The Wall-ACE project: an overview of the in-field monitoring on the novel Aerogel-based products

The increasing demand for high energy efficient buildings has lead to a growing interest in building envelope solutions characterised by an high level of innovation. The necessity of providing new solutions for the energy retrofit of existing and – especially – old and/or listed buildings is rising great challenges. A promising perspective comes from the implementation of aerogel-based Super Insulating Materials, which can provide added value with respect to current envelope technologies. In this framework, the ongoing EU H2020 research project Wall-ACE aims at developing a suite of Aerogel-based sustainable insulation solutions for the building market. The five insulation products under development were specifically designed for both the renovation of existing buildings and for the construction of new zero energy buildings. The aim is to achieve for each product a thermal conductivity significantly lower with respect to the state-of-the-art solutions. In this paper, an overview of the research activities which led to the development of these new high insulating products is presented. The products developed were tested through laboratory tests, numerical analysis, small scale and full-scale experimental activities. Thereafter, the different large-scale test facilities and the case study buildings selected in different EU countries (Italy, United Kingdom and France) to test the different products developed are showed.