ZeroSkin+ energy renovation
As a homeowner or building owner, you're likely always looking for ways to make your property more energy efficient. One of the most effective ways to do this is by ensuring your building has proper thermal insulation on its façade.
Thermal insulation helps to regulate the temperature in your building, keeping it cool in the summer and warm in the winter. By doing so, you can reduce your reliance on heating and cooling systems, which can save you money on energy bills.
But the benefits of thermal insulation extend beyond just energy savings. It also helps to reduce noise pollution, as it can absorb sound waves and prevent them from travelling from the outside to the inside of your building.
Additionally, thermal insulation can help to extend the lifespan of your building's façade. It can protect against moisture and condensation, which can lead to issues like mould and mildew growth.
Overall, investing in thermal insulation for your building's façade is a smart choice for both your wallet and the environment. By reducing energy consumption and protecting your building from damage, it's a win-win situation all around.
Therefore, the ZeroSkin+ renovation solution focuses on the improvement of building energy efficiency and life quality for its inhabitants using 3D-printed recycled plastics.
Plastics are a commonly used material for thermal insulation due to their low thermal conductivity and high resistance to heat flow. They are also lightweight and easy to install, making them a suitable choice for a building renovation panel. However, the use of plastics results in environmental impacts as they are not biodegradable and can take hundreds of years to break down. As a result, the use of recycled plastic could result in the reduction of plastic waste that is discarded in the environment while still providing good thermal insulation.
However, if the panel were constructed in solid plastic it would have to be too heavy to achieve the necessary insulation values. Therefore, we have been researching the relationship between the thermal and mechanical performance with the density of the insulation aiming to reduce the panel's density while improving thermal performance.
The research results have pointed out that a 25% infill density achieves the best performance. This infill density, however, is still too heavy for the desired weight. Therefore, later iterations of the panel include the addition of cork insulation to the panel to improve the panel's thermal performance while adding a natural material with low CO2 impacts.
