Historic buildings and internal insulation
The RIBuild project summarizes the latest research on internal insulation in historic buildings. This website transforms the research into guidelines about visual assessment of your building, possible damages and moisture risks, and tools to collect building specific data and select internal insulation solutions.
Historic buildings built prior to 1945 make up a significant part of the European building stock. Most of these buildings have great architectonic and cultural value, but they also consume almost 40 % of the total energy consumption and is responsible for 36 % of CO2 emissions of buildings in Europe. Therefore, historic buildings are an important focus area in order to reach the EU climate and energy targets.
Potentially 15-20 % of the total energy consumption in the building can be saved by installing internal insulation at the external walls. However, internal insulation is a very complex measure involving several variables and risks with possible failures and high costs. RIBuild investigates historic buildings erected prior to World War II, focusing on heavy external walls made of stone and brick as most historic buildings are made of these materials.
The project includes ten research institutions and companies from Denmark, Sweden, Latvia, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland and has been running since 2015. Hence, RIBuild covers diverse climates and building traditions which will result in guidelines applicable to historic buildings all over Europe. Anybody with an interest in building physics, retrofitting or energy efficient restoration can benefit from the guidelines.
Research process
Survey of the historic building stock in each participant country focused on materials and structure
Review of existing guidelines and technologies on internal insulation
Characterisation of the most common materials and property data for historic buildings
Determining threshold values for failure of building structures and materials, for instance for mould growth or rot in wooden structures
Monitoring internal insulation systems of historic building in the participating countries
On-site and laboratory tests of wall constructions retrofitted with various internal insulation systems under various climate conditions
Compilation of data from the case studies into databases for the evaluation of internal insulation systems under different realistic conditions
Hygrothermal assessment of building components
Life Cycle Assessment and energy-saving potential
Cost/benefit assessment
Development of guidelines for decision-making and practical installation of internal insulation based on RIBuild research
Development of interactive tools
