Elsevier

Applied Energy

Volume 116, 1 March 2014, Pages 355-375
Applied Energy

Review
Vacuum insulation panel products: A state-of-the-art review and future research pathways

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2013.11.032Get rights and content

Highlights

  • State-of-the-art review of vacuum insulation panel products.

  • Future research pathways for vacuum insulation panels.

  • Vacuum insulation panel cores and envelopes.

  • Vacuum insulation panel properties.

  • Vacuum insulation panels for building applications.

Abstract

Vacuum insulation panels (VIP) are regarded as one of the most upcoming high performance thermal insulation solutions. At delivery, thermal conductivity for a VIP can be as low as 0.002–0.004 W/(mK) depending on the core material. VIPs enable highly insulated solutions, and a measure to reduce the energy usage in both hot-water applications, cold applications and for the construction industry in general. This study gives a state-of-the-art review of VIP products found available on the market today, and explore the future research opportunities for these products.

VIPs have been utilized with success for applications such as freezers and thermal packaging, and during the last decade they have also been used for building applications in increasing numbers, where one of the main driving forces is the increased focus on e.g. passive houses, zero energy buildings and zero emission buildings. Hence, VIPs are now in the early market stages as a building product. Implementation of VIPs in various building constructions have given an increased interest in the possibilities of this product, both in new and refurbished constructions. Even though there is not enough data to conclude the effect over a lifetime of a building yet, the immediate result in decreased energy usage can be seen. However, the problem of guaranteeing a set lifetime expectancy, along with high costs, are some of the major reasons why VIPs are met with scepticism in the building industry. Aiming to give better quality assurance for the users, make further advances in envelope technologies and the development of core materials, along with a further cost reduction, are crucial aspects for VIPs to become a competing thermal insulation solution for buildings.

Introduction

The world today relies on a large amount of fossil fuels to produce energy. The continued use of fossil fuels will strain our resources, as well as lead to large amounts of pollution, especially through CO2 emissions. The heating and cooling of buildings require a considerable amount of energy. A reduction in energy usage for the building sector will have a beneficial effect on CO2 emissions. In the European Union buildings represent 40% of the total energy usage, and the existing building stock represents the single largest potential sector for energy savings [19]. By the principle of the Kyoto Pyramid, the most cost effective method of reducing energy usage is to provide better thermally insulated buildings.

To reach the demanded U-values with traditional insulation materials, buildings are required to have walls up to 50 cm thick. This leads to more complex building details and transportation of thicker materials to the building sites [28].

One of the most promising building insulation materials in its early stages of commercialization now, is vacuum insulation panels (VIP). VIPs have an insulation performance which normally ranges from 0.004 W/(mK) in pristine condition to typical 0.008 W/(mK) after 25 years of ageing. This is 5–10 times better, depending on ageing, than traditional insulation used in buildings today [28]. Therefore, VIPs enable highly insulated constructions for walls, roofs and floors, especially within refurbishing of older buildings where space is often limited. Integrating VIPs successfully into constructions requires careful planning with regard to its durability, the lack of flexibility, thermal bridging and lifetime expectations [60].

Especially the uncertainties around expected lifetime is a crucial factor for scepticism concerning VIPs. Research is being conducted on determining ways of interpreting in situ measurements and conduct reliable accelerated ageing tests. The need to better understand the mechanisms of ageing and general loss of thermal resistance over time has been mentioned by Simmler and Brunner [57] and Baetens et al. [5]. Various forms of accelerated climate ageing tests have been described by Wegger et al. [69]. Quality assurance of VIPs is an important factor to promote the use of VIPs the building sector. It is important to be able to differentiate between panel damage as a consequence of production errors, and damages caused by ageing and service failure, which hence will help the technology improve further [13].

The objective of this study is to present an overview of the different VIP producers and products, and to evaluate the effect and durability of these products. Furthermore, it is important to know how VIPs are tested with respect to lifetime performance in building applications. These investigations may help form guidelines for a new testing scheme and point to future research opportunities. That is, this state-of-the-art VIP review builds on already existing VIP reviews, e.g. by Alam et al. [1], Baetens et al. [5], Jelle [28], Johansson [35], Tenpierik [60] and Wang et al. [68], and is extending these further by collecting and focusing on a comprehensive review of existing VIP manufacturers and products, as well as discussing future research pathways for VIPs.

This work presents many tables with a lot of information, e.g. manufacturers, product names and various properties, both in the main text and in the appendices. Some of these properties are crucial to the performance of the VIPs. The tables provide the readers with valuable information concerning VIPs. Unfortunately, it is currently hard to obtain all the desired information from all the manufacturers. In general, many of the desired property values are not available on the manufacturers’ websites or other open information channels, which is hence seen as open spaces in the various tables. Hopefully, our addressing of these facts could act as an incentive for the manufacturers to state all the important properties of their products at their websites or other open information channels, and also as an incentive and reminder for the consumers and users to demand these values from the manufacturers.

