Energy-Efficient External Walls - Composite Thermal-Insulation Systems or Monolithic Insulating Blocks?

On 1 October, the EnEV comes into force in Germany, which will lead to an increase in the demands on structural and installation engineering and requires a 30% reduction in the primary energy demand in comparison to the EnEV 2007. As part of structural engineering, exterior walls have a considerable influence on the fundamental properties of residential buildings such as insulation, noise protection and effective surface efficiency. This means that the constantly increasing demands for energy efficiency require the use of innovative new wall constructions. In this article, the varying new wall constructions will be compared and assessed, and the strategies involved in choosing the most adequate exterior wall will be demonstrated. The focus is on the analysis of large-scale constructions, monolithic, double or single-partitions with thermal insulation systems. The difference is the variation in material such as clay brick, lime sand brick, porous concrete, lightweight concrete or concrete blocks. Since the energy efficiency of a building is determined through the interplay between the quality of the building envelope and the efficiency of the system engineering, the dependencies and effects of different construction techniques like different types of boilers, solar panels, heat pumps and biomass are looked at.