External insulation systems

Thermal transmittance

Thermal Insulation Values

In order to define a buildings overall thermal performance, a calculation must be made that
accounts for the combination of the individual components which, when built together,
form the whole. For example, a wall construction may comprise an internal plaster on lightweight concrete block work as an internal skin, which could then be separated from the
outer leaf of brickwork by a cavity. The thermal calculation should make allowances for all of
the constituent materials, including mortar joints and any thermal bridges such as wall ties,
as well as the surface/air interfaces.

Building materials have a variety of different

properties that work together to define the overall Material
performance of the building construction as a
Air
whole. Thermal performance of the construction
Brick
is no different.

The measure, which defines this overall performance, is the Thermal Transmittance, known
as the U-value. It is calculated from the summation of the reciprocal of all the individual
thermal resistances. The U-value may be defined as the rate of heat transfer through a
construction from air to air.
It is therefore important when calculating U-values to know the build-up of the wall construction
with the associated properties of each constituent material and their associated thickness

Insulated

Uninsulated

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Earth dry
Fiber insulating board
Any construction material will have an associated Plaster board
thermal conductivity, Lambda () value sometimes Polystyrene expanded
known as the K- value. It defines the amount of Straw insulation

heat units that can be transmitted in a unit time

through a unit thickness of material over a unit Copper
area. A low () value indicates a good thermal
insulator.

Thermal Conductivity
() W/Mk
0.0024
1.31
1.5
0.048
0.17
0.039
0.09
400

From the examples given above, Expanded Polystyrene is a high performance thermal insulator
yet copper is a thermal conductor and will transfer heat readily.

External insulation systems

External insulation systems

External insulation systems

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