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Industry Calls for a National Approach to Improve the Quality & Safety of Insulation Installations

  • Date Published
Trades person installing K17 Insulated Plasterboard

Installing insulation correctly can have significant benefits for the people of Australia. These include; reduced energy bills, decreased greenhouse gas emissions, job creation, economic growth and improved comfort and wellbeing for building occupants.

The Energy Efficiency Council (EEC) and the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council (ASBEC) alongside the Governments of New South Wales and Victoria, the Insulation Council of Australia and New Zealand (ICANZ) and Insulation Australasia (IA) have worked together to develop an industry-led roadmap that will ensure insulation products are installed safely, maximizing their benefits throughout Australia.

The roadmap identified options to improve the quality and safety of insulation installations throughout Australia, by examining several international case studies (Germany, Ireland, USA and New Zealand) along with carrying out extensive interviews with key stakeholders. From this, the group were able to establish several key findings which could help the current Australian processes.

From these findings several potential solutions have been identified. These solutions can be broken into four categories:

  1. Training and accreditations
  2. New buildings and major renovations (building permit required)
  3. Retrofits (no building permit required)

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  • Moving beyond an insulation-only approach.

    • At this current stage, the solutions outlined in the report are only intended to initiate conversation and feedback.

    Training and accreditations

    The working group concluded that greater emphasis needs to be placed upon training, safety and correct insulation installation. To do this, they suggest introducing levelled training and accreditation programs. This includes basic insulation installation training for new building projects, further training for retrofits and finally advanced training for people who specify and inspect installation as per current standards.

    For this to occur the Government and construction industry must collaborate to define and expand upon the current training and accreditation system or develop a new system. Without the input from these respected bodies, the uptake of training and accreditation may be limited.
     
    New buildings and major renovations

    The installation of insulation in new buildings and major renovations are usually carried out by a mix of different people, from specialist installers to carpenters and plasterers, meaning processes and quality control checks vary significantly. To address this issue, the roadmap suggested 3 possible solutions. Solution 1 is to update and combine specialist training and quality control processes by using ‘’similar training and accreditation systems that could be developed for insulation retrofit installers,’’ (Energy Efficiency Council, 2020).

    To ensure the insulation is correctly installed, Solution 2 recommends that an appropriately skilled person should be involved in the installation process. This will be decided on a state by state basis as there are some differences per jurisdiction.

    To compliment the first two solutions, the working group recommends defining how building inspectors can access the quality of insulation installation.
     
    Retrofits

    To improve quality and safety when installing insulation as part of a retrofit, the roadmap advises Governments and the industry work together in developing a national set of simple guidelines and resources. They should be user friendly, easily accessible and build upon existing documentation.
    In addition to the above, Governments and the industry should collaborate to establish a national list of products that have been tested to meet AS/NZS 4859.1:2002 Materials for the thermal insulation of buildings.

    Finally, Governments should incentivise installers to guarantee that the appropriate training has been undertaken, correct guidelines have been followed and accredited products used. This could be done by introducing legislation, pre-approving installers and insulation companies and independent audits for government programs.

    In the long run this will benefit everyday Australians, improving their health and wellbeing along with reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

    Moving beyond an insulation-only approach
     
    Installing insulation safely and with quality control will contribute towards high performing buildings. Although there are other critical steps that must be delivered to ensure high building performance including:

    • ‘’Insulation materials need to be combined with other thermal elements such as airtightness, heating, cooling and ventilation systems,
    • Developing an integrated design for a new, renovated or retrofitted building; and
    • Project managing the construction, renovation or retrofit,’’ (Energy Efficiency Council, 2020).

     To  make sure the above steps are considered when installing insulation in new builds and retrofits, it is suggested that integrated building envelope options need to be analysed further. In turn, this will clearly outline the maximum benefits associated with integrating insulation with other elements within the thermal building envelope. Communicating the needs and benefits of integrated building upgrades along with promoting a market for more integrated buildings will deliver consistently high performing buildings in the future.
     
    There are multiple benefits associated with installing insulation safety and correctly, however the full benefits can only be achieved ‘’through an integrated design that considers the whole building envelope (including glazing and minimising thermal bridging), air tightness and systems for heating, cooling and ventilation,’’ (Energy Efficiency Council, 2020). Further consideration should be given to improve integrated building design, construction and retrofit.

    To download the independent report in full by Energy Efficiency Council, click below:

    Independent Report(EEC)

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