U-Values
When you start looking into building a home for the first time there’s no doubt about it, there’s a lot to take in. You will probably have heard of ‘U-Values’ already, but you might not understand what they are, or how important they are.
In fact, they are very important – they are the ultimate measure of heat loss from the various elements of a building, namely walls, windows and roof.
Without getting too technical, a U-Value is expressed as W/m2k and shows the amount of heat lost in watts (W) per square metre of material (for example wall, roof, glazing, and so on) when the temperature (k) is one degree lower outside.
The lower the number, the more thermally efficient the building is. When a timber frame manufacturer talks of U-Values, they will generally be referring to the U-Value of the finished wall. Remember – the lower the number, the better. You should also bear in mind that, in the main, the lower the U-Value the higher the cost.
With an English Brothers timber frame you can be directly involved in the way we insulate your building – we can offer examples of our standard methods which give increasing levels of insulation (and therefore decreasing U-Values), or if you have found a specific type of insulation you would like to use (such as sheep’s wool) we can run detailed calculations to see how it will perform. Then you can decide what you think is best for you – we will guide you, but we won’t dictate to you.