Thermal performance under winter conditions of a reflective insulation based wall panel for emergency houses in Chile

Abstract

Casa FÉNIX solution for the emergency is a modular and

progressive construction system based on a prefabricated

timber structure that provides a great variety of growing

possibilities. This initiative, originally conceived to take part

in the 2014 Solar Decathlon Europe Competition, is central

to many research activities carried out by the Department

of Architecture of the Santa María Technical University of

Valparaíso, Chile, the most recent of which is the FONDEF IDeA

project “Systematization of non-structural components for an

emergency house”.

Within the framework of this research, a lightweight, easy-to

assemble, low-cost wall solution has been developed. It consists

on a sandwich panel composed of an expanded polystyrene

(EPS) core and a cardboard honeycomb reinforcement on

both sides, which constitutes air chambers. The inclusion

of reflective layers on each of the sides of the air chambers

significantly increases the thermal resistance of the element

with no significant weight increase.

The work addresses the winter performance of the

aforementioned wall element variations, characterized by their

thermal transmittances, U. The study has been carried out with

analytical (UNE-EN-ISO 6946) and computational (THERM)

models, which have been compared and validated by means of

experimental tests.

Transmittance tests carried out for different variations of the

solution show compliance with the regulatory requirements

for the three climatic zones of central Chile that gather 60%

of the country’s population. From these data a complete set

of alternatives have been developed in order to respond to

the different thermal demands of nine climatic zones of the

country, that range from the aridity of the Atacama Desert to

the cold Patagonian regions