Experiences from Interior Super Insulation of a Brick Wall from the 1800s

Abstract

Many brick buildings in Sweden today face a large need for renovation measures to prolong their service life and make other uses possible. Conventional thermal insulation materials, such as fibre glass and EPS, demand a thick layer of insulation to reach the energy targets. Super insulation materials, such as vacuum insulation panels (VIP) and aerogel blankets (AB), are thermal insulation components with a 3-10 times higher thermal resistance than conventional insulation materials. In this study, the effect of interior insulation using super insulation materials is investigated, using experiences from a case study in a brick wall from the 1800s. Earlier research has shown that interior insulation decreases the drying-out capacity of an exterior wall and increases the risk for freeze-thaw damages in brick walls. The case study building is an industrial building from 1896 with 470 mm homogeneous brick masonry walls insulated with both aerogel insulation and with vacuum insulation panels. Six heat flux sensors were installed in the wall and used to evaluate the thermal resistance of the wall with and without insulation. The initial measurements showed that the rate of water flow in the bricks is approximately three times higher than that in modern bricks. The average calculated U-value was reduced by 70% for the AB and 81% for the VIP layers, while measurements at the three occasions gave a reduction of 72-83% for the AB and 72-84% for the VIP layers, i.e. in the same order of magnitude.