Insulate Magazine Issue 17

Meanwhile, a Polish manufacturer
displayed an insulation board
made from cellulose - a material
more
commonly used in blown applications
- which they marketed as
ideal for the sympathetic internal
upgrade of historic buildings.
Offsite Takes Off?
Back in issue 15 of Insulate we
took a look at offsite manufacturing
(OSM) and it was certainly
out in force at ecobuild. Did the
refreshed thinking behind the
show encourage more offsite
companies to attend, or has the
sector simply come of age and
ecobuild was the perfect place to
show it?
Perhaps it was a combination of
both, but either way the Offsite
hub was a buoyant place to be.
In a show with a well-attended
seminar programme, the offsite
talks and discussions seemed
particularly popular.
Among the many modular
building systems and wholehouse
concepts, Marley were
prominent in launching their own
version of a structural insulated
panel system (SIPS) featuring a
PIR foam sandwiched between
two layers of oriented strand
board (OSB). Most notably,
perhaps, the foam was green in
colour!
Passivhaus Prominence
Unfortunately, the floor space
earmarked for the Building
Research in Architecture group’s
Passive Pod House did not feature
what was advertised.
It is pretty hard to miss a complete
house, so unfortunately it
seems the concept did not reach
the show - but if it had been
there I would have enjoyed seeing
an example of their demountable
Passivhaus-standard home,
fabricated off site using just five
main components.
The UK’s Passivhaus Trust were
in attendance, and enough build
systems advertised Passivhaus
levels of performance to suggest
that awareness of the standard
- and highly efficient building
fabric generally - is growing. One
system offered by a group of
Polish companies took a novel
approach, offering performance
levels from ‘basic’ to ‘sub-arctic’.
Education
The plethora of housing solutions
going beyond building
regulations and advocating
future-proofed building fabric
was encouraging. A number of
stands, however, risked undermining
the trend thanks to confusing
displays and terminology.
Several mixed up thermal conductivity
(W/mK) and U-values
(W/m2K), making it difficult for
a trained eye to discern what
performance was actually being
claimed. It almost certainly made
life hard for anyone who was
less familiar with the terminology
but interested in doing the right
thing.
Large student groups remained
a noticeable part of ecobuild’s
visitors, and it is particularly
worrying to think they’re being
exposed to inaccurate and
potentially misleading messaging
at what is supposed to be one
of the major exhibitions of the
construction industry’s year.
insulate at ecobuild
For our part, Insulate was
pleased to have a stand in the
Building Performance hub. We
spent the show’s three days
distributing free copies of the
magazine and providing a
showcase for Mauer UK’s
external wall insulation (EWI)
system, featured in last month’s
issue, which deservedly proved
popular with visitors.
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