Variable thermal insulation assembly

A variable thermal insulation assembly comprising:

• a frame comprising edge elements, the frame circumscribing a thermal actuation region having a gas;
• one or more thermal cell array units positioned within the thermal actuation region, each thermal cell array unit comprising:
• a thermal cell array comprising a plurality of flexible sheets;
• wherein said flexible sheets located adjacent to each other are bonded together along at least one pair of bonding regions, the at least one pair bonding regions extending substantially parallel to each other, to form pairs of flexible sheets such that each pair of flexible sheets defines at least one substantially longitudinally symmetrical cavity between the at least one pair of bonding regions, the at least one longitudinally symmetrical cavity being one of a plurality of thermal cells;
• wherein each of the plurality of thermal cells is bonded to another thermal cell in order to form the thermal cell array unit;
• and
• wherein the plurality of flexible sheets of each of the thermal cell arrays are formed of an electrically insulative material that is coated on one side with an electrically conductive material such that, for each pair of flexible sheets, the one side of one flexible sheet having the electrically conductive material coating is bonded to another side of the other flexible sheet without the electrically conductive material coating such that the electrical conductive material coatings of the flexible sheets of each pair of flexible sheets are separated by a layer of the electrically insulative material;
• and
• a controller electrically coupled to the plurality of flexible sheets and configured to apply an electric potential difference between electrically conductive material of each pair of flexible sheets such that the electrically conductive coatings of the pair of flexible sheets attract each other to cause the thermal cell array to transition from an expanded state to a compressed state.