Press release 15 03 2022

    RENOLIT ALKORPLAN BRIGHT AND RENOLIT ALKORPLAN SMART MAKE THE PLANET BREATHE BETTER

    A new study commissioned to Circe, a technology center that works to provide innovative solutions for sustainable development, has compared the energy and environmental performance of the two products in a concrete case in Zaragoza, Paris and Helsinki

    Sant Celoni, Barcelona, 15 03 2022 – Be it summer or winter, Zaragoza, Helsinki or Paris, RENOLIT ALKORPLAN Bright and RENOLIT ALKORPLAN Smart membranes save energy when it comes to cooling a building.
    This was revealed by the CIRCE study, commissioned by RENOLIT ALKORPLAN Roofing products on the environmental and energy impact of their waterproofing membranes. CIRCE, founded in 1993, works to improve the competitiveness of companies in terms of sustainability, resource efficiency, energy networks and renewable energies. The study shows an increasing attention by RENOLIT ALKORPLAN Roofing products towards the environment and sustainability. Last year, the energy saving study was carried out in the laboratory, using the DesignBuilder software. This year the project has gone one step further and has tested how the roofing membranes perform under real-world conditions.

    The object of the comparison was in fact the plant of a company specialized in the production and distribution of fish located in Zaragoza. To preserve the quality of the product, the company needs to maintain a refrigerated environment at all times (from -20º to + 0.5ºC). All the characteristics of the plant were taken into consideration - areas, heights, dimensions, materials used, orientation of the building - and adapted to make a comparison between the building with traditional bituminous waterproofing membranes and another with the roof covered with RENOLIT ALKORPLAN Bright or RENOLIT ALKORPLAN Smart synthetic membranes. The plant - and here the DesignBuilder software came in handy - was then virtually transferred to Paris and Helsinki, adapting the construction characteristics to local legislation, to evaluate the performance of the RENOLIT ALKORPLAN products in two different climates. An estimated life of the building of 75 years was also taken into account including a refurbishment. The results were excellent.

    In Zaragoza, using RENOLIT ALKORPLAN Bright, the kWh savings were greater than 10%, with peaks of over 12% savings in the summer period to approximately 6% in the winter period. The use of RENOLIT ALKORPLAN Smart, on the other hand, resulted in a saving of 6.60%, greater in summer but still significant in the winter period. The simulation in the French capital led to very important results: +11.47% energy savings in terms of kWh in the Bright version, almost +7% in the Smart version, in both cases with greater savings in summer compared to winter. The biggest gain in percentage terms, however, occurs in Helsinki, where RENOLIT ALKORPLAN Bright saves 13% (15% in July and less than 1% in December) and RENOLIT ALKORPLAN Smart 8%. Generally, RENOLIT ALKORPLAN Bright is the membrane that produces the best savings in terms of electricity consumption, cooling costs and related emissions. RENOLIT ALKORPLAN Smart also offers very interesting performances and constitutes a valid alternative wherever RENOLIT ALKORPLAN Bright cannot be used. In absolute terms, however, the greatest savings obviously occur in Spain, due to the milder climate and therefore the greater need to consume energy to cool the rooms, but in percentage terms there are also significant savings in France and Finland. The rule, for all of them, is that the higher the 'roof ratio' (m2 roof / occupied area m2), the greater the benefits. The same conclusion applies to the assessment of the environmental impact, based on the values of the EPDs available on the RENOLIT ALKORPLAN products and made according to the Life Cycle Assessment methodology. The roof almost always represents the largest surface of a building and therefore, to improve efficiency, it is appropriate to start thinking from the roof.

    RENOLIT ALKORPLAN Bright combines the quality and advantages of RENOLIT ALKORPLAN roofing membranes with its high ability to reflect the sun's rays. The RENOLIT ALKORPLAN Smart  products are a composite of innovation and technology based on the principle 'less is more', so with thicknesses of only 1.2 or 1.5 mm they are able to provide not only a perfect waterproofing, mechanical and chemical resistance, but also energy savings, sustainability, versatility, aesthetics, and greater durability.