Role of DRWWALL for Zero Energy Buildings
The building sector is constantly renewing itself in line with the requirements. With each passing day, new products and solutions enabling to provide lower energy consumption are produced and will continue to be produced as well. As resources started to decrease, insulation consciousness and awareness have started to come into prominence. Thereupon, people and sectors acting with this awareness have been making an effort to do their part.
With the purpose of minimizing the energy consumed to provide heating or cooling of living spaces in buildings, the building sector has been fulfilling its duty and offering solutions to the sector. Approximately 40% of the heat losses in the buildings result from the exterior walls. In order to reduce the heating-cooling expenses, it has become even more important to make the exterior walls more insulated and therefore to use thicker insulation materials. Currently, thickness of the insulation being used in our country is on average of 4-5 cm whereas it is in the range of 10-12 cm in Europe.
Drywall systems enable to use thicker insulation materials. So what is Drywall? Drywalls, in the simplest terms, are systems which are created by fixing boards of certain sizes and thicknesses to profiles without using any mortar.
Drywall systems enable to design walls with low thermal conductivity due to mineral wools inserted into the profile cavity. Besides, an exterior wall wherein an insulation material of 35 cm thickness in total is applied can also be designed together with the additional insulation being applied onto the Drywall board (such as BoardeX) facing the exterior.
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Drywall systems also enable insulation up to 25 cm thickness on the exterior walls of existing buildings. In the manufacture of curtain wall performed on the existing walls, these thicknesses can be achieved by the insulation material being applied on the surface of the BoardeX as well as the profile space under the BoardeX. Thereby, Drywall systems not only produce insulation solutions for newly designed structures; they also offer solutions to insulation problems in existing structures.
In the table below, it can be seen that a thermal conductivity value of 0.16 W / m2.K can be achieved with an exterior wall cross-section of only 12.5 cm thickness within carcass. Moreover, such a low thermal conductivity value occurs by carbon emission at minimum limits such as 53.48 kg.
Low Carbon Emission with Drywalls
Drywall systems have shown to produce lower carbon emissions compared to conventional walls.
According to the research report published on March 20, 2015 by Assistant Professor Dr. Çağla Meral of Civil Engineering Department from Middle East Technical University and titled "Global warming potentials of non-load-bearing wall systems being widely used in Turkey", it is seen that conventional wall systems being widely used in our country exhibit more carbon emission than Drywall systems.
When calculations are made according to this research report, for example for the equivalent thermal transmittance value in Ankara province, it is seen that Drywall systems exhibit less carbon emissions up to 44% compared to conventional walls.
This rate reaches up to 52% in interior walls. Therefore, designing the structures by Drywalls from the beginning enables to provide energy saving starting from the production of the wall material to form the structure. Gypsum-based Drywall materials are products that use less energy and exhibit less carbon emission.
Assuming that there is 0,19 kg CO2 carbon emission for 1 kwh heat energy, this saving is equal to the carbon emission in production of an energy of approximately 11.5 billion kwh per year.
In summary; structures designed with Drywall systems contribute to energy saving even starting from production. In addition to the fire and sound insulation performances it provides, Drywall systems also reduce the load on the building. Thanks to these performances provided by gypsum board systems in the buildings all over the world since 1894, it offers quality and reliable living spaces for end users and solutions for designers in our country as well.
