Insulation

Ray Palmer

murphaph wrote: »

Just on that point...

What do Irish building regs say about insulation between floors and inside internal walls?

We're going to build a new house here in Berlin or in surrounding Brandenburg next Spring (currently site hunting!). We have a myriad of options when it comes to build type but I am a real fan of prefabricated houses. The one we are veering towards insulates the floors for sound and heat (but the house is a low energy house). As far as I know this is not a requirement of the building regs in Germany but it seems like it really should be. You can't really control the heat in a room using a TRV or similar if a good chunk of the heat in the room is actually coming from a room below!

My days of knowing the regs inside out are gone. Our regs are more minimum settings rather than anything else. Insulating floors within a property is not something that is done normally done on domestic or even commercial buildings. You might get it in apartment blocks but lots of them are just concrete.

I agree with you it makes sense. We have the attic and walls insulated so the heat gets trapped in the bedrooms. If we do the floor it will be better for noise and comfort. Likely that we will put in a floating floor with insulation to the old floor. It would be the preferred way even for a new build in my eyes. I'd go for the ultra thin NASA insulation stuff because you want to be able to access the electric and plumbing fixture with relative ease.

MicktheMan

murphaph wrote: »

We're going to build a new house here in Berlin or in surrounding Brandenburg next Spring (currently site hunting!). We have a myriad of options when it comes to build type but I am a real fan of prefabricated houses. The one we are veering towards insulates the floors for sound and heat (but the house is a low energy house). As far as I know this is not a requirement of the building regs in Germany but it seems like it really should be. You can't really control the heat in a room using a TRV or similar if a good chunk of the heat in the room is actually coming from a room below!

The days of large variations in temperature from room to room should be gone if building a new house and also large fluctuations in temperature over the day should be a thing of the past.
Have you considered Passiv Haus (especially as you will be building in Germany, the home of the PH)? I would if in your shoes and educate myself on the principles involved. Good luck in any case.

murphaph

Yeah it'll be a passiv haus. The crowd we're going with do a deal: for a 120m² house they supply a heat pump, the 100m bore for geothermal and underfloor heating for €12k. We'll be paying a bit more though as we want to build a cellar.

MicktheMan

murphaph wrote: »

Yeah it'll be a passiv haus. The crowd we're going with do a deal: for a 120m² house they supply a heat pump, the 100m bore for geothermal and underfloor heating for €12k. We'll be paying a bit more though as we want to build a cellar.

Are you sure its a passiv haus because, if done properly, there is no need for a conventional wet heating system

murphaph

MicktheMan wrote: »

Are you sure its a passiv haus because, if done properly, there is no need for a conventional wet heating system

I'll double check. How would you heat it otherwise Mick?

MicktheMan

murphaph wrote: »

I'll double check. How would you heat it otherwise Mick?

I'll try to keep it brief:

1st point is a heating system's role is not to heat a house but to replace the heat that's lost from the house.

PH principle is to build the thermal envelope such that there is very very little heat loss. Therefore, very little heat is required to maintain temps. This "heating" is supplied through solar gains and other gains from normal domestic activities/appliances.

A very good explanation here.

murphaph

Hi Mick,
then I was mistaken. We will be building what the Germans call an Effizienzhaus 40 (<40kWh/m²*a). In Germany you can obtain up to €50k at low interest rates such as 1.7% fixed for 10 years) if you build to such energy efficiency standards.

Our house will be "near passiv" I would say. The walls will have a U-Value of 0.147W/m²K, the roof 0.178, the windows 0.7 (triple glazed) and the floor plate 0.205. It will have a ventilation system with 90% energy recovery from exhaust air. It will be near airtight of course (blower tested).

We intend using geothermal for a heat source coupled with underfloor heating (I just love warmth under my feet!).

Idbatterim

came across this in the indo earlier, is this actually something new or is it an airsource heat pump?

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/innovative-new-heating-system-may-yet-save-us-all-millions-29950123.html

sarkozy

murphaph wrote: »

Just on that point...

What do Irish building regs say about insulation between floors and inside internal walls?

We're going to build a new house here in Berlin or in surrounding Brandenburg next Spring (currently site hunting!). We have a myriad of options when it comes to build type but I am a real fan of prefabricated houses. The one we are veering towards insulates the floors for sound and heat (but the house is a low energy house). As far as I know this is not a requirement of the building regs in Germany but it seems like it really should be. You can't really control the heat in a room using a TRV or similar if a good chunk of the heat in the room is actually coming from a room below!

Whereabouts are you looking for sites!? Sounds great. And ... can I ask what's got you in Berlin?

Victor

This is an old thread. Other posts have been split off and moved here: Thermal stability problem

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