Research

“A Large-Scale Climatic Chamber for Comparative Study of Building Envelope Insulation Systems and its Impact on Heat Transfer and Energy Consumption”

As a part of the product development, SIFS needed to study the performance of building envelope insulation materials in detail under realistic boundary conditions and understand the impact it can have on energy demand. SIFS R & D programme, therefore, developed on-site testing capacity, which is also complemented with a singular permanent facility. The “SIFS Building Envelope Analyzer” (SIFS BEA) is a novel test facility used for full scale testing of building envelope systems under realistic boundary conditions.

The facility is envisioned as the cornerstone of its in-house product development & testing capacities. SIFS also plan to be able to demonstrate the research and its impact on energy savings to the engineering community, clients, local authorities, stakeholders, and academics. To do this it was important to design the facility with state-of-the-art IT infrastructure for data handling and visualisation. These tools also help raise awareness on the importance of using green building materials in the envelope and the energy savings associated with it. SIFS BEA is equipped with state-of-the art Building Management Systems (BMS) which allows for continuous-real time monitoring and data visualisation through its customised graphical user interfaces developed.

This facility was designed and built by SIFS R & D team in close collaboration with Tecnalia (https://www.tecnalia.com/en/) pioneers in testing/analysis of the thermal performance of building envelope products when exposed to real-world boundary conditions.

The facility comprises 3 calorimetric chambers placed in a large hall. All chambers have two surfaces (one wall and one roof) exposed to the large hall where the test specimens will be installed. The large hall will be conditioned to simulate the effect of external weather, while the small chambers will be kept at comfort conditions. The purpose of the test facility is the comparative assessment of building envelope insulation systems which will be installed as test specimens in these 3 chambers.