Home  5  Books  5  Magazines  5  News  5  GreenPro  5  HelpDesk  5  Your Cart  5  Register  5  Green Living Forum
Not signed in (Sign In)

Categories



Green Building magazine

Green Building magazine

New - Spring 2012 edition.

View the current issue.
Subscribe now.
Magazine homepage.
Browse back issues.




Vanilla 1.0.3 is a product of Lussumo. More Information: Documentation, Community Support.

Welcome to new Forum Visitors
 Join the forum now and benefit from discussions with thousands of other green building fans and discounts on Green Building Press publications: Apply now.




Products: Rigid vacuum insulation panels

Bottom of Page

1 to 17 of 17

  1.  
    • CommentAuthorShevek
    • CommentTimeJul 1st 2012
     
    This is something new to me. Does anyone have any experience with these sorts of products?

    Optim-R from Kingspan for example:
    http://www.kingspaninsulation.co.uk/getattachment/32f89884-f197-4fa4-860c-b54129a0da77/Optim-R.aspx
  2.  
    Russell Smith, at Parity Projects, (russell.smith AT parityprojects.com) used something like this in part of his refurb. have a look at PP's web-site. There's probably a run-down of the projects included there.
  3.  
    looks interesting , i wonder how you fix it etc ? I presume you cant cut them
    •  
      CommentAuthorDamonHD
    • CommentTimeJul 1st 2012
     
    I'd be interested except for the certainty that someone will knock a nail in to hang a picture (etc)...

    Rgds

    Damon
  5.  
    What happens there? Does your hammer get sucked into the hole? :bigsmile:
    •  
      CommentAuthorDamonHD
    • CommentTimeJul 1st 2012
     
    The country silently loses a DIYer: "In a vacuum panel, no one can hear you scream..."

    Rgds

    Damon
  7.  
    Hi,

    It does look as if they cannot be cut. The spec offers a range of lengths and widths so if you were using these the design package would have to adjust shapes and sizes to work in multiples of the standard sizes.

    There was another thread a long time back on vacuum panels.

    Cheers, Mike up North
  8.  
    The country silently loses a DIYer: "In a vacuum panel, no one can hear you scream..."

    ...Or do you disappear? Don't you jut get sucked in so far as to plug the gap, ten become a sort of knobbly part of a wall with a slightly higher U value?
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeJul 2nd 2012
     
    I feel there are some silly thoughts here and it won't be long before a puncture repair kit is mentioned.

    How does the cost compare to Damon's favourite?
    •  
      CommentAuthorDamonHD
    • CommentTimeJul 2nd 2012
     
    I wasn't able to find any pricing when I looked, even with the help of my best friend Google.

    Incidentally, unless I was misreading the figures, this Optim-R doesn't seem *much* better than aerogel: maybe 50% better? Less than the difference between aerogel and the best of the foams perhaps.

    Rgds

    Damon
    • CommentAuthordjh
    • CommentTimeJul 2nd 2012
     
    With other products VIP I've seen, the issue has been expected life, with ten years or so being typical. So they might be fine for building into appliances like freezers, or arguably using around hot water tanks to maximise storage in a restricted space. But products that you have to dig out and replace every ten years don't sound like a good idea to build into the fabric of a building. And products that silently lose their performance when somebody accidentally sticks a nail through them aren't very appealing either.

    So, I don't know what warranty Kingspan are offering, but I would check the small print very carefully.
    •  
      CommentAuthorJSHarris
    • CommentTimeJul 2nd 2012
     
    Life would be my concern, too. Once the panel loses vacuum then it becomes pretty useless as insulation, I'd guess. Maintaining absolute airtightness through life for something like this must be a bit of a nightmare, especially when we'd want that life to be many tens of years if building it in to the structure of the house.
  13.  
    It's a bit like the flat plate vs evac tube argument. If an evac tube fails (or lots of them decide to), you have a completely uninsulated FP panel with a small absorber area. An old FP panel just carries on working. How much to replace an evac tube? As many say, only about £25. If you DIY and have your own access equipmemnt. If not, maybe £25 + £350 scaff + 2 x pple x 0.5 days. How much to strip out vacuum wall panels and replace with something which does not carry the risks of failure/accidental damage?
    • CommentAuthorEd Davies
    • CommentTimeJul 2nd 2012
     
    Posted By: Nick ParsonsIf an evac tube fails (or lots of them decide to), you have a completely uninsulated FP panel with a small absorber area.

    Doesn't that rather depend on the type of ETs you have? With heat-pipe ones the extra losses from the manifold if a few tubes fail will be very small (as the heat-pipe acts like a thermal diode) and the remaining tubes will just carry on as before.
  15.  
    Yes, by 'lots of them' I guess I was hedging my bets and assuming the mjority had failed. I suppose I was trying to draw the analogy between solid, reliable FP panels and solid, reliable, 'ordinary' (yes, someone define that!) insulation
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeJul 5th 2012 edited
     
    Posted By: Nick Parsonssolid, reliable, 'ordinary' (yes, someone define that!) insulation
    an unsheared sheep? Cd last longer than a vacuum panel!
  17.  
    I thoroughly regret never having taken a photo of the goats which used to stand tight-packed against the gable wall of what became South Yorkshire Energy Centre. A bit of Photo-Shopping could have stacked them up and deklivered a true 'living wall'!

1 to 17 of 17

  1.  
Add your comments

    Username Password
  • Format comments as
 
Back to Discussions Top of Page
   
The Ecobuilding Buzz
Site Map    |   Home    |   View Cart    |   Pressroom   |   Business   |   Links   
Logout    

© Green Building Press