Insulation materials and systems
There are two key components to a super-insulated building shell: high levels of insulation with minimum thermal bridges, and airtight construction. High levels of insulation are accomplished by constructing a thicker than normal wall and filling it with an insulation material. However, simply adding more insulation does not turn a conventional assembly into a high-performance assembly. The wall system and junctions between building components have to be carefully designed to be airtight and avoid thermal bridges or discontinuities. As more insulation is added, the thermal discontinuities become more important.

In the pdf-file the present state of insulation and an overall outline is given of the different existing post-insualtion with main emphasis on facades. The report is divided in the following chapters: "Introduction", "Types of insulation materials" and "Post-insulation systems" including use of solar walls.

Insulating material dominating most markets is mineral wool, but a number of other typical insulation materials exists for example: aerated concrete, light clinker, cell glass, expanded polystyrene (EPS), extruded poly-styrene (XPS), polyurethane, perlite, cellulose fibres, fibre boards and woodcrete. Increased interest in a building process that develops towards more eco-friendly insulation materials has resulted in a group of insu-lation materials with the common denominator 'alternative insulation materials'.
A well-insulated thermal envelope without thermal bridges is a passive way to obtain a low heat demand and improved thermal comfort. A certain thickness of insulation gives the largest effect if applied externally, because the largest possible numbers of cold bridges are broken. Furthermore the importance of air tightness to the heat demand and to the durability of the constructions must not be underestimated. Very few insulation materials are airtight in themselves and their insulating effect is due to still air in small cavities and depends on them being built into airtight constructions.
Post-insulation may include many kinds of initiatives, all of which reduce energy consumption for heating, but also cooling loads may be reduced. In this chapter an overall outline is given of the different existing possi-bilities for post-insulation of the thermal envelope with the main emphasis on the facades
A number of insulation initiatives for facades can be considered external post-insulation: Mounting of insulation layers on top of existing construction, replacement of windows, solar walls, ventilated solar walls and combinations of the above. Within each group several variations exist of how to do post-insulation in practice.