Insulation and the Thermal Performance of Buildings

This paper describes the way in which buildings exercise a major controlling influence over their internal environment and demonstrates by a series of historic and modern examples the degree to which comfort can be improved or energy conservation achieved. It describes the changes in the requirements for insulation in the Building Regulations and the problems which must be overcome in highly insulated buildings. It demonstrates that the steady state U-value concept of thermal performance of walls and roofs is inadequate to predict real thermal performance and shows the savings which can be achieved by high levels of properly designed insulation.