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VIEWPOINT FOILED AGAIN
William Bown, managing director of SuperFOIL Insulation on why more are choosing foil insulation.
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n recent years, there has been a greater demand in the building trade to not only meet building regulations, but to exceed them. As building regulations
require improved levels of thermal and safety performance, the need for higher performing insulation has become more important. As a result of this, the insulation market has seen an increase in the sales of multi foil insulation products. Due to the vast range of building designs being used in the UK, and the ever-growing desire to be more energy efficient, the demand for ‘next generation’ insulation has never been higher; and multi foil fits the bill. Increased thermal performance. Many insulation technologies are stuck in the past and have to rely on adding significant thickness to achieve the required thermal performance, but multi foil insulation is made up of a number of layers which helps its insulation properties. By having multiple layers of foil, the thermal performance of multi foil
is much higher than traditional insulation because there are air pockets in between each layer, giving it heat conduction qualities. One of these layers is a foil layer which reflects the heat back into the building, stopping it from escaping. This means that as well as reducing heat loss through convection and conduction like most traditional insulation, multi foil also reflects radiation heat too, covering all major forms of heat loss.
Additionally, moist insulation can become a big problem when it comes to the thermal performance of insulation. In the UK climate, it’s not unusual for rainwater to get inside the walls of a property and damage the insulation, causing it to lose its effectiveness. Multi foil, however, has a vapour control layer, preventing the insulation from becoming damp and keeping it effective, so becomes a much better choice.
Post Grenfell, it’s more important than ever to make sure insulation meets safety
standards as we’ve seen the devastating consequences of unfit insulation. The Buildings Regulations Advisory Committee (BRAC) advise on what should be included in The Buildings Regulations, and one of these is fire safety. Additionally, the Building Control Alliance (BCA) provides guidance on the use of combustible materials on residential buildings. As a result, the need for non-combustible insulation is increasingly necessary to meet fire safety guidelines, and the market is growing at a rapid rate. Non-combustible insulation is a safer alternative to insulation materials such as foam board, which are flammable and not suitable for high rise and large developments. With the introduction of minimum energy efficiency standards (MEES), rental properties now must have an EPC rating, which shows how energy efficient the property is. Furthermore, the EPC rating must be E or above or landlords could be faced with fines of up to £4000.
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