Short lifespan of insulation materials harbors hidden risks.
Release Time:
2015-09-02
Source:
Short lifespan of insulation materials harbors hidden risks.
The recent major fire incident has drawn public attention to Thermal insulation material Attention is being paid to their fire-resistant performance. According to industry insiders, the risk of triggering fires is not the biggest issue with insulation materials; rather, the issue of their service life deserves even greater consideration.
Take expanded polystyrene (EPS) as an example: national regulations stipulate that its service life must be at least 25 years. In other words, as long as the EPS boards purchased by the construction contractor can last for 25 years, they are considered to be qualified products. What is the typical service life of a building? For most residential buildings, it is 70 years; for other types of structures, the service life may be even longer. In Prior to the onset of large-scale urbanization, China had relatively few high-rise buildings; single-story houses accounted for the largest share of the country’s total floor area, and the use of thermal insulation materials in construction was not widespread. It is only in recent years that there has been genuine attention paid to the service life of external wall external thermal insulation systems, so their full impact has yet to become fully apparent. It is evident... It is readily apparent that, after 25 years of use, two problems arise with thermal insulation materials: first, who bears the cost. To begin with, property developers will not assume responsibility—they acted in accordance with national regulations and bear no fault. As for asking residents to foot the bill, they will rightly ask: “Why should I pay? I bought a home with thermal insulation!” The other What should be done about the resulting white pollution? Construction waste is already abundant; if we add to it insulation materials such as EPS boards that are dismantled and replaced because they have reached the end of their service life, the volume of construction waste in China will surge. The non-biodegradable nature of these insulation materials is also a major headache: simple landfilling would cause severe environmental pollution. These two It was only a matter of time before the problem surfaced.
In response to the numerous issues associated with thermal insulation materials, informed sources have identified two solutions: first, to improve these materials by manufacturing them as prefabricated components for on-site installation; second, to move beyond them and seek alternative materials. There should be a well-planned and organized effort to vigorously develop pressurized aerated concrete, sintered thin-walled porous insulating masonry units, and composite insulating concrete masonry. block-type inorganic insulation materials. These insulation materials boast high strength and low shrinkage; some have already achieved a certain scale of industrial production, while others are currently being planned for development. Such materials can be used directly as wall components, with a service life matching that of the building itself. Moreover, they are readily sourced, conserve resources, and cost only about RMB 200–300 per cubic meter—lower than most Many organic materials are inexpensive. For example, in Chongqing, Guizhou, Shandong and other regions, sand and gravel are abundant, making the production of building blocks both economical and convenient. Overall, it is essential to conduct research on and promote a variety of solutions. One major reason why concrete blocks have not been widely adopted is that they can reduce the usable floor area. Why do people prefer to use exterior walls? Why use external thermal insulation materials instead of directly building walls with concrete blocks? It’s because increasing wall thickness reduces the floor-area ratio. Emphasizing the floor-area ratio is highly persuasive—no homebuyer wants to spend the same amount of money and end up with as small a unit as possible. Developers cater to this mindset by making walls as thin as possible, which in turn has led to the adoption of external… The widespread adoption of external wall insulation materials. We have specified the thermal conductivity coefficient for walls, but not their thickness. The market hype centers on floor-to-floor area ratio, with advertising claiming that thicker walls will reduce this ratio. Traditionally, wall thickness varied depending on the orientation. Since the emphasis shifted to floor-to-floor area ratio, exterior walls have been It has been reduced by every possible means.
Increasing the thickness of the exterior wall slightly will correspondingly improve its thermal insulation performance. In fact, enhancing thermal insulation is quite straightforward—simply build the wall thicker. Alternatively, using sintered thin-walled porous insulating masonry units or composite insulated concrete masonry units for the exterior wall itself is also an effective insulation method. If all your efforts are focused on maintaining… On a fixed framework, thinking tends to become constrained. Therefore, specific building thermal insulation solutions should be developed from multiple perspectives, at multiple levels, and tailored to local conditions.
