|
Notes:
|
It is well known that it is necessary to insulate the buildings to decrease the thermal demand and to
decrease the use of heating and cooling. Due to the high cost of fossil fuels and to the necessity to reduce
CO2 emissions, and also due to the new building regulations more attention is paid to the insulation of
buildings. Different insulationmaterials are available in themarket. Usually, they are compared by their
thermal conductivity and with theoretical calculations, but there are no experimental comparisons
available, where the behavior of such insulation materials in a building is compared over time. This is
why the authors started a comparison of three typical insulation materials, polyurethane, polystyrene,
and mineral wool. For this purpose, four house-like cubicles were constructed (with a size of
2.4 m 2.4 m 2.4 m) and their thermal performance throughout the time was measured. The cubicles
were built under a conventional Mediterranean construction system, differing only in the insulation
material used. During 2008 and the first months of 2009 the performance of these cubicles was
evaluated, and the results are presented in this paper.
The work was partially funded by the Spanish government (project ENE2008-06687-C02-01/CON) and the European Union (COST Action COST TU0802), in collaboration with the companies Synthesia, Honeywell, and Cityhall of Puigverd de Lleida. The authors would like to thank the Catalan Government for the quality accreditation given to their research group (2009 SGR 534). |
