Kingspan Insulated Panels on new building regulations

Part J summary

New building regulations now in force

• BCA Part J: Mandatory energy efficiency measures for non-residential construction.
• The new BCA Part J which will change the way that is built
• It sets new standards for long term insulation and environmental performance of components and construction methods.
• It is the responsibility of all involved in the construction industry to understand and comply with the new mandatory provisions of BCA Part J:
• Designers
• Specifiers
• Engineers
• Building contractors
• Subcontractors
• Owners
• Investors
• Covers all class 2 to 9 buildings (residential and commercial buildings)
• Aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by increasing energy efficiency of structures
• Affects all air conditioned buildings

The new Building Codes of Australia Part J regulations, which released mandatory measures in 2006 for energy conservation in new non-residential building construction, represent a fundamental step-change in the approach to the way buildings are constructed.

They impose minimum specific design requirements on construction. This affects everyone involved in building processes, including the owner, architect, builder, building specifier / inspector and product suppliers.

Industry and trade associations will need to launch education initiatives to bring their members up to speed on compliance. As well, there are a number of computer modelling programs emerging as useful tools to assist in the design of compliant buildings.

These are increasingly being used in some cases to provide BCA proof of conformance. There is increased emphasis in the design phase of the building process to ensure that potentially expensive mistakes don’t need to be corrected later.

BCA energy efficiency regulations are only the tip of the iceberg, according to Kingspan’s experience in the UK and Europe, where it has been making insulated panels for over 30 years, including thermal building envelopes in sustainable buildings.

Today’s question is how energy efficient is the building. Tomorrow’s questions will be how long will the building survive, how durable is it, will building components contribute to a waste stream, are components recyclable, and how much greenhouse gas is used in the component of the buildings?

Ideally, product energy consumption at every stage of a building component’s life cycle from raw material, manufacture, use and finally end-use and disposal should be taken into account in evaluating a product’s full environmental impact. Kingspan see the new requirements as part of a natural progression towards a more holistic view of the building over its life span.

Compliance needs to be achieved with Part J to meet Kyoto greenhouse gas reduction targets, which has been the initial driver for the BCA changes. Kingspan’s responsibility as an insulated panel manufacturer is to educate the market in the design and application of long–life, high performance building elements, and how they can be integrated into new building design.

A key component of the new BCA requirements is centred on the selection of materials that will provide stated thermal performance for the life of the building.

There are ongoing uncertainties with traditional building products such as foils and fibreglass blankets, including questions about compression of blankets (in particular around purlins), ingress of moisture, performance at elevated roof temperatures, deterioration of foil reflective surfaces with dust, debris or corrosion, and effective sealing around joins and edges to prevent air leakage.

The challenges for the insulation industry will be to develop better products, more suited to today’s and tomorrow’s buildings, and to develop new installation methods that will guarantee the building will meet its design energy conservation objectives over the life of the building.

And how does Kingspan Insulated Panels prove buildings actually are compliant? Future initiatives are likely to require the measurement / monitoring of energy consumption, and the use of thermal imaging to identify hot (or cold) spots in building thermal envelopes, caused by air leakage problems or sub-standard insulation detailing.

Kingspan takes a holistic viewpoint, It is focused on speed of construction, fire-proof performance and guaranteeing thermal efficiency in simplified building design.

In today’s buildings, total thermal performance is attributed to the sum of the performances of a number of building elements – roofing material, battens, purlins, air spacing, ventilation, fibreglass blankets, foils, suspended ceilings, ceiling blankets, all of which if correctly put together, will achieve the stated design performance.

The next issue then becomes – will the system maintain its performance over the life of the building?

There is opportunity for simplified construction using composite products. The benefits are faster constructed buildings – because it requires less trades, less occupational health and safety risks - because of less trades on site, and the assurance that the thermal design performance requirements will be met – because of the simplified building construction envelope and less chance of components being installed incorrectly.

Whole of life performance includes the flexibility to accommodate changes to the way buildings are used. The bad scenario is the construction of buildings that fall outside the guidelines of Part J and are therefore non-compliant.

If there is a need to change the use of the building later, Part J compliance may now be required. Future-proofing buildings through design and the correct choice of building components based on perceived long term usage should also be a consideration in building design.