Two innovative and advanced, low-carbon prefabricated building systems, designed, manufactured and erected by Lime Technology Group Company, Hemcrete Projects, are set to make their mark in the educational building sector.
Developed to deliver highly sustainable and energy efficient buildings, Hemcrete Projects’ solutions – Hembuild and Hemclad – are not only aligned to meet the needs of the expanding school buildings programme but the Government’s commitment to meet its stated targets on carbon emission reduction.
Both systems are based around a bio-composite building material made from hemp shiv (the woody core of industrial hemp) mixed with a lime-based mortar – Tradical Hemcrete. This product, when used in conjunction with equally efficient hemp fibre insulation quilt, Breathe, delivers advanced insulation and thermal inertia.
Building using these systems creates a substantial smoothing out of temperatures, thus reducing peak loads and the capital costs of an M&E system. The building fabric therefore partially takes over the regulation of the internal conditions using the passive properties of Hemcrete, instead of using the active properties of the M&E system. This creates the potential for reducing capital and running costs, both of which can be modelled by Hemcrete Projects Ltd.
In addition to exceeding expectations based on conventional steady state U-values and standard thermal modelling, the panelised systems are both negative embodied carbon products. This arises due to hemp capturing carbon dioxide during its rapid growth, whilst releasing oxygen back into the atmosphere. The carbon is then locked up within the walls of the building to give a carbon negative solution, which is suitable of receiving a variety of Lime Technology cladding systems that are available with a range of sustainable and breathable finishes, including insulated render.
Commenting on Hemcrete Projects’ panellised wall system solutions, Technical Director, Ian Pritchett said: “These are two high performance offsite systems that tick all the boxes when it comes to meeting today’s requirements within the field of sustainable construction. They are not only cost-effective at delivering economic construction costs, whole of life costs are also considerably reduced. What’s more, in addition to having been tried and tested within the education sector, the systems are equally at home in any part of the commercial arena, be it in relation to hospitals, medical centres, retail and community buildings, or colleges and universities.
“As well as driving home the key benefits that are inherent within hemp-based building systems such as Hembuild and Hemclad to a specifying audience, Hemcrete Projects is keen to engage with children, students and teachers as part of an overall educational process in extolling the virtues of the systems’ positive environmental credentials. As such, we shall be looking to welcome all interested parties to share in site visits as well as see the panels actually being produced at our factory,” he added.
Hembuild is an offsite, structural panellised building system that incorporates a thermally efficient, double stud structural frame and breathable vapour control layer to create an airtight building envelope (typically below 3m3/m2/hr at 50Pa, but can be as low as 0.6 – subject to choice of windows/doors and services). Suitable for one to three storey buildings, Hembuild can be supplied in a range of U-values from 0.11 to 0.19 W/m2K, used to meet high levels of the code for sustainable homes and BREEAM for a wide range of buildings, such as schools and commercial developments.
Hemclad is a cost-effective, sustainable and thermally efficient wall panel system that is based on Hembuild, but used in larger buildings having a primary structural frame. It combines Tradical Hemcrete and Breathe within a thermally efficient, double stud timber cassette to provide proven advantages over traditional composite panels. Available in cassette sizes to suit bespoke design requirements, and with U-values ranging from 0.11 to 0.19 W/m2K, it is an eco-friendly and hassle free system that is perfect for commercial and industrial developments.
Hemcrete Projects has the capability to provide complete super-structure solutions, tailored to meet the needs of architects, designers, contractors and end user clients, covering all aspects of panel design, structural engineering, manufacture and installation on a national basis.
