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Recent Press Releases Excel Brings Viscocel to Hillhead: 28 March 2007
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Cardiff Council Complete Recycling Loop to Benefit Tenants Cardiff Council has teamed up with Rhymney-based, Excel Building Solutions to insulate homes on a new social housing scheme with high performance insulation, manufactured from recycled newspapers collected from local households. The scheme of 48 houses has been developed by the council to meet high levels of sustainability and comprises a mix of two and three storey houses, ranging in size from three bedrooms to five bedrooms. Excel's Warmcel 500 insulation was specified for the homes, because of its exceptional sustainability credentials, being manufactured entirely from recycled newspaper and having the lowest embodied energy of any mainstream insulation material. The agreement to utilise recycled newspaper collected from homes throughout the local authority area also has direct benefits for Cardiff Council in terms of it meeting its own recycling targets. The council's decision to use Warmcel 500 was supported by sound transmission tests undertaken by the BRE, which demonstrated the acoustic insulation between adjacent properties significantly exceeds the building regulations Part E requirements, and air tightness tests undertaken by the Centre for Research in the Built Environment (part of the Welsh School of Architecture (WSA) at Cardiff University), which showed the airtightness of the homes to be well within good practice requirements. The houses are based on a sustainable timber frame structure with 140mm deep external walls at the front and rear and on the exposed side walls of the end properties. The side walls separating adjacent houses were constructed from 90mm timber studs. All of the external walls are sheathed externally with OSB board, with a mix of brick and render cladding providing the external finish. Internally the walls are enclosed with two layers of plasterboard. The wall voids created between the timber studs are completely filled with the Warmcel 500 recycled newspaper insulation, delivering a U value for the 140mm deep walls of 0.25 W/m2K, which has a significant effect on lowering heating bills for tenants, compared with walls designed to meet the minimum insulation standards required by the building regulations. Importantly, Warmcel is extremely resistant to fire. Its fire resistance is achieved through the addition of simple inorganic salts, enabling it to comfortably meet the fire protection standards required for timber-frame construction. Warmcel is also formulated to protect it against any potential hazards that may be encountered in use. It is resistant to biological and fungal attack, treated against insects and is unattractive to vermin. It does not contain any added formaldehyde and is free from CFCs, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) or other toxic substances. And by reducing heating demand, Warmcel also plays a major part in reducing household CO2 emissions. When, eventually, Warmcel insulation is removed from a building, it can be recycled again or disposed of safely, without creating toxic waste or biodegradability problems. Complementing the high levels of insulation and contributing to the low energy requirement of the properties, the houses were all fitted with solar panels situated on their slate effect concrete tile roofs, and each property had energy efficient condensing boilers installed. The combined energy efficiency package contributed to all of the homes achieving SAP ratings of between 108 and 117 out of 120. Additionally, the houses all comply with the requirements for lifetime homes and meet 'Secured by Design' criteria. Excel Building Solutions is a division of Excel Industries Limited, based in Rhymney, Gwent and is the UK’s leading supplier of innovative building solutions. The company manufactures high performance insulation products: Warmcel 500 for walls and Warmcel 300 for lofts; along with high performance sheathing boards: Panelvent and Paneline; and Sarket roof sarking. Together, these components combine to form the high performance EVT Technology Solution for walls, floors and roofs and the factory-produced TRADIS range of wall panels, floor cassettes and roof plates. In addition to building solutions, Excel manufactures a range of speciality fibres for road making and diverse industrial applications. |
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