Products
The Problem
Forfar project with visible growth on wall
In the last few years the government has, as part of its continued commitment to promote energy efficiency and improve housing standards, introduced the Decent Homes Standard (for England and Wales) and the Scottish Housing Quality Standard. These standards apply to social housing and council housing stock and require that affected properties be upgraded by 2010 (England & Wales) or 2015 (Scotland) so that they are:
• Free from serious disrepair.
• Energy efficient.
• Able to provide an acceptable level of thermal comfort.
• Provided with modern facilities and services.
• Healthy, safe and secure.
The requirements to increase energy efficiency in particular can cause problems in housing stock where space for additional thermal insulation is limited. In such cases it may be necessary to consider external insulation systems, however this is not without problems. External systems can be difficult and expensive to install, and require the upgrading of entire blocks at once, which, if owner occupiers are present, may not be possible.
The Solution
In February 2007 the A. Proctor Group, in conjunction with Angus Council, undertook a trial project to investigate the use of Spacetherm superinsulation to increase the thermal performance of existing housing stock. By using 30mm Spacetherm laminate panels the average u-value for the walls was reduced from 0.628 W/m2K to 0.35 W/m2K, giving a near 100% improvement in fabric insulation levels.
The system also greatly increased the uniforminty of the insulation, reducing the potential for cold spots and subsequent mould growth. This internally applied system allows the council to upgrade properties quickly and easily, causing minimum disruption to tenants, and reducing the loss of internal space as far as possible. Because Spacetherm requires no specialist training to install, this can be accomplished using existing contractors, or even incorporated into existing upgrade programs.
The use of an internal insulation system also improves the response time of the heating system by isolating the fabric heat store from the living spaces, while also raising the internal surface temperature of the walls. This greatly increases the levels of thermal comfort in properties where the heating system is used only intermittently.
