School building complex to passive house standard - ThermoPin®
The Swedish precast concrete manufacturer Torps Byggelement AB had the order to produce precast elements for a school building complex (“Paradis School” in Älmhult, Sweden). This project should meet the passive house standard. After some research, they came across our ThermoPin and realised that it was the right product for their project.
The new school building is designed for grades 1 – 6 or for 800 pupils. The building area is approx. 8,500 m² of usable space plus a sports hall with over 3,000 m². Since the building complex was to meet the passive standard, it was enormously important to make the building envelope as thermally efficient as possible without having to compromise on the very vivid architecture in this context. In its search for efficient construction methods and products, Torps Byggelement AB came across BT innovation’s ThermoPin®.
This composite anchor made of heat-conduction-resistant, glass-fibre reinforced plastic (GRP) connects the load-bearing shell, through the insulation layer, with the curtain wall in a statically and energetically highly efficient manner. In other words, with the help of the ThermoPin, the supporting structure can be almost completely thermally decoupled from the façade. Compared to conventional stainless steel connection systems, a reduction in the thermal conductivity coefficient or heat loss of the building envelope of approx. 6.7% can be achieved by using the ThermoPin as a GRP anchor.
In addition to the energy improvement, the summary of the managing director of Torps Byggelement AB Henrik Engström and the production manager Morgan Karlsson was that the installation of the ThermoPin was in all respects much easier than the installation of traditional anchor systems. For example, much less insulation had to be cut, which also produced less waste. The installation of the ThermoPin does not require any machines or tools. In total, Torps Byggelemet AB has found that by simplifying and speeding up the installation for the production of an average-sized element (approx. 20 m²), you save 30 minutes in production. With a total production effort of one element of approx. 20 working hours (2.5 employees x 8h), the saving in working time is therefore 2.5%.
Thanks to the positive experience, the company Torps Byggelement AB has used the ThermoPin for two follow-up projects and is still very satisfied with the result.
Learn more about this project here.