TITLE: An extremely thermally efficient and airtight curtain walling system for building refurbishmentt
Research and development of a cladding system with a building scale demonstrator for improving building fabric to reduce energy loss and improve comfort conditions.
We propose a thermally efficient curtain walling system that can be used in any commercial building comprising a frame to which the façade is fixed. It solves the problem of thermal bridging and poor airtightness which is acute with the very common metal structural facades of curtain walled buildings.
SAS and MagmaTech are developing a Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP / composite) pultruded profile system which is capable of supporting a range of façade materials as curtain walling. This system will allow a combination of glazer areas and non glazed areas with a variable final finish to achieve PassivHaus standard performance. This system has excellent energy saving potential and as a “fabric first” method is a particularly desirable energy saving measure. The structural elements are FRP and therefore have a very low thermal conductivity. Indeed commonly used aluminium and steel profiles will usually have greater thermal conductivity by a factor of 200 or 60 respectively.
The composite profiles will support and connect the existing structure to highly insulating widows (U value of