113 Architectural questions - Is retrofitting thermal insulation worthwhile?
Is it worth retrofitting thermal insulation?
The short answer could of course be: "Yes, retrofitting thermal insulation is worthwhile!", but this would not explain the context.
Answering the question of whether and in what form it is worthwhile requires a building-specific status analysis in order to arrive at a holistic technical, economic and ecological view and planning. A comparison of investment and energy savings in relation to an assumed calculation period only covers part of the issue. One approach could be: how does the thermal refurbishment of the building fabric increase the value of a property? Or, what are the effects on climate change and how much is the avoidance of CO₂ worth? On the other hand, it is often necessary to weigh up the extent to which current standards can be realised and in which areas are measures most efficient? For example, when renovating buildings that are worthy of preservation, especially buildings that were constructed before 1945, where the façade design must be preserved from a conservation point of view and, if possible, the windows too.
Due to the complexity and ongoing amendment of the subject, we work together with specialists in the field of building physics. For this article, we turned to our colleague DI Paul Track from RWT-PLUS for his expertise:
"... Insulating the outer shell is usually associated with a comprehensive refurbishment of the façade or the entire building and therefore not only provides added value in terms of insulation, but also in terms of
● greater resistance and durability of the building fabric
● Extension of the service life
● Architectural (re)design
● Better weather protection (driving rain tightness, wind tightness)
● Better comfort inside the building due to higher surface temperatures in winter and lower temperatures in summer
● Prevention of mould by reducing thermal bridges
● Improvement of the sound insulation
● And last but not least, an overall energy contribution to climate protection.
Of course, the choice of insulation material is also essential in terms of ecological aspects. In the context of climate protection and reducing emissions, more and more sustainable insulation materials are becoming established on the market, as are options for recycling insulation materials such as EPS (keyword: life cycle assessment). The use of 'ecological' insulation is therefore also a contribution to increasing the overall proportion of ecological building materials in buildings ..."
When it comes to questions of thermal refurbishment, it doesn't take long to move on to issues of switching to sustainable primary energy sources and heating systems.
Not an easy question, but one that is worth answering on a property-specific basis!
