THERMAL PERFORMANCE
Amendments to Part L of the Building Regulations by the Department of the Environment in 2003, required significantly higher levels of insulation than previous was required.
The following levels of insulation are required in walls, floors and attic spaces:
- Walls U-value = 0.27 W/sq. m²/K
- Floors U-value = 0.25 W/sq.m²/K
- Attics U-value = 0.16 W/sq.m²/K
Further amendments to the Building Regulations which were implemented in July 2008 require an improvement in energy efficiency in the home of 40% above 2003 levels, and in 2010 this figure will rise to 60% . In addition all new homes are now accompanied by a Building Energy Rating (BER) which is a measure of the energy efficiency of the house. Concrete built homes provide home owners with the ideal means of achieving the highest energy rating on the BER scale. The first A-Rated home in Ireland was a concrete built home. To find out more about building an A-Rated Concrete Home and other advantages of concrete home see the publications below.
Of course an important way of improving energy efficiency in the home is to build plenty of insulation into the walls, floors and attic space during construction. But, concrete walls and floors have an additional advantage over lightweight timber construction. Architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright have utilised the Fabric Energy Storage properties of concrete in their house designs as far back as the 1920's. Put simply, concrete acts as a thermal heat store, absorbing and retaining heat and eventually returning it to the atmosphere. Concrete can absorb free heat from the sun, mainly through south facing windows and doors, and store this in the floors and walls of the building. Also, by absorbing heat, concrete improves comfort conditions by preventing rapid temperature swings caused by strong sunlight or large numbers of people entering a room.
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