Building insulation engineering with thermal insulated foils

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Why insulating a building

The main goal of insulating in general is to divide or to separate two different temperatures from each other. When we use insulation material in buildings, the main purpose will be to keep the generated warm air inside of the building during winter time in order to create energy savings. Also in summer time a good insulation material can prove its use to prevent warm air to penetrate the building and keeping the generated cold air inside. Regardless of the reason why we insulate, the way of insulating and the quality of the insulation material will determine the profitability of our goal. A good insulation material with good insulation quality (R-U-k-values) will be required to get good results in which the rule stands that over-insulating or insulating too good, does not exist. The better your insulation quality, the better your profitability.

What is Temax insulation material - insulation foil

Temax is a global registered Trademark of the company Krautz and represents a special developed insulation material that has proven its high quality in the cold chain logistics of pharmaceuticals and food perishables. In these hard restricted markets, the Temax insulation foils are called the best insulators in their kind. The Temax insulation material is a unique developed insulation foil that has a multilayer construction in which different special insulating techniques are implemented to offer thermal resistance against the known heat transfer subjects such as radiation, conduction and convection. The Temax insulation techniques use a multilayer reflection technique with a closed convection cell structure of stationary air which is combined with passive convection flow cavity wall techniques. This unique composition results in a very high insulation quality with a minimal own temperature intake and with a lesser material thickness.

Pressure surface insulation technique with Temax insulation materials – foils

When Temax insulation is used in a construction (roof – drywall – etc), the insulation material always needs to be used in a U-shape set-up so pressure surfaces are created that push against the inside of the construction of the building as shown in the drawing below. The U-shape is created by folding the stitched sides of the insulation material inwards. These folded sides are next stapled against the inside construction. When the insulation material is stapled to the construction, it is important that the insulation is pressing effectively against the construction preventing thermal bridges or cold bridges. It could therefore be advisable to decrease the spaced between the staplers or to use a thin plate to create more firm pressure against the insulation material. The Temax insulation techniques also use tension surfaces that make sure that the total construction is totally air tight as shown on the drawing below. In this set-up, the Temax insulation material is also used as a front locking foil (SP3) creating spaces with stationary air in the construction which increase the insulation quality of the total set-up significantly.

Krautz temax thermische energie engenieering Wonungbau Isolierfolien

Warm and cold roof insulation technique with Temax insulation material – foil

When we talk about a cold roof insulation technique, we mean that the insulation material is located on the inside of the roof construction meaning that the construction is on the cold side in winter time. This insulation technique is most often used when after-insulation is performed of the existing roof construction. The drawing shows how the Temax insulation foils needs to be applied when this kind of cold roof insulation technique is used. As mentioned before, the art of efficient insulating is to create an air-tight set-up of the insulation construction so the penetration of vapor or air moister (thermal bridges or cold bridges) is avoided. As we know, moister can lead to the damaging of the wood construction of the building or finishing plates due to condense locations. When we talk about a warm roof insulating technique, we mean that the insulation is placed on the outside of the roof construction meaning that the roof construction remains on the warm side in winter time. This insulation technique is often used for new building constructions or complete roof renovations.

Drywall insulation technique with Temax insulation material and foil

When a wall is insulated insufficiently, the choice can be made to insulate this wall from the inside. To make this possible, an extra wall construction, also called a drywall, can be constructed against the existing wall. The insulation material will be integrated in the construction of this extra drywall as shown in the drawing below. If the wall, that will be insulated and re-built with a drywall, is an exterior wall that is subjected to outer weather conditions such as cold and hot temperatures, rain and snow etc…, the insulating process becomes delicate seeing invisible moister condense locations or invisible wood damaging (rotting) can appear. The outer temperature of the wall is mostly colder meaning that moister or vapor can appear on the warm side of the wall due to condense, creating unpleasant situations and possible mould that can lead to diseases. The Temax insulation material offers opportunities against these possible condense situations due to the special insulation techniques which are implemented in the insulation material. Tests with dry-ice (-78°C) have shown no creation of condense on the insulation material. The Temax insulation material is also completely water proof and water resistant meaning that the foil also functions as a vapor barrier foil so no vapor or moister can penetrate through the insulation material. With other words, the Temax insulation material offers the possibility to create a totally air-tight insulation construction.

Krautz Temax isolatie

Krautz Temax insulation isolation

Cavity wall insulation technique with Temax insulation material – foil

Krautz Temax cavity wall insulationWhen we talk about a cavity wall in building construction we mean that an exterior wall is constructed out of two walls which are placed next to each other being an inside wall and an outside wall which are separated by an air-cavity. The goal of the cavity between the walls is to prevent water and moister to penetrate through the total wall to the inside of the building. When the outer wall is subjected to rain and snow or moister weather conditions, the moister will try to penetrate the outer wall (bricks). This penetrating moister is yet blocked by the cavity where it cannot conduct any further, keeping the inner wall of the construction dry. The outer wall can also be equipped with holes on the bottom and the top so an air convection flow is created in the cavity which will dry the penetrating moister on the inside of the outer wall. The usage of insulation material in the building construction with cavity wall techniques started in Europe in the seventies where the insulation material was located inside the cavity to create extra insulation performances to the building. When insulation material is used in the cavity wall construction, it is important that the goal of the cavity still remains being the blocking of penetrating moister through the outer brick walls. To make this possible the insulation material is constructed against the inner wall where the thickness of the insulation material is thinner than the width of the cavity. This means that after the construction of the insulation material, a smaller cavity remain between the insulation material and the outer wall. This now creates extra advantages in regards to temperature and heat resistance. When the outer wall gets very hot or very cold, the temperature will start to penetrate through the outer wall, yet the heat conduction will be blocked by the cavity. There it needs to change into radiation to heat up the insulation material. This change has a significant impact on the temperature penetration time. This temperature penetration time is even extra delayed when the cavity is ventilated by the air convection flow which is created due to the holes on top and bottom in the outer wall. Due to this technique the heating air inside the cavity due to the hot outer temperature is ventilated out of the cavity. Simple yet very effective.

Laws and financial subsidy with insulation foils

If you would decide to use insulation foils to insulate your building, please inform yourself on the conditions, subsidy and local laws in regards to using thermal insulated foils as insulating material. In some countries, insulation foils cannot be used as a main insulation material and can only be used as an extra insulation or after-insulation technique.