Rockwool insulates Ecohomes development

Rockwool Insulation provide key benefits, including thermal, fire, environmental and acoustic performance, all of which made significant contributions to the criteria needed under EcoHomes.

Reports suggest that as much as 20 million tonnes of new materials are used every year by the UK house building industry and 30% of total UK energy is consumed by domestic households.

It is of no surprise therefore that the building sector is under increasing pressure to maintain an effective balance between housing development and environmental impact.

EcoHomes has been introduced to improve the overall environmental performance of new and existing homes.

The initiative provides an authoritative environmental rating that considers energy, transport, pollution, materials, water, ecology and land use, and human health and wellbeing.

Where criteria have been met, credits are awarded and the design is rated as pass, good, very good or excellent.

While the mandatory level of environmental performance is set by Building Regulations, initiatives such as EcoHomes encourage house builders to exceed minimum standards and provide exceptional levels of performance.

As a result, the extent to which the house builder is responsible for the environmental performance of a building will continue to extend throughout the building's life cycle, from raw material to end use.

Insulation can play a key role in EcoHomes and was used extensively in the £30 million Southampton based City Centre Chapel development.

Over 5500 square metres of Rockwool insulation was used throughout the multi-million pound redevelopment programme, which included the construction of 174 new environmentally friendly, residential units.

Rockwool Insulation provides a unique combination of several key benefits, including thermal, fire, environmental and acoustic performance, all of which made significant contributions to the criteria needed under EcoHomes.

The energy criterion includes the building fabric, which should aim to improve the efficiency of dwellings over their whole life, in part through improved levels of insulation.

Health and wellbeing considers the benefits of sound insulation and a commitment to designing and building constructions that exceed the minimum performance standards in Part E (regarding acoustic performance) of Building Regulations.

The pollution criterion aims to reduce the potential for long-term damage to the ozone layer and the potential for increased global warming from substances used in the manufacture or composition of insulating materials.

EcoHomes makes particular reference to the avoidance of substances within the building design that have ozone depleting potential (ODP) and global warming potential (GWP).

Rockwool Insulation's award-winning manufacturing process is ISO 14001 accredited.

Supported by an independently assessed life cycle analysis, Rockwool is, without doubt, one of the most environmentally friendly construction products available, providing the designer with the scope to significantly improve the energy efficiency of a building.

In fact, over the lifetime of a typical UK building, as a result of reduced necessity for heating, the energy saved by using Rockwool is several hundred times greater than the energy associated with its production.

Rockwool Insulation's acoustic properties were also an essential consideration to ensure that the highest EcoHomes rating was met.

Rockwool Insulation is an extremely effective absorber of sound, ensuring that the minimum performance standards that have been introduced are met, and more often than not, exceeded.

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