Section snippets

General

A VIP consists of a porous core enveloped by an air and vapour tight barrier, which is heat sealed. The core is of an open pore structure to allow all the air to evacuate, and create a vacuum. The envelope needs to be air and vapour tight for the panel to uphold its thermally insulating properties over time. Fig. 1 shows a normal schematic of a VIP. The initial pristine thermal conductivity of the core is normally around 0.004 W/(mK), however increasing with elapsed time due to air and moisture

VIP products

Vacuum insulation panels (VIP) are most commonly used for shipping containers for temperature sensitive materials, domestic appliances like freezers, etc. However, for the last decade the most interesting aspect of VIPs has been their introduction to the building sector. In the following, a short explanation of the use of VIPs in appliances will be given. Thereafter, the use of VIPs in constructions up until today will be looked upon. Both laboratory experiments and in situ measurements will be

Other state-of-the-art insulation materials

Though VIPs show great promise as an insulation material for tomorrow, it is not the only one under development. Other interesting materials that may compete with VIPs in the future will be mentioned in the following chapters.

Conclusions

This study shows and presents a variety of vacuum insulation panel (VIP) manufacturers on the market today, offering a wide variety of VIP products. VIPs in general applications have already been used on the market for nearly two decades with success. For the construction sector there are still challenges to overcome. The lack of certified building systems and official approvals from governmental agencies are providing hurdles that will need to be handled. Education and further promotion of

Acknowledgements

This work has been supported by the Research Council of Norway and several partners through The Research Centre on Zero Emission Buildings (ZEB).

References (71)

  • R. Caps et al.

    Quality control of vacuum insulation panels: methods of measuring gas pressure

    Vacuum

    (2008)
  • X. Di et al.

    Optimization of glass fibre based core materials for vacuum insulation panels with laminated aluminium foils as envelopes

    Vacuum

    (2013)
  • B.P. Jelle

    Traditional, state-of-the-art and future thermal building insulation materials and solutions – properties, requirements and possibilities

    Energy Build

    (2011)
  • J. Kim et al.

    Vacuum insulation properties of phenolic foam

    Int J Heat Mass Transf

    (2012)
  • J.S. Kwon et al.

    Outgassing characteristics of a polycarbonate core material for vacuum insulation panels

    Vacuum

    (2011)
  • Y. Liao et al.

    Thermal conductivity of powder silica hollow spheres

    Thermochim Acta

    (2011)
  • S. Marouani

    Investigation of the resistance welding of multilayer aluminum-coated polymer complexes used as envelopes of vacuum insulation panels

    Mater Des

    (2012)
  • T. Nussbaumer et al.

    Experimental and numerical investigation of the thermal performance of a protected vacuum-insulation system applied to a concrete wall

    Appl Energy

    (2006)
  • T. Nussbaumer et al.

    Thermal analysis of a wooden door system with integrated vacuum insulation panels

    Energy Build

    (2005)
  • H. Simmler et al.

    Vacuum insulation panels for building application: basic properties, aging mechanisms and service life

    Energy Build

    (2005)
  • C.G. Yang et al.

    A review of vacuum degradation research and the experimental outgassing research of the core material- PU foam on vacuum insulation panels

    Phys Proc

    (2012)
  • BINE Informationsdienst. In practice II: New residential and office building; 2013....
  • F.E. Boafo et al.

    Ultrafine glass fiber vacuum insulation panel for building insulation

    Adv Civil Eng Build Mater

    (2013)
  • Brunner S. Quality assurance and declaration of vacuum insulation for building application. In: Presentation, 9th...
  • Dornob. Aerogel: see-through, strong as steel & lighter than air; 2013....
  • EnOB. Vacuum insulation under the spotlight; 2013....
  • Erbenich G. How to identify a high quality VIP. In: Proceedings of the 9th international vacuum insulation symposium...
  • European Union. Directive 2012/27/EU of the European parliament and of the council of 25 October 2012 on the energy...
  • Fi-Foil Company; 2013. <http://www.gfpinsulation.com/> [accessed...
  • T. Gao et al.

    Nano insulation materials for energy efficient buildings: a case study on hollow silica nanospheres

  • T. Gao et al.

    Monodisperse hollow silica nanospheres for nano insulation materials: synthesis, characterization, and life cycle assessment

    ACS Appl Mater Interf

    (2013)
  • Grandcolas M, Etienne G, Tilset BG, Gao T, Sandberg LIC, Gustavsen A, Jelle BP, Hollow silica nanospheres as a...
  • S. Grynning et al.

    Hot box investigations and theoretical assessments of miscellaneous vacuum insulation panel configurations in building envelopes

    J Building Phys

    (2011)
  • T. Haavi et al.

    Vacuum insulation panels in wood frame wall constructions with different stud profiles

    J Building Phys

    (2012)
  • Heinemann U, Kastner R. VIP-Prove, Vakuum isolationspaneele -Bewährung in der Baupraxis-wissenschaftliche...
  • Cited by (198)

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text