Why Steico
Improve your wellbeing with the right insulation
Live and feel healthy
A well insulated house clearly improves your comfort and lifestyle. With STEICO insulating materials you can enjoy your house even more.
In the winter, STEICO wood fiber insulating materials provide a comfortable climate in your home. The natural insulating materials enclose the house and hold warmth (or coolness) inside the property. In a well insulated house the interior temperature of walls and furnishings automatically increases. This effect is immediately noticeable:
- Improved well-being: Evenly warm walls deliver more radiant heat. Because people find radiant heat particularly pleasant, it is possible to frequently lower the actual ambient temperature without reducing the internal comfort. As a result, reducing the ambient temperature by one degree means approximately a 5% energy cost saving.
- Effective protection against mold: The humidity in the air will only condense on a cold wall. By creating warm walls, this condensation is eliminated. Without damp patches mold is unable to grow, therefore mold is avoided from the outset.
- Less air movement: Drafts caused by convection can be unpleasant. When external walls are poorly insulated, the air cools down, falls to the ground, and flows to the centre of the room where it warms up and ascends again. On the other hand, when walls are well insulated, this problem does not occur. The cooling effect is reduced or eliminated. If the air is still, he feeling of these drafts is reduced and less dust is disturbed. This proves to be beneficial for those who suffer from allergies.
Fire-protection of structures
There is no denying the fact that wood burns. However, STEICO insulating materials exhibit some very unique properties, which makes them safer in the event of fire
- All STEICO insulating materials include a natural fire protection additive. The product used is ammonium phosphate, a mineral salt produced from combining the elements phosphorus and nitrogen. Like all of our additives, ammonium phosphate is a natural and harmless product, which is frequently used in the food industry.
- In the event of a fire, a carbonization layer quickly forms on the surface of the insulation board or mat . This carbonization, or charring, restrains the propagation of the fire and prevents the fire from rapidely burning through of the STEICO product. Many conventional insulating materials are prone to melting and ofter carry very limited fire protection. In combination with suitable finishes, fire-protection structures can be built with STEICO insulating materials, and adhere to F90 B rating (a fire would need 90 minutes in order to enter the construction).
- Unlike many petro-chemical based insulating materials,STEICO materials are organic based, and therefore will not emit toxic gases in the event of fire.
In summary: Although all wood can burn, STEICO wood products offers the highest degree of fire protection.
The Environment
STEICO products are designed to be ecological in many ways.
A well insulated house will use considerably less energy than one which is not. Consequently, hot\cool air emissions are reduced. It is not only retaining heat during the cold winter, but also maintaining cooler, comfortable conditions during the summer. STEICO insulation products are designed to meet both these functions: reducing your energy consumption and emissions throughout the year.
In addition to reducing the energy emissions from your house, the wood fiber used in STEICO products has the ability to reduce global CO2 during the plant’s growth phase. Because our raw materials are source-grown in the forest, each tree will bind and withdraw CO2 from the atmosphere. Timber is a particularly unique material. For each 1 m3 used, up to 1 ton of CO2 is bound within the product. In the form of insulating materials the CO2 remains bound in the wood fibers for the entire lifespan of the product. It has been calculated that the STEICO insulating material used to completely insulate an average single family house binds as much CO2 as a small car can emit in the course of travelling 30,000 miles.
At the end of the products life, due to lack of artificial additives, STEICO products are easily recycled, or may even be turned into compost to provide a valuable soil conditioner. One of our key by-products are growing bags for tomato and other agricultural producers.
With STEICO you can build on quality. Today and in the future.
With STEICO wood fiber insulating materials you can rely on the quality of a market leader. From the raw material to the finished insulation boards, our products go through a multitude of controls and quality tests. As a result we guarantee that only the highest quality products leave our manufacturing plants.
All STEICO products are certified to FSC or PEFC standards with full chain of custody paperwork.This process provides you with the assurance that the raw material for all our products originates from sustainable forestry.
The production and development of our products is independently audited by the TÜV South Germany under the quality management system ISO 9001:2008.
Renovation
STEICO renovation solutions
Old houses, new insulation – the winning combination environmentally and financially
Many older houses are unable to meet the current requirements for energy consumption and thermal efficiency. With a few simple measures the building can be upgraded, saving you money and reducing your energy emissions.
With ever increasing gas, oil, electricity, and solid fuel prices, the cost of heating and cooling your home is becoming an urgent concern.
There is no reason to accept this situation. With the correct measures most old buildings can be improved to a level which corresponds to or even exceeds the performance of a new building. Choosing the correct insulation is particularly important and with STEICO, you can improve your environmental impact at the same time.
Renovation, the investment which pays for itself
With the STEICO system approach you achieve double the benefits. Due to the special advantages provided by the natural fibers, your property will retain warmth in the winter, and keep the heat out in the summer. STEICO products will insulate your wallet against increasing fuel bills.
The capital outlay in the renovation soon shows savings to offset the initial investment, often paying for itself after only a few years.
A redevelopment can also extend the life span of your property, increases the resale value and permanently lowers maintenance costs.
Heat Protection
STEICO heat protection
Overheating homes?
STEICO wood fibre insulations are the ideal solution to keeping houses warm in the winter and – most importantly – cool in the summer. This is based on the especially high “Thermal Storage Capacity” of STEICO’s insulation materials. During hot midday and early afternoon hours, they absorb the warmth and act as a “buffer”, delaying the heat progress.
THE FACTS: DENSITY AND SPECIFIC HEAT CAPACITY
Compared to other conventional insulation materials, like glass wool, STEICO woodfiber insulations are designed to be a higher density product. This density is the key to summer heat protection. As mass acts as a heat buffer, it leads to a phase shift, which is the time span between the highest external temperature and the highest internal temperature. The aim of summer heat protection is to delay the heat transfer until temperatures outside the tho home begin to cool down. The insulation keeps the building very comfortable even through high, midday temperatures.