What Do U Know?
What is a U value? Before starting this business I knew about insulation and the importance of using the right amount in the right places but I didn’t have a clue about U values or what they meant!
So what actually is a U value?
A U-value measures how effective a material is at being an insulator. The lower the U-value is, the better the material is as a heat insulator, i.e. the slower heat will move across a material.
U values are measured in Watts per Metre Kelvin (W/mK).
A new build home in England must now have the following U values for its
Walls – 0.3 W/m2k
Roof – 0.15 W/m2k
Windows – 1.6 W/m2k
For many people building a Passive house is something they aspire to. A passive house is an ultra-low energy building that requires very little energy for heating or cooling. To be classed as a passive house it must have a U value of of 0.15 W/(m²K)
Typically A solid brick wall has a U-value of 2.0 W/m², A double glazed window has a U-value of 2.8 W/m², A 140mm solid wood wall has a U-value of 0.665 and Wood Fiber Insulation has a U value of 0.038 W/mK.
Spacetwo’s garden rooms are different because we use materials with excellent U values so we don’t have to insulate our walls and roofs with chemical based insulation. Our walls are solid wood which have excellent thermal properties from 0.891W/m2K for a 100mm log wall to 0.482 W/m2k for a 200mm log wall as well as insulating the floors as well as the floors with natural wood fiber insulation, which also provide excellent U values for our buildings, meaning that they can be used all year round with very little energy required to heat them. The exact same methods of construction have been used to build homes high in the Alps, which can see winter temperatures reaching -20 Degrees Celsius. With this in mind you can rest assured that your garden room will be toasty and warm and cool in the summer.