Val av lämplig isolering för installationskanaler - Kostnader och miljöpåverkan

Sammanfattning

The Swedish construction sector accounts för a significant share of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Ventilation systems are necessary for indoor comfort and air quality but also contribute to continuous energy losses during a building´s lifetime. Proper insulation of ventilation ducts is therefore important to reduce both energy use and climate impact. The purpose of this study was to investigate how different insulation thicknesses for ventilation ducts affect energy losses, life cycle cost (LCC) and carbon dioxide emissions under different operating conditions. The study is based on theoretical heat transfer calculations combined with LCC and LCA analyses over a service life of 40 years. The results show that optimal insulation thickness varies depending on surrounding temperature, duct dimension and evaluation method. Lower surrounding temperatures generally required thicker insulation to achieve cost-effective and climate-efficient solutions. The study also shows that the relative energy savings decrease at large insulation thicknesses. The conclusions indicate that current industry standards are generally reasonable, although project-specific insulation design can further reduce both costs and climate impact.