Wood fibre insulation
Factory-made mats and boards of wood fibre for the thermal insulation of buildings. The European standard for factory-made wood fibre insulation covers rolls, batts, felts, boards and slabs.
Wood fibre insulation boards on a building facade under scaffolding in Lotschen, Blankenhain, Germany.
Photo: Kai Kemmann, via Wikimedia Commons, licence Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fassadend%C3%A4mmung_mit_Pavatex-Holzfaserd%C3%A4mmplatten,_Sockelplatten_zur_Befestigung_von_Balkonen,_Am_Bach_23,_Lotschen,_99444_Blankenhain,_Th%C3%BCringen.jpg
What it is
Wood fibre insulation is a factory-made product formed from wood fibre into flexible rolls, batts and felts or into rigid boards and slabs, used for the thermal insulation of buildings. The European standard for factory-made wood fibre insulation sets the requirements for these products, including those with facings or coatings. Some of the products are also used in prefabricated insulation systems and composite panels.
Why it matters
That standard is a harmonised standard under the European Construction Products Regulation, and products follow it to carry the European conformity mark. It describes the product characteristics and includes procedures for testing, evaluation of conformity, marking and labelling, so wood fibre insulation from different makers is described and tested in a common way.
How to read it
Products with a declared thermal resistance lower than 0.20 m²·K/W or a declared thermal conductivity greater than 0.070 W/(m·K) at 10 °C fall outside the standard. Insulation formed in place on site and insulation for building equipment and industrial installations are also outside its scope.
Limits
The standard describes product characteristics and test procedures. The classes and levels required for a particular use are set in building regulations and in other standards. The performance of prefabricated insulation systems and composite panels that contain these products is outside the scope of the standard. Market share, price and carbon footprint of wood fibre insulation remain unquantified in the sources cited here.
Sources
Links are for verification. The article stays on Fix Planet.
- Intertek: EN 13171: Thermal insulation products for buildings - Factory made wood fibre (WF) products - Specification : https://www.intertek.com/building/standards/en-13171/
- Genorma: EN 13171:2012+A1:2015 Thermal insulation products for buildings - Factory made wood fibre (WF) products - Specification : https://genorma.com/en/standards/en-13171-2012-a1-2015