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In recent years, we placed a strong emphasis on the fact that we must think of more sustainable and efficient architecture. Constructions are responsible for 40% of the planet’s CO2 emissions and also consume 40% of the world’s energy. We offer the best quality products and services for click here.
Include everything in this calculation, from the process of manufacturing and transporting the materials to the demolition or the cost of reusing the buildings. Luckily, today there are many alternatives when choosing the materials with which we are going to build.
In this post, we collect a series of materials that will help us achieve more environmentally friendly architecture and construction. With the use of these materials, together with other architectural design factors, such as orientation, enclosures, insulation without thermal bridges, or the use of passive systems, we will not only achieve energy savings throughout the useful life of our building,
Wood
It is a traditional and well-known material, but many are unaware of its many advantages. When it comes to using wood in sustainable construction, it must be certified, guaranteeing that it comes from responsible logging, that is, manufacturers plant new trees for each one they cut down. Wood also has insulating properties, helping to keep our house cool in summer and warm in winter, making it a more sustainable and energy-efficient building material.
View full sizePlantation for sustainable wood production
View full-size wood construction
View full-size integrated wooden building
In wooden constructions, savings of between 50% and 60% per year in heating and air conditioning are calculated, their construction is usually faster and they are up to 30% cheaper than the usual concrete and brick houses. Although it is a very interesting system. As a drawback, it should be noted that it would not be possible to globalize wood construction.
Due to the overpopulation of the planet and the space that we would need to generate so much wood in a sustainable way. However, it is an ideal system for use in single-family homes.
Cellulose Fiber from Recycled Paper
View full sizeCellulose fiber insulation projection
View full sizeCellulose fiber insulation in undercover
View full sizeCellulose fiber panels
There is such a large number of insulating materials that it is often difficult to decide. But if we think about the environment, this is possibly the most suitable without sacrificing the level of insulation in the slightest. Cellulose insulation recycle newsprint treated with borax salts that give it fire retardant, insecticidal, and antifungal properties.
Thermal Conductivity
Cellulose has a very low coefficient of thermal conductivity and requires very little manufacturing energy (5 KWh/m³), which we can appreciate if we compare it, for example, with glass wool and rock wool (180 KWh/m³). It behaves like wood, balancing the maximum and minimum temperatures of the day in summer and protecting from the cold in winter.
Its thermal lag (the time it takes to transmit the temperature from one side to the other of its thickness) is between 8 and 10 hours. And it also has an acoustic insulation coefficient well above traditional insulation. In the following video you can see its effectiveness against fiberglass:
Wood fiber insulating panel
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A panel of wood fibers
As we said before, there are many types of insulation, wood fiber panels are another of them. Through the application of glues and pressure, a board with a certain mechanical resistance is obtained that is mainly used as thermal and acoustic insulation. By incorporating additives, special properties such as resistance to fire, insects, or humidity can be added.
It is also a light and manageable material that can be easily cut with a hand saw, facilitating its use on site. Wood fiber boards are fully recyclable and compostable, so they do not produce waste. Of all the materials used as insulators, wood fiber panels are the ones with the greatest thermal inertia. Of course, they are not suitable for external insulation as they can absorb moisture and swell, especially when we are talking about panels with low densities.
OSB Panels
View full-size interior partitions with OSB panels
View full-size partitions and flooring with OSB panels
View full-size construction with wood and OSB panels
This is another wood-based product, hugely popular in the United States, where it was originally developed as early as 1978, and, especially in recent years, increasingly used in Europe. OSB boards (acronyms for Oriented Strand Board, Tablero de VirutasOrientadas) are an evolution of the plywood board formed by layers of chips or chips oriented in the same direction.
Each layer follows an orientation perpendicular to the previous layer, which gives the material a more homogeneous behavior when faced with expansion or the application of forces in different directions. In addition to its great mechanical resistance, it retains the thermal insulation properties typical of wood and wood agglomerates.
It is also an excellent acoustic insulator and can be covered with a wide variety of materials both indoors and outdoors (mortar, natural stone, ceramics, etc.). According to the additives that it incorporates, the regulations subdivide them into four categories:
OSB-1, for use indoors or in decoration.
OSB-2, for use in load-bearing structures in dry environments.
OSB-3, for use in load-bearing structures in humid environments.
OSB-4, for use in high-performance load-bearing structures.
If they are not mixed with other materials, they can be treated and reused in the manufacture of other wood derivatives or in energy and electricity generation processes.
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