The life time of vacuum insulation panels depends on the characteristics of the film, the size of the pores of the core materials and on the thickness of the panel.

The film of the VIPs drastically reduces the transmission of water vapour and air. A good barrier against penetrating gases is an aluminium laminated film. This however causes heat leaks at the VIP edge and thus is only suitable for large vacuum insulation panels.

Metallized film, i.e. a very thin Al-layer within a high barrier film avoids these heat bridges. Micro-porous Silica has the smallest pore size.: smaller than 0.5 µm. Thus the thermal conduction of air is partially suppressed even at ambient gas pressures.: At a gas pressure of 100 mbar the thermal conductivity of a Silica VIP is only 0.007 W/mK. (see Fig. 2)

A totally aired (1000 mbar) va-Q-vip has a thermal conductivity of 0.020 W/mK, which is the worst case.