Click on any of the discussions below to jump down to their own individual section

Lower costs: Precast concrete's speed of construction can literally take months off the construction schedule. This results in less time to carry financial bonds, lower contractor overhead costs and risk, elimination of expenses for masonry scaffolding and reduced subcontractor costs.

Long-term savings: A total precast concrete system can help reduce insurance costs due to its inherent fire resistance. It also lowers maintenance costs throughout its lifetime due to high durability and a panelized system that minimizes water penetration. Its thermal mass enhances energy efficiency and sound absorption.

OVERALL GRADE A. +: Combining the savings from the construction budget with those in the long-term operating budgets produces a dramatic advantage. A precast concrete system is estimated to save between 5 and 8 percent of overall costs during the school's lifetime compared to a similar block building.

MEETING DEADLINES: Design speed It takes significantly less time to design a precast concrete school building than one built of masonry due to the lessened detail required in precast's panelized system and the ability to quickly replicate components on each floor or wing. Precasters offer a high degree of engineering expertise and assistance to speed the process more.

Fabrication speed: Precast components can be fabricated while permitting and foundation work progress. Precast components typically can begin erection as soon as the site is ready and foundations are complete. And, as the single-source supplier precasters help maintain the critical-path scheduling required to meet deadlines.

Erection speed: Foundations can be placed one day and precast load-bearing or nonload-bearing panels can be erected the next day. Wall panels, double tees, and hollowcore planking also erect quickly, often cutting weeks and months from the schedule, allowing construction to get into the dry quicker. Interior trades then begin work earlier. The fast enclosure lessens weather or material damage during erection, reducing the contractor's risks — and costs.

Year-round speed: Because precast components are fabricated under tight, factory-controlled conditions at the plant, harsh winter weather does not impact the production schedule or product quality. This guarantees the schedule by eliminating the need to add “cushions” into the timetable to accommodate unforeseen schedule creep due to weather.

Finish speed: Precast concrete insulated sandwich panels provide an interior layer of insulation that boosts energy efficiency. They also create a finished interior wall that avoids the time and cost of furring and dry walling. The wall is highly durable and vandal-resistant, making it an ideal option throughout a school building and especially in high-use areas such as gymnasiums and pools.

Thermal insulation is still the most important and the most cost effective way of saving energy and for virtually all homes will have the single largest impact on reducing fuel costs year after year. Improving the thermal insulation standards of the home should therefore be everyone's No.1 priority.

If you are planning to improve your home, to install central heating for the first time, or to replace an old boiler, our advice to you is to make thermal insulation your first priority. Not only will this reduce your fuel consumption and bills year after year, but your home will become more comfortable to live in, and you will be able to save money on the cost of installing your new central heating system or replacement boiler because the higher standard of thermal insulation means they don't need to be as big and expensive as before. Thermal insulation will keep your house warm in winter. In summer when temperatures outside are much higher than inside, good thermal insulation keeps the air cool inside the house

The term thermal insulation can refer to materials used to reduce the rate of heat transfer, or the methods and processes used to reduce heat transfer. Heat energy can be transferred by conduction, convection, radiation or by actual movement of material from one location to another. For the purposes of this discussion only the first three mechanisms need to be considered. Thermal insulation is the method of preventing heat from escaping a container or from entering the container. In other words, thermal insulation can keep an enclosed area such as a building warm, or it can keep the inside of a container cold. Heat is transferred from one material to another by conduction, convection and/or radiation. Insulators are used to minimize that transfer of heat energy. In home insulation, the R-value is an indication of how well a material insulates. The flow of heat can be reduced by addressing one or more of these mechanisms and is dependent on the physical properties of the material employed to do this

To reduce the impact of these and to address these problems .Insulation Continuity and Airtightness need to be thoroughly considered at all stages of design and construction.

That is why you need to carefully consider what you are investing your money in. Building your home with our Insulated Concrete Panel is the best system if you want to achieve optimum air tightness and eliminate cold bridging.

Ready to crack a panel open and see what makes it tick? The core of an ICP panel is created out of foam (sort of like the creamy goodness inside an Oreo cookie) and is most frequently made of expanded polyisocyanurate]., which offer greater insulation, provide a better moisture barrier and are more resistant to fire.

If you've stopped to consider a home's electrical system, you might be scratching your head right about now. If the walls are solid panels, are the wires strung up around the house like Christmas lights? Not quite. During manufacturing, narrow channels typically known as chases or wirechases are either formed directly into the foam or tunneled out later. Wires can be strung through these conduits and along other inlaid niches.

In the production process, the two sections of sheathing and the foam core are sandwiched together and cut to the proper size specifications. These can be standard dimensions or kits customized for a particular job. Manufacturers might cut window and door openings, or leave that to the construction crew. The panels are labeled for easy assembly -- sort of a paint-by-number setup -- and then they're ready to be shipped to the site.Where the Puzzle is placed togeather.

Although there are industry standards, ICPs are highly customizable in shape, density, size, thickness and appearance. They can be used for residential homes as well as commercial buildings schools etc.

If you've ever seen a typical house being built, at one stage in the process you probably saw a wooden latticework of spindly 2x4s outlining a shape somewhat reminiscent of a whale's ribcage. Or your standard blocK building But although this method is currently the standard, there are other ways to build a home -- and some of them can save you quite a bit of money in the long run.

One of these alternate techniques is to construct a house using ICPs, which stands for Insulated concrete panels. ICPs are prefabricated solid sheets of building material that are constructed of a foam core surrounded on each side by layer of concrete .

You might be wondering at this point: If Insulated concrete panels were such a hot new idea, how come stick frame houses the standard block homes are still popping up like weeds? The answer, in a nutshell, is that building trends often shift at a glacial pace. Times change as do our needs we now want to save money , and to do that we need an energy-efficient homes. Since energy issues are just one of the many concerns touching today's markets, ICPs and similar building prospects are waiting in the wings, ready to make a big appearance.

Efficiency: Buildings built with ICPs have greater thermal capabilities and less insulation breaks for heat to escape. They offer more uniform temperatures while decreasing the heating and cooling load. Plus, because they require smaller HVAC systems, they also decrease the amount of greenhouse gasses grabbing at your conscience.

Simple Perks: ICP homes tend to be quieter -- the panels provide a better sound barrier than stick-frame houses -- and they tend to be healthier.

Strength: This brings us to the sturdiness of ICP-built buildings. Instead of