Fully developed fires in “low-energy” and “energy-efficient” buildings

Buildings use approximately 40% of the total amount of the consumed energy in EU and USA. New design approaches and materials are used to reduce the energy consumption for space heating, ventilation, lightning and other domestic necessities. There is a need to investigate effect of these design features on the fire safety. Increased compartment size can contribute to the fire duration and non-uniform heating of the structural elements. Bigger window areas increase probability of a fuel controlled fire. Advanced glazing systems show better performance, when exposed to high temperatures. Building materials can contribute to the fire load inside a fire compartment. Boundary material properties influence the probability of a flashover and the fire room temperature. Vacuum insulation panel (VIP) is a state-of-the-art building insulation solution. Bench scale tests were conducted with the VIP samples, consisting of a flammable protective envelope and an incombustible siliceous core. 71-129kW/m2 HRR peak was estimated with the total burning time of approximately 75 seconds. The total released energy was estimated to be 1.6-4.1MJ/m2. Degradation of the core material and increased rate of the heat flow through the sample was observed after exposure to the high heat flux