Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

UK: Knauf Insulation plans to upgrade two of its glass wool insulation plants in the UK at a cost of Euro53.7m. The upgrades consist of a packaging equipment upgrade at the Cwmbran, Torfaen, insulation plant and the replacement of the furnace and connected equipment at its St Helens, Merseyside, insulation plant, as well the acquisition of land adjacent to the latter from NSG Group. As a result of its upgrade, the Cwmbran plant will begin producing insulation slabs as well as rolls and blowing wool. The company said that the investments are a response to anticipated glass wool insulation demand growth on the back of the government’s Future Homes Standard energy efficiency policy.

Managing director Neil Hargreaves said “This series of investments will boost capacity as well as improve the range, availability and sustainability of our products.”

UK: Knauf Insulation has developed a tool that uses machine learning techniques to measure the energy performance of individual homes. The method can generate an assessment of fabric performance of a residential building within three months, according to BusinessGreen. The product is intended to provide evidence to support the building fabric component of a building's energy performance certificate (EPC) rating, as opposed to Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) calculations. Such evidence could be used to support return on investment calculations for energy efficiency retrofit programmes.

Belgium: VIPA International, the Vacuum Insulation Panel Association, has commented on new regulations on energy efficiency labelling ahead of a vote by the European Parliament. It believes that the current system of labelling is too complicated for consumers so it welcomes the work by the European Parliament and the European Council to develop a new scale for energy related products. The Industry, Research and Energy Committee of the European Parliament is scheduled to take a vote on the issue on 14 June 2016

"We are convinced that the new energy label will be an important measure to correctly inform the European consumers on the actual energy efficiency performances of appliances, and we therefore support the work of the European Institutions in this direction," said Gregor Erbenich, Chairman of the Public Affairs Working Group of VIPA International.

VIPA International notes that the frequency of the rescaling will be a central issue to ensure the reliability of the label. Therefore, it recommends that any rescaling should be performed separately for each product, not via a fixed periodic review. It suggests that only simple and standardised information should be included in the database of energy efficient products. Finally, it recommends that all energy labels should be clearly visible in shops.