“Academic” Standards of Isollat
“Academic” Standards of Isollat
In October 2007 in Yekaterinburg, Renova-StroiGroup commenced construction of Akademichesky (“Academic”) residential district. The new district was unique for our country in many aspects. And it is not only the impressive scale that mattered (the project involves construction of 13 million square kilometers of real estate), nor the speed of the construction. Akademichesky became a “proving ground” for testing state-of-the-art technical solutions, with the special place among them given to objectives of energy-efficient management of a complex utilities infrastructure.
The total number of buildings in Akademichesky District has already exceeded 30 (among them, 28 residential apartment houses; underground parkings, a school, a hospital, and a kindergarten). This is an infrastructure, which includes dozens of kilometers of mainland pipelines and intra-house pipelines of various functions, a water treatment station, metering and control systems etc. The problem of competent management of the utilities is solved by specialists of the Akademichesky District Management Company with the help of advanced technologies, which bring about achievement of logical results: The heating season of the year 2011 demonstrated that the heating charges in Akademichesky District were 22% lower than in other districts of Yekaterinburg.
Among the advanced developments that were in application during the construction of Akademichesky District, there were liquid ceramic thermal insulation coatings Isollat.
The peculiar feature
of Akademichesky District is the thorough study of engineering solutions as early as at the preliminary design stage. All new ideas are reviewed by the specially created Technical Board of Renova-StroiGroup Akademichesky, which consists of an extensive community of experts representing various specialization areas, including staff of the Energy Saving Institute of the Sverdlovsk Area, staff of the Ural Federal University; representatives of production and technical research companies, and representatives of management and maintenance companies (STANDART Management Company and AKADEMICHESKY Management Company). Obtaining approval of the Technical Board is not a simple task. To obtain such approval, a company has to provide comprehensive information regarding its products, from patent rights and manufacturing process features to the available experience of operation under various conditions.
In particular, in the course of discussion of the issue of enhancing the energy efficient performance of buildings and structures, stringent requirements were specified for manufacturers of thermal insulation materials, namely: the employed thermal insulation solutions should be simple and durable, should not become affected by weather, and should include provisions for “enhancement” in case that the requirements of state supervision agencies to quality of construction become more severe. The high speed of construction in Akademichesky District accounts for inevitable occurrence of “cold bridges”. They appear as a result of violations in casting-in-place technologies; shrinkage, deformation and partial failure of concrete; and the many engineering improvements that appear in the course of construction. It is virtually not possible to promptly solve this problem using traditional insulation materials (such as mineral wool or polystyrene foam). Furthermore, such materials have a limited life, and are not quite safe in case of emergency situations.
In this connection, use of thin-sheet thermal insulation materials was admitted as a suitable solution. In particular, use of Isollat coatings provided for the capability to fight the “cold bridges” without any changes in design; and, as far as insulation of pipelines and equipment of domestic heating plants is concerned, allowed solving the problem of reducing the heat losses on complex-shaped surfaces, providing, at the same time, anti-corrosive protection.
The question of experimental application of Isollat coatings in buildings of Akademichesky District gained approval of two panels of the Technical Board (such panels being “Construction Structures and Materials” and “Energy Efficiency of Buildings and Structures”). Domestic heating points of houses No.2.4.1 and 2.4.4 were selected as the first facilities for application of Isollat coating. Total application area comprised 90 square meters.
The results turned out to be rather impressive. At temperatures of the heat-carrying medium of (100-120)˚С, thermal insulation based on liquid ceramic Isollat coating of average thickness of 12 mm provided for reducing heat losses 8.5 times. For comparison, it should be noted that the foiled mineral wool plate, in order to provide such performance, would have to be 100 mm thick. On the other hand, use of liquid ceramic thermal insulation supplied by another manufacturer was deemed completely unsatisfactory.
Good results were achieved also by application of Isollat materials for anti-condensate coating of the pipes at the cold water filtering station in Building 2.7.1.
Based on the results of the experimental application, the Technical Board Panel for Energy Efficiency of Buildings and Structures made a decision that Isollat coatings may be recommended for application in the course of construction of buildings in Akademichesky District for purposes of thermal insulation of heat supply facilities, and that the material be included in the List of low-cost technical solutions for experimental energy-efficient building designs (Paragraph 2, 5, 8, 9).
Currently, Isollat coatings are being widely used in the buildings of Akademichesky District for thermal insulation of pipelines and equipment of domestic heat stations, and for elimination of “cold bridges” in basements, at underground parking areas, in ventilation shafts, and in refuse collecting chambers.
Sergey Tarasenko, Innovation Technologies Director of STANDART Management Company:
- Our company has been familiar with Isollat coatings for a rather long time. Several times these materials have been used in the course of installing metering units and restoring thermal insulation in apartment houses of Leninsky District in Yekaterinburg. The coating has passed all these tests rather successfully. However, it is clear that such local experiments had to be confirmed on a wider scale. The more so, because the manufacturer offered the improved combination Isollat-Effect coating, which we had never dealt with before. Now, as I am summarizing the results of our cooperation, I can safely state that Isollat materials have justified the expectations that were invested in them – especially in applications on complex-shaped convoluted surfaces with a lot of bends and angles. We also appreciated the attitude of the manufacturer. Product deliveries were accompanied with properly prepared technical assignments. Designer supervision was carried out at the facilities; also, thermal calculations were done, which helped coordinate initial recommendations. We will undoubtedly continue using Isollat materials in the course of launching new heat supply systems for Akademichesky District.
