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Recent Press Releases Excel Brings Viscocel to Hillhead: 28 March 2007
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Helping to Make Carbon Neutral Homes A Reality Excel Building Solutions’ Warmcel insulation offers housebuilders and developers a major advantage in achieving the Government’s recently announced targets of reducing CO2 and building ‘carbon neutral’ homes. As well as offering excellent insulation properties, to minimise space heating requirements, the material itself requires very little energy to manufacture. An average three-bed UK home produces around 5.6 tonnes of CO2 every year. This is created through energy consumption used in heating, lighting and the running of appliances including televisions and kitchen appliances. Scientists believe that an increase in gases, such as CO2, trap the sun’s energy within our atmosphere causing a rise in temperature. This rise could lead to melting of ice caps and may affect those least able to cope with climate change. UK homes are responsible for 27% of the total CO2 emissions. The Government has set a target of reducing this by at least 60% by 2050, with all new homes to be carbon neutral by 2016. The definition of a carbon neutral, or zero carbon, home is that the property has a zero net emission of carbon dioxide from all energy use in the home. Directly reducing CO2 emissions created within the household is preferable to the carbon offsetting schemes which aim to remove an equivalent amount of CO2 from the environment to that created by the individual. One of the ways to lower emissions is to reduce the amount of heating needed by using effective insulation materials, such as Warmcel. The ways in which Warmcel can contribute are threefold. Once in place, Warmcel reduces heat escape, reducing the amount of heating required. Some homes which have incorporated Warmcel insulation have been built with no space heating systems whatsoever. Another Government target is to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill each year. Currently, it is estimated that around two million tonnes of paper is sent to landfill each year, with many local authorities sending waste paper as far as 100 miles away from their boundaries. The production of Warmcel helps to reduce the amount of landfilled paper by using it to create the insulation fibres. The paper, most of which is old newspaper, is collected through roadside collection schemes and also through schemes run by local organisations, such as schools. In addition, the process used to transform everyday newspapers into a cost effective, high performance fibre product requires minimal energy in a purely mechanical process, therefore minimising CO2 emissions produced by the manufacturing process. The fibres also have zero ozone depletion potential (ODP) and are free from CFCs, VOCs and other harmful substances. |
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