are built, long before you ever move in.

ACME Panel manufactures SIPs in a solar-powered facility in Radford, Virginia, and we have spent years helping homeowners and builders across the region get this right, from the first conversation to the final panel. If you are still in the research phase and want to talk through what a SIP home would actually feel like for your family, in your climate, on your lot, we are glad to talk it through with you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do SIP homes feel more comfortable than stick-frame homes?

SIP walls are built as one continuous panel of foam insulation, without the wood studs that break up insulation in a stick-frame wall. Those studs act as thermal bridges, letting heat move through the wall in summer and winter alike. Without them, a SIP home keeps a more even temperature from room to room and asks less of the HVAC system to maintain it.

Do SIP homes stay cooler in summer without running the air conditioner constantly?

Yes. Because the building envelope is airtight and continuously insulated, outside heat has a harder time working its way into a SIP home. The air conditioner cycles less often, and the house holds onto cool air longer after the system shuts off, compared to a stick-frame home of the same size.

Are SIP homes warmer in winter for the same reason?

Yes. The same continuous insulation and sealed panel seams that keep summer heat out also keep winter heat in. Exterior walls stay close to room temperature, floors near the perimeter of the house do not feel cold, and the heating system does not have to run as often to replace heat that would otherwise leak out.

Do SIP homes actually block more outside noise?

They do. A solid SIP wall does not have the open cavities and gaps that a stick-frame wall has, and that same construction reduces how much sound passes through. Homeowners in SIP homes often notice less traffic noise and quieter rooms overall, even before they think about energy performance.

How does a SIP home handle humidity in a hot, humid climate like the Southeast?

A tight, well-sealed SIP envelope gives your HVAC system real control over the air inside your home, instead of constantly fighting humid air pulling in through gaps and seams. That control is a meaningful part of why SIP homes in humid climates tend to feel drier and less sticky than stick-frame homes at the same thermostat setting.

Will building with SIPs lower my energy bills?

It should, though the exact amount depends on your climate, your home’s design, and your HVAC system. What is consistent is the mechanism: a SIP home loses less heat in winter and gains less heat in summer, so the HVAC system runs less to hold the temperature you want. For a snapshot of the numbers, see our Economics of SIPs page.

Want to Go Deeper?

If this article has you thinking about what a SIP build would actually involve, these resources are worth reading next.

→ SIP Building Basics: a plain-language overview of how SIP construction works and how it compares to conventional framing.

→ Economics of SIPs: the full financial snapshot, including how the upfront investment in SIPs compares to lifetime energy costs.

→ SIP Dos and Don’ts: the practical guide to getting SIP construction right, including the moisture and air-sealing details that make the comfort described here possible.

Ready to talk through your project?

If you're planning a build and want to know what a SIP home will actually feel like for your family, in your climate, on your lot, we're glad to walk through it with you.

How SIP Construction Cut Energy Bills by $1,300 a Year Per Apartment in Blacksburg Affordable Housing

August 18, 2026July 26, 2026 by ACME PANEL

Three-story SIP apartment building with brick base and red panel exterior at Prices Fork Village Apartments in Blacksburg, VA

How SIP Construction Cut Energy Bills by $1,300 a Year Per Apartment in Blacksburg Affordable Housing

Structural insulated panels (SIPs) are high-performance roof, wall, and floor building panels made of a rigid insulation core structurally bonded between two structural-grade facings, used in place of conventional stick framing. They deliver a tighter building envelope, significantly lower heating and cooling costs, and faster on-site assembly. At Prices Fork Village Apartments, they delivered something more specific: $1,300 a year back in the pockets of families who needed every dollar.

When a family is living at 50 to 60 percent of the area median income, $1,300 a year is not a rounding error. That is a car payment. Three months of groceries. Breathing room in a budget that has almost none. It is the difference between a thermostat someone is afraid to touch in January and a home that just stays warm, without a second thought.

That is the real measure of what happened here: sixteen new apartments in Blacksburg, Virginia, built with ACME Panel SIPs throughout the walls and roof. EarthCraft certified. Energy savings of $1,134 to $1,323 per unit per year compared to conventional construction, or roughly $18,100 to $21,200 in total annual energy savings across all 16 apartments. For the families who live there, those numbers show up every month. In one two-bedroom apartment, that showed up as an electric bill of less than $50 a month, for everything, including heat and air.

Project Highlights

→ 16 new SIP apartments built for families at 50 to 60 percent of area median income
→ $1,134 to $1,323 in annual energy savings per unit vs. conventional construction ($18,100–$21,200 total across all 16 units)
→ 6.5-inch wall panels and 10.5-inch roof panels, EarthCraft certified
→ Panels manufactured at ACME’s solar-powered Radford, VA facility
→ Winner of the 2025 Virginia Governor’s Housing Conference Best Multi-Family Housing Development

If you have seen what SIPs can do for a custom home, this project shows what they can do for the people who need lower energy bills most.

The Project

The old Prices Fork Elementary School in Blacksburg had been sitting empty for years. Our sister company, Taylor Hollow Construction, saw what it could become. Today the building houses sixteen apartments for residents 55 and older, Moon Hollow Brewing, Millstone Kitchen (a commercial incubator with a community meal program for low-income residents), and Featherbone Provisions. The school did not get torn down. It became a neighborhood again.

Phase III was where ACME Panel came in. Right behind the historic building, Taylor Hollow broke ground on 16 brand-new apartments using ACME Panel structural insulated panels throughout the walls and roof. Eight three-bedroom units. Eight two-bedrooms. A mix of affordable and market-rate, open to all ages. Completed July 2021.

Why SIP Construction Mattered for Affordable Housing Energy Savings

This was not a luxury development where buyers could absorb high utility costs as a footnote to their mortgage. The affordable units serve families at 50 to 60 percent of area median income. Performance had to be real, and it had to be measurable. For a family already stretching every paycheck, a heating bill that spikes in January is not an inconvenience. It is a choice between staying warm and paying for something else that mattered that month.

ACME Panel 6.5-inch EPS foam core wall panels and 10.5-inch EPS foam core roof panels delivered exactly that. No drafts. No sky-high heating bills in January. Homes that hold temperature the way a well-built home should. The EarthCraft certification confirmed it from the ground up.

SIP buildings perform this way because the building envelope has no thermal bridging and virtually no air infiltration. Every stud in a stick-frame wall is a thermal break, a path for heat to escape in winter and slip in during summer. A SIP wall eliminates that path entirely. The result is a home that is quieter, steadier, and cheaper to run for its entire life: a bedroom that stays warm on a cold night without the furnace working overtime to keep up.

The families who benefit most from lower energy bills are exactly the ones who can least afford to go without them. That is who SIPs are built for.

Manufactured at a Solar-Powered Facility in Virginia

Every structural insulated panel that went into this project came out of ACME Panel’s facility in Radford, VA, powered by 360 solar panels. Lower carbon in the manufacturing. Lower carbon in the home’s energy use for the entire life of the building. That is not a talking point. It is a physical fact built into every panel we ship. For homeowners, builders, and developers asking how to reduce the carbon footprint of a building without adding cost, Prices Fork Village Apartments is the proof.

ACME Panel serves the eastern United States from Radford, VA, covering Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and beyond. See our structural insulated panel pricing here.

Recognition

2025 Virginia Governor’s Housing Conference
Best Multi-Family Housing Development, presented at Hotel Roanoke. The award recognized the full partnership behind the project: Taylor Hollow Construction, Montgomery County, the New River Valley Regional Commission, and the NRV HOME Consortium. High-performance materials. Community purpose. Dense, affordable development done right.

SIPA Building Excellence Awards
Multifamily Honorable Mention from the Structural Insulated Panel Association, recognizing the Phase III SIP building for design innovation, structural engineering, and environmental sustainability.

Project Details

Location	4237 Prices Fork Road, Blacksburg, VA 24060
Builder	Taylor Hollow Construction
SIP Supplier	ACME Panel
Phase III Completion	July 2021
Units	16 (8 three-bedroom, 8 two-bedroom)
Income Mix	Affordable (50–60% AMI) and market rate
SIP Walls	6.5" EPS foam core structural insulated panels
SIP Roof	10.5" EPS foam core structural insulated panels
Certification	EarthCraft
Energy Savings	$1,134–$1,323 per unit per year vs. conventional construction ($18,100–$21,200/year across all 16 units)
Total Project Budget	$7M+
Awards	2025 VAGHC Best Multi-Family Housing Development; SIPA Multifamily Honorable Mention

Someone made the right call at the design phase

The families at Prices Fork are saving over $1,000 a year per apartment on energy because of it. If you are working on a project where performance matters, start here.

See our panel pricing → Contact us →

Frequently Asked Questions

Can structural insulated panels be used for affordable housing?

Structural insulated panels are particularly well-suited to affordable housing because they reduce long-term operating costs for residents. A SIP building envelope delivers significantly lower heating and cooling bills compared to conventional stick-frame construction — savings that are meaningful month to month for residents at lower income levels. The Old School at Prices Fork in Blacksburg, VA is a direct example: 16 SIP apartments serving families at 50 to 60 percent of area median income, with documented energy savings of $1,134 to $1,323 per unit per year, or $18,100 to $21,200 per year across all 16 apartments.

How much energy do SIP apartments save compared to conventional construction?

At the Prices Fork project in Blacksburg, VA, ACME Panel SIP apartments saved residents between $1,134 and $1,323 per unit per year compared to conventionally framed construction — a total of $18,100 to $21,200 in annual energy savings across all 16 apartments. The savings come from the SIP building envelope’s tight air sealing and continuous insulation, which eliminates the thermal bridging present in stud-frame walls. The building was EarthCraft certified, a third-party verification of its energy performance.

Do SIP homes save money on energy bills?

SIP homes consistently deliver lower energy bills than comparable stick-frame construction. Structural insulated panels provide continuous insulation with no thermal bridging at studs and very low air infiltration, which means less energy is needed to heat and cool the home year-round. Actual savings depend on climate, home size, and energy costs, but real-world projects regularly show 40 to 60 percent reductions in heating and cooling costs compared to standard construction. See how the numbers work on our Economics of SIPs page.

Are structural insulated panels a good choice for multifamily housing?

Structural insulated panels work well in multifamily construction for several reasons. Panels arrive pre-cut to project specifications, which speeds framing and reduces on-site waste. Building envelope performance is consistent across the entire structure because insulation is continuous, not dependent on individual framing quality. For multifamily developers, SIPs also reduce HVAC sizing requirements, which lowers mechanical system costs. For residents, the result is lower utility bills and a noticeably quieter, more comfortable home.

How are structural insulated panels manufactured?

Structural insulated panels are made by bonding a rigid foam insulation core — typically expanded polystyrene (EPS) — between two structural facing panels, typically oriented strand board (OSB). The panels are manufactured under factory-controlled conditions and cut to the specific dimensions of each project before shipping. ACME Panel manufactures SIPs at its facility in Radford, Virginia, powered by 360 solar panels, which reduces embodied carbon in the manufacturing process before the panel ever improves the energy performance of a home.

Who builds with structural insulated panels in Virginia?

ACME Panel is a family-owned structural insulated panel manufacturer based in Radford, Virginia, serving builders, homeowners, and developers across the eastern United States with free shipping within 300 miles of Radford. Taylor Hollow Construction, ACME’s sister company, builds with SIPs as their primary construction method and takes on client projects directly. The Old School at Prices Fork in Blacksburg is one example of what SIP construction delivers in Virginia.

What is EarthCraft certification, and why does it matter?

EarthCraft is a third-party green building certification program for residential and multifamily construction in the Southeast. An EarthCraft certified building has been independently verified to meet standards for energy efficiency, indoor air quality, and construction quality. For affordable housing developments, EarthCraft certification confirms that the energy performance claims are documented and verified, not estimated. The Prices Fork Phase III SIP apartments were EarthCraft certified at completion in July 2021.

Want to Learn More About SIPs?

If this article raised questions you want answered before you build, these two resources are worth reading next.

→ SIP Building Basics — A plain-language overview of how SIP construction works, what to expect during the build process, and how SIPs compare to conventional framing.

→ When to Use SIPs — Not every project is the right fit for SIP construction. This page walks through the building types, budgets, and timelines where SIPs perform best, so you can make the right call before design decisions get locked in.

→ SIP Dos and Don’ts — The practical guide to getting SIP construction right, covering installation sequencing, moisture detailing, and the mistakes worth avoiding before they happen.