Knauf Insulation’s innovative ThermoShell Internal Wall Insulation (IWI) system has been installed at a hard-to-treat property for homeless people, as part of an energy efficient retrofit programme from St Vincent’s Housing Association.
Funded by the Green Deal Go Early scheme from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), the project involved the installation of a number of energy efficient systems at the housing association’s Redfearn House in Rochdale, including air source heat pumps, mechanical ventilated heat recovery systems and A-rated window replacements.
The retrofit to the building will significantly improve the quality of life for the clients, as most were experiencing fuel poverty and struggling to maintain their utility supply prior to the works.
Callum Jones, Development and Sustainability Officer at St Vincent’s Housing Association said: “This project, which was completed at the end of March 2013, had an objective to bring the old inefficient property up to current standards, for more affordable bills.
“Having been on Knauf Insulation's Internal Wall Insulation (IWI) training course at its ThermoShell Academy, in Birmingham, we knew that this system was a must-have to improve the thermal performance of the building - which would ultimately provide a comfortable environment for the tenants.
“As we were tackling this retrofit as a fabric first approach and had to meet a certain deadline, due to funding, Knauf Insulation’s IWI system was ideal as we could install this on a room-by-room basis - meaning tenants would not be disturbed for too long and they could enjoy the benefits straight away.”
Sue O’Hara, Senior Support Worker, at Stepping Stone Projects said: “Tenants were actually living at Redfearn House while the retrofit was taking place. Thanks to the quick installation of Knauf Insulation’s IWI system, the disruption to them was minimal. Everyone at Redfearn House has made comments about how warm the rooms are now, which is great news.”
Knauf Insulation’s ThermoShell IWI system is BBA certified and has been specifically designed for upgrading solid wall properties - providing the most effective solution to ‘whole house-low energy’ refurbishments by delivering outstanding thermal performance.
The system consists of thermally engineered studs (EcoStud), which eliminates thermal bridging, and Earthwool, water repellent, glass mineral wool slabs (EcoBatts) that are friction fitted between the EcoStuds to fill the vacant space.
The system is only available to approved installers that have completed training at Knauf Insulation’s ThermoShell Training Academy. The academy is designed to train installers to ensure that they provide a quality service and installation of the system and this enables Knauf Insulation to offer a 25-year guarantee on the system. Each course consists of a full day of training, with the delegates having a thorough theoretical workshop in the morning followed by a practical session in the afternoon – putting what they have learned into practice.
After attending the course, the tradesmen will have permission to install Knauf Insulation’s systems but will only become fully accredited once they have completed up to three installations that are checked and verified by the team of Knauf Insulation Regional Technical Managers (RTM’s).
Callum concludes: “We’ve used Knauf Insulation’s IWI system on a number of projects already and just like the previous projects, we kept to schedule, the installation was easy and we achieved a brilliant U-value of 0.30. We will be using this advanced system on more properties in the future, to help provide our tenants with warmer homes and lower energy bills.”