Revolutionising Climate Control in Buildings

What is Switchable Insulation?

Switchable Insulation enables thermal properties of building envelopes to be switched on & off in response to changing climatic conditions. This can reduce heating & cooling energy demands by 30-50% and also improve thermal comfort for building occupants. Our smart panel products enable insulated walls and roofs to become controllable sources of free solar heat during winter and to provide free night-time cooling during summer. This helps overcome problems of buildings overheating during heatwaves and dramatically reduces heating bills on cold sunny days.

Our panels utilise evaporation-condensation phase change principles inducing mass flow in a low-pressure environment. Pioneering work by our the team has identified pathways for realising high performance Switchable Insulation using Planar Liquid-Vapor Thermal Diodes, a form of flat-plate heat pipe developed by Ulster University based on their patented solar thermal diode technology (Patent WO2010052010).

Our Products

Switchable Insulation can be incorporated into a wide variety of wall and roof constructions to provide heating and cooling benefits in almost every type of building. Our products are particularly suited to facades with large opaque areas and to smart buildings which have intelligent automated heating and cooling systems. Our products are designed for:

• Solar heating to reduce fuel bills and carbon emissions
• Free cooling to prevent overheating
• 30-50% energy savings = lower energy bills + CO₂ emissions reduction
• Dynamic facades and roofs
• Climate-adaptive building skins
• Non-flammable and inert materials
• Smart control for intelligent building automation