The market generally may be slow, but timber frame manufacturers continue to pick up the pace in the development of new panel systems.
Scotframe Timber Engineering has recently unveiled Supawall, which it describes as a “revolutionary” new closed panel timber frame system that effectively locks together with airtight seals to create the walls, roof and floors of a structure. It achieves a U-value of 0.113W/m2K.
“Supawall is injected with a very high-performance insulation which is BRE Green Guide
A-rated and fills every nook and cranny in the panel,” said sales director Mike Cruickshank. “This means that, once the panels are fitted together on site, the integrity of the thermal envelope is assured. The insulation and airtightness is so effective the need for a traditional central heating system is removed.”
Several self-builders and housing associations have expressed an interest in the system and Scotframe has already been contracted to supply the Supawall system for hundreds of social homes for the Highland Housing Alliance in a development near Inverness.
Frame Wise’s new development is its high-performance double-skin ‘twin wall’ open panel system. Launched in 2008, the company says it can achieve a U-value of less than 0.1W/m2K. The two separate skins of timber frame are only connected at the top and bottom of each storey, thus avoiding cold bridging and incorporate semi-rigid glass fibre insulation and a vapour barrier from Frame Wise’s strategic partner, Isover.
“With the benefit of good thermal values on the windows and a good ventilation system, a house using the twin wall system should be virtually self-heating, since the insulation in the timber frame will retain nearly all the heat generated within,” said Frame Wise’s managing director Simon Orrells.
He added that a house recently built using the system in Nottingham “comfortably” met Level 5 of the Code for Sustainable Homes, and that it expects to deliver a Code Level 6 home in the summer.
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Frame Wise's double-skin 'twin wall' open panel system |
