Insulation
FEATURES
Understanding insulation
Insulation is often a neglected part of the building process, but it plays a significant role in regulating temperature of a home and offers significant savings to energy costs.
By Ntsako Khosa
“ has played a vital part in the evolution of buildings and is increasingly important, especially as we see a rise in global energy prices,” says Mark
Gillott, development director at Knauf Insulation.
There’ s an increased interest in sustainability in the construction sector, with various organisations, such as Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies( EDGE) and the Green Building Council of South Africa( GBCSA), highlighting the impact a green building has on the planet and its residents. Over the years, we have seen regulations that standardise adding green aspects to a project.
“ The building code pertaining to energy efficiencies and sustainability came into effect in 2011, this standard is the SANS 10400XA. The purpose of this standard is to drive sustainability and energy efficiencies,” says Lyle Jeffery, national sales manager, Lambdaboard. He adds that the code came into effect during the peak of the Eskom load shedding crisis.
ICE LTD
DEFINING INSULATION
“ There’ s so much more to insulation than simply managing the internal environment by controlling factors such as penetrating heat, or cold gain and loss,” says Gillott. This is unfortunately, a little-known fact in industry. This was seen and is recalled by Jeffery during the construction of RDP housing.
“ The standard RDP house was badly built with no ceiling or insulation at all.” Problems that this created included condensation developing on the galvanised steel roof.
“ And in turn started dripping continuously on the inhabitants or home owners in the early hours of the morning once the condensation had built up. Energy costs per household is also an issue due to heat loss / gain – brought about by a poorly insulated building,” he explains.
Inefficiencies surrounding poor workmanship and inferior materials were addressed.“ The grant from government is increased, and workmanship issues have been largely resolved. With SANS 10400XA finally in play, it means that that insulation is now a legal requirement in the building code. Each building therefore needs to comply with a certain R-Value as stipulated in the‘ Deemed to Satisfy’ part of the SANS 10400XA code. This therefore allows a ceiling and insulation product,” Jeffery says.
According to Gillott, insulation is the most cost-effective way to target energy savings and therefore offers users the quickest payback.
INSULATION AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY
The energy saving properties of insulation mean buildings are kept warm in the winter and cool in the summer. The
Quality insulation helps reduce usage of appliances to regular room temperature.
bigger the temperature difference between the inside and outside of a building, the faster the building will lose cold or heat.
“ Mineral wool insulation helps to maintain the inside managed temperature( from heating or air conditioning) by slowing heat / chilled transfer by convection, conduction and radiation,” says Gillott.
Living conditions in properties without outside energy source for heating or cooling can be improved using insulation.“ By insulating a property properly, you can slow down the rate at which the sun heats your living environment during the day and reduce the rate at which the day’ s residual heat dissipates from your property in the evening,” he says.
Gillott advises a whole-house approach to energy efficiency. This of course refers to new build projects. Retrofits, buildings being converted, refurbished or renovated can also fit insulation.“ There are many methods to retrospectively fit insulation to existing or older buildings,” Gillott shares.
Having an insulation expert is valuable to advise on how to use insulation to reduce the reliance on appliances such as geyser timers or blankets, gas heaters, underfloor heating, air conditioning, heat pumps and solar systems.
SELECTING INSULATION
“ It’ s critical to make your first-choice count. If you do, your insulation should not only offer excellent thermal
See more on page 22.
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MAY- JUNE 2018
AFFORDABLE
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