Knauf Insulation products have helped turn the Wienerberger e4 brick house concept into a reality at the BRE Innovation Park.
With the aim of creating an archetype for the future of UK housing, Wienerberger, the leading provider of wall, roof and landscaping innovations, has developed the Wienerberger e4 brick house concept.
The concept was developed in conjunction with global engineering and design consultancy, ARUP to address the need for affordable, sustainable housing in the UK and is based on four fundamental principles of economy, energy, environment and emotion.
Giving housebuilders the opportunity to build houses that meet future market, environmental and social needs, the Wienerberger e4 brick house also provides homeowners with the greatest possible flexibility and functionality. It is intended to be as adaptable as possible; to work as well through shared ownership as it would as a family home.
The first Wienerberger e4 brick house in the UK was recently launched at BRE’s Innovation Park. The house utilises a fabric first approach and integral to this has been the use of Wienerberger’s market leading building products and solutions, as well as innovations from other sectors of the construction industry.
For this revolutionary project, Knauf Insulation has supplied products to help realise the proposition and turn the Wienerberger e4 house concept into a reality.
Knauf Insulation has supplied cavity wall insulation, Earthwool DriTherm 32, and its Earthwool Loft Roll 44 insulation to satisfy the Energy principle criteria: to provide a house that meets and exceeds the latest energy performance standards and will continue to meet these standards for every day of its 150 years plus lifecycle.
Knauf Insulation’s Earthwool products are ideally suited. The external wall cavity has been insulated to achieve a U-value of 0.18W/m2K. This has been achieved by completely filling the cavity with 150mm of Knauf Insulation Earthwool DriTherm Cavity Slab 32 Ultimate, which has a thermal conductivity of 0.032 W/mK. This is a full-fill insulation solution and is easy to install. The water resistant, semi-rigid slabs are designed to suit standard vertical wall tie spacing’s, and the resilient nature of mineral wool allows the slabs to knit together to provide continuous insulation. Whilst further benefits are realised through mineral wool’s acoustic, and reaction to fire performance, that negate the need for additional cavity fire stopping or acoustic cavity stops to be installed.
Meanwhile, the roof has been insulated at ceiling level to give a U-value of 0.12W/m2K. This has been achieved by installing 350mm of Knauf Insulation Earthwool Loft Roll 44, with 100mm installed between the ceiling joists with 250mm added above. Earthwool Loft Roll 44 is manufactured in a range of thicknesses and has combi-cut perforations to give the flexibility to be used between 400mm or 600mm ceiling joists. Insulating at ceiling level provides the most cost effective insulation solution in terms of ratio of cost to energy saved.
It was also very important that the design and build of the house be as environmentally conscious as possible. In this way, the house had to minimise any environmental impact, achieve certain criteria and all the materials chosen had to be responsibly sourced. Knauf Insulation’s Earthwool glass mineral wool products contain up to 80% recycled glass and are manufactured with a bio-based binder technology that uses rapidly renewable materials and contains no added formaldehyde or dyes. This leads to a mineral wool product that has a high level of sustainability and a material that is soft to the touch making it easy to handle, cut and install.
Phil Rigby, Product Manager – Glass Mineral Wool Refurbishment - Northern Europe at Knauf Insulation comments: “Wienerberger’s e4 concept is all about providing value in the form of economy, energy, environment and emotion, and we’re very pleased to have collaborated on and provided some key insulation solutions to help realise this vision.”