When the heat is on, high-performance insulation is the cool choice for creating safe, comfortable interiors

Correctly installed in floors, walls and roofspace, insulation provides a barrier that prevents exterior temperature outside from impacting interior air conditions. This helps maintain a temperate indoors climate, ensuring rooms are neither too hot or cold – whatever the weather outside. Therefore, by reducing the need for mechanical heating and cooling systems, well-insulated building fabric helps save energy and reduces domestic fuel usage. This is extremely good news for householders, with the rise in gas and electricity bills set to continue rise indefinitely, whilst the environment will benefit from an accompanying decrease in household emissions.  A report by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy reveals that heating and power account for 40% cent of the UK’s total energy use. Hence the need to address the thermal performance of the country’s 28 million homes

Steps to significantly improve the energy performance of new properties came into force earlier this month. From June 15^th, amended Part L regulations required new housing to produce 31% less CO₂ than previous legislation. The measures are an intermittent precursor to the Future Homes Standard, which comes into effect in 2025 and represents a further uplift in domestic energy usage. Homes built from that date will be expected to produce 75-80% fewer carbon emissions compared to current standards. It’s part of the government’s overall strategy to limit the UK’s CO₂ output to net-zero by 2050.

In terms of the amendments to Part L regulations, it states the 31% emissions increase shall be achieved through improved fabric performance and renewable energy solutions such as heat pumps. Correctly specified and installed insulation is a vital building fabric component, and will be key to new housing achieving Part ‘O’ of the building regulations. Also effective from earlier this month, Part ‘O’ accompanies the Part L regulations in order to prevent properties overheating as a result of ever-tighter energy standards and modern design preferences that have led to issues such as solar gain. 

Mitigating overheating risk with Eurowall +

Part ‘O’ regulations state that where possible, passive interventions including insulation should be used to mitigate domestic overheating issues, with non-passive mitigations – mechanical cooling, ventilation systems – recommended to ensure full compliance. Polyisocyanurate (PIR) panels are gaining in popularity as the ideal insulant to facilitate the low-energy needs of our future built environment and create interiors that optimise occupants’ year-round comfort. With its manufacture of Eurowall+, Recticel has produced a solution that meets both requirements in one, ingeniously simple, rapid-to-install insulation system.

Eurowall+, a rigid full-fill PIR board, is the first of its kind to feature a tongue-and-groove joint on all four edges, an innovative detail that makes it capable of achieving a U-value of 0.18 W/m2K in a traditional 100mm masonry cavity wall. Its beneficial size, coupled with its improved airtightness from the tongue and groove joint, means Eurowall+ extracts more performance compared to typical partial-fill solutions without widening the footprint of the external wall.

The 10mm air gap, which is created by a 90mm Eurowall+ PIR board achieving a U-value of 0.18 W/m2K in a traditional 100mm masonry cavity wall, makes for a more convenient fit for bricklayers when it comes to applying the insulation. This speeds-up installation times, thus reduces labour costs and time spent on site to further boost the sustainable outcomes associated with Eurowall+ specification.

As weather changes in accordance with the seasons, expert choice and design can ensure consistent levels of comfort, health and wellbeing are achieved inside a home through insulation. For this idyllic outcome, Eurowall+ is an ideal fit.