The Mackintosh School of Architecture, Strathclyde University and Alan Polkinghorne Ltd

Loose Fill Wool Insulation

Executive Summary

In May 2007, a KTTBE award was received jointly by DMEM at the University of Strathclyde and the Mackintosh School of Architecture at the Glasgow School of Art in partnership with a Scottish based SME. This award was to investigate the feasibility of a sustainable form of insulation from natural sources applied by an apparently innovative delivery system. The feasibility study attempted to address the questions:-
•Does this product have useful properties versus market alternatives?
•Does the proposed delivery method offer an advance on currently available methods?

This was a useful project to pursue as houses account for nearly 50% of energy consumption within the UK. New energy legislation has come into place recently which certifies each house at a specific energy rating to the extent that it may be the case that this will soon affect housing prices. Insulating a house is the most cost effective way to combat this energy inefficiency. Common insulating materials are not renewable materials and use large volumes of embodied energy. Therefore a further aim of this project was to investigate whether a renewable material such as wool could be used as a loose fill insulating material. Loose fill insulating materials are especially effective for filling small irregularly shaped spaces, a particularly useful characteristic in existing construction.

To understand better the feasibility of this product the insulation and wool markets were investigated.  The properties of wool, its advantages and disadvantages against other insulating materials were compared and the feasibility of whether a material such as the one proposed could be processed using existing methods. A unique delivery method for this product was then investigated which, for confidentiality reasons, cannot be expanded on at this time.

The study concluded that:-
•Wool is a material with strong characteristics and its use in this product would be advantageous
•When the wool is processed in the proposed way, it could comply with the relevant British Standards and building regulations required for commercial use.
•By meeting and exceeding newly introduced energy efficiency and recycling legislation, this product would be able to return significant rents above and beyond processing costs.
•There are many different ways in which wool is already being applied as an insulation material. For example it has been proven by a company in Australia, Insulwool,  that wool can be blown and there are several companies offering wool batts in the UK.
•There is merit in exploring innovative methods of applying wool as a loose fill material if it extends the range of use of the material.
•Risks involved with further exploration of the use of wool include potentially high material costs (relative to alternatives), lack of long term performance data (affecting product guarantees) the product longer term and equipment development costs.

Two further development approaches were suggested, continuing the academic and business partnership established through the KTTBE award. These approaches are focussed on potential gaps in the market identified by the feasibility study. Essentially, further development work on product characteristics and delivery methods need to be conducted to confirm, against British standards, the physical properties of the insulation method and material before commercialisation efforts are advanced. Further to a review meeting with the Scottish Government, a SCORE application is being pursued.