As energy performance requirements tighten across the UK and Europe, the building envelope has become one of the most critical elements to ensure projects achieve targets.
For architects, structural engineers and specifiers, it is vital that a thermally insulated building envelope is no longer simply considered as a matter of meeting minimum regulatory standards, but is central to achieving energy targets, occupant comfort and preventing structural damage.
Armatherm™ structural thermal break solutions are engineered to address thermal bridging by insulating junctions and connections of highly conductive materials to reduce heat loss. Installing these solutions help reinforce the building envelope and work towards continuous insulation.
What a Building Thermal Envelope Is
The thermal envelope is the continuous layer that surrounds a building, separating the conditioned interior from the external environment. For a building to perform as intended, this envelope must function as a unified, unbroken system: any gap, discontinuity, or poorly specified connection creates a pathway for heat loss.
However, keeping a thermal envelope intact isn’t realistically possible, as structural connections and fixing components tend to pass through the envelope, compromising the thermal layer. For example, balcony connections, parapet brackets, cladding supports and column base plates are all elements that can penetrate the thermal envelope if not properly detailed, leading to issues connected to thermal bridging.
Insulated Thermal Envelopes and Energy Performance
For any building, residential or commercial, an inadequate thermal envelope can be the culprit for low energy performance and ensuring that it is well-specified is essential for reducing heat loss and therefore energy demand.
With this in mind, it is vital that from initial designs of a project, that the thermal envelope should be a priority with solutions specified to ensure the continuity of the layer.
Concrete Building Envelopes and Thermal Challenges
In instances where concrete is used and structural elements are then casted in place, these connections create weak spots in the thermal envelope, allowing for heat to transfer, internal temperatures to fluctuate and puts the building at risk of condensation and mould build up. For example, in applications like balcony slabs where they extend through the external wall, the steel and concrete interrupts the thermal envelope and without proper insulation, like a thermal break, it can be detrimental to heat loss.
Similarly where foundations are concrete and column bases are then installed, this can be a prime example of the building envelope being interrupted and location for thermal bridging. Again, it is vital that in these applications that a block of thermal break material is installed at the base of the column to provide additional insulation and reinforcing the envelope.
Managing Thermal Bridging in Building Envelope Design
Thermal bridging occurs wherever highly conductive materials meet, penetrating or bypassing the building’s insulating layer. This creates a pathway for heat flow to transfer from the outside in and vice versa. It is one of the most frequently underestimated sources of heat loss in buildings, and one that must be addressed in order to improve the structure’s efficiency, protect occupants’ safety and integrity of the building.
Armatherm™ structural thermal break products are engineered specifically to interrupt the conductive pathways that cause thermal bridging. By incorporating materials with very low thermal conductivity at structural junctions, such as Armatherm™ FRR, for load-bearing connections, and Armatherm™ 500, suited to a number of applications, it is possible to maintain structural continuity while significantly reducing heat flow across the thermal envelope.
Effective management of thermal bridging in envelope design means specifying solutions like Armatherm™ structural thermal break products in initial stages. Engineered specifically to interrupt the conductive pathways that cause thermal bridging, our thermal break products are a vital element that can help isolate these junctions.
Frequently Asked Questions
It’s the boundary that separates the inside of a building from the outside world. For it to work well, it needs to be airtight, well-insulated and free from weak spots that let heat escape.
By ensuring that the building envelope is well insulated at weak spots where connections meet. This lowers energy usage as internal temperatures can remain constant and don’t need to overwork.
Concrete is a highly conductive material and anywhere that it meets with another material can interrupt the building envelope and therefore create a weak spot which can leak heat. These instances can include balconies, floor slabs, or columns and it is in these applications that thermal break products ideally are installed to stop heat loss and prevent condensation problems.
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