Internal Insulation of Preservation Worthy Facades

With international awareness of the need to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, the Danish government set a target to be fossil fuel-free by 2050. To achieve that, existing buildings will need to be retrofitted with energy-saving technologies such as improved thermal insulation. In Denmark, a larger mass of the building stock from around 1850 to the 1940s is preservation worthy.

The construction is typically solid brick walls with wooden beams on the floors. This creates a challenge for energy retrofitting since the external facades cannot be altered. The application of internal insulation can influence the temperature and moisture profile of the wall. Moisture builds up in the interface between the original brick wall, and the insulation layer can create an environment where mould can grow.

Previous research also demonstrated a risk of moisture build-up at the beam-ends when internal insulation is applied. Saint-Gobain ISOVER has, together with DTU, spent five years developing a new system, ISOVER RetroWall System, which addresses these problems. The presented work will include a short introduction to the concept, results and conclusions from the field test and presentation of two sites with the finished system in use.