One of the leading timber frame manufacturers, Scotframe Timber Engineering, has become the first Scottish licensee of a highly innovative new technology which promises to reduce domestic energy bills in new homes.

SupaWall allows closed timber frame panels of up to 7.8 metres long to be factory injected with a high performance insulating material which fills every void in the panel, making it exceptionally thermally efficient and virtually airtight.

Said Scotframe's Sales Director, Mike Cruickshank: "SupaWall is an exciting patented product, which future proofs the thermal "envelope" (floor, wall and roof panels) of a building. With further Building Regulations thermal performance targets scheduled for 2010 and 2013, SupaWall will offer a realistic solution to the problem of fuel poverty, especially in the social housing sector."

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This new technology, which also incorporates a patented jointing system, permits the manufacturing process to take place in a quality controlled factory environment rather than on site, thereby reducing construction time, site waste and quality issues.

Added Mr Cruickshank: "SupaWall achieves U values as low as 0.12 W/m2K and because of this, we fully expect it to attract a great deal of interest by meeting the long term needs of housing associations, self-builders and developers who recognise the importance of thermal efficiency and that home energy costs are unlikely to fall in the longer term."

The SupaWall System is not restricted to new-build but can also help refurbishment projects to meet the increasingly stringent requirements of the Building Regulations. Panels can be used as infill in high-rise steel structures or in buildings with listed facades (giving all the benefits of SupaWall while retaining the aesthetics of the original design).

(GK/JM)