If YETI can make a cup that keeps water cold or hot for hours and a cooler that holds ice for hours, then why aren’t we building houses with that same material?
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Yeti doesn’t use any special material for their cups, it’s just metal. What’s special is the shape of the metal. A yeti cup (and indeed most thermoses) have an inner cup and outer cup that don’t touch other than the thin section that makes up the brim. Between the two layers is a vacuum. This means that, for heat to flow out of the liquid in the cup, it must conduct through the inner cup, up through the thin brim section, and out the outer cup in order to escape. It’s all about giving the heat as small of an escape path as possible.
A house is, clearly, a lot more complicated than a cup. Windows, doors, vents, eaves, ducting, all can act as passages through the “outer barrier” of a house. The cost to construct some double layer vacuum insulation system for an entire house would be insane, never mind the cost of maintaining it. Much more cost effective to simply throw some fiberglass in the walls and be done with it. The extra you pay in heating / cooling is a drop in the bucket compared to such a complex insulation system.
Not to mention, most heat lost through windows and doors anyway. The walls aren’t really the parts of the house that need improving, when it comes to insulation.
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