Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

UK: Energy savings of 63% have been achieved following the installation of multiple Saint-Gobain systems in a world-first retrofit research project.

Saint-Gobain worked with the Energy House at Salford University, Greater Manchester, UK to prove that whole-house, fabric first retrofitting of homes can deliver significantly reduced energy costs, lower CO₂ emissions and remove 50% of air leakage.

The Energy House at Salford University is a typical 1919 terraced house that has been reconstructed in a fully environmentally controllable chamber, in which climatic conditions can be maintained, varied, repeated and patterns monitored. The type of building used in the study represents 21% of UK housing stock and is classed as a hard-to-treat property due to its poor energy efficiency derived from solid wall construction.

The Energy House at Salford University included Saint-Gobain systems from British Gypsum, Glassolutions, Isover and Weber to bring high levels of thermal efficiency. The approach of the project was to measure the whole-house performance post-installation using off-the-shelf Saint-Gobain systems and standard installation techniques, making the results repeatable across the UK's hard-to-treat housing stock.

Canada: Johns Manville (JM) has added commercial and residential mineral wool to its full spectrum of insulation products in Canada.

JM mineral wool insulation offers a variety of performance benefits in both commercial and residential construction. With a melting point in excess of 1093˚C, mineral wool can help delay fire spread, create quieter buildings and homes, increase privacy between rooms and reduce heating and cooling costs by keeping structures warm in winter and cool in summer.

"Mineral wool has long been a favourite product of Canadian building professionals, but there's no longer just one game in town," said Fred Stephan, senior vice president of Insulation Systems at Johns Manville. "With JM mineral wool, building occupants benefit from acoustically superior environments, moisture protection and increased fire performance, while contractors benefit from JM's full range of product offerings, providing more options and resources across all insulation categories."

US: The insulation company Installed Building Products Inc (IBP) has announced that Robert H Schottenstein has been elected as an independent director to the IBP board of directors.

"I am extremely pleased to welcome Schottenstein to our board," stated Jeff Edwards, chairman and chief executive officer of IBP. "Schottenstein brings a wealth of experience to IBP, particularly related to residential construction markets and corporate management and complements the significant expertise and depth of our current board members."

UK: Building product installers are getting help with the Energy Companies Obligation (ECO) from Encon Insulation.

Insulation and wallboard contractors are getting help with access to ECO and Green Deal funding through the launch of an Eco Club by Encon Insulation. Encon's Eco Club is supported by ECO and Green Deal funding provider Effective Energy, as well as manufacturers Kingspan Insulation, Superglass and Parex.

Eco Club members will benefit from support accessing ECO and Green Deal funding, as well as Green Deal cash-back. They will also be eligible for product buying deals and on-going trading incentives. Access to renewable products will be supplied through Amco Renewables. Members will also benefit from access to ECO and Green Deal projects, project data, customer introductions, lead generation and marketing as well as training for the Green Deal installer certification standard PAS 2030.

Encon Insulation have been keen to trial an ECO and Green Deal offer for their existing and potential new customers and have been fine-tuning their Eco Club offer over the past 18 months.

"Often this new, fast-moving market sector is seen as over-complicated, with huge barriers to entry and as a consequence many contractors risk missing the boat. The Encon Eco Club aims to cut through this, keep things simple and allow our customers to enter the ECO and Green Deal arena." Said Mike Beard of Encon. "Initial press has been less than kind to both schemes but they are in play and our Eco Club will help small and medium enterprises to enter and compete with the larger national players. This model will develop over the coming months and enable members to access expertise to get them started and provide projects to work on and competitively priced products with which to carry out the work." He added, "The next steps are to populate the model with Eco Club team members, get working on specific schemes and deliver value for all parties involved."

Malaysia: PGF Insulation Sdn Bhd plans to build a second mineral wool plant next to its existing plant in Penang and start production in early 2016. PGF has awarded the first phase of the project to a local contractor and work is expected to commence in May 2014. This phase of the project, when completed, will have a capacity of 20,000MT/yr with a focus on batts and boards production.

PGF has started its plant expansion plan due to growing demand for its glasswool products in the Asia Pacific region. The five-acre site was acquired in 2008 for future expansion purposes. PGF's current facility has a production capacity of 20,000Mt/yr. The first phase project will add 20,000Mt/yr and it will be operational in 2016. A second phase will add a further 20,000Mt/yr bringing the total production capacity to 60,000Mt/yr. PGF intends to be become the largest mineral wool manufacturer in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region when the upgrades are completed.

This news article was updated on 3 April 2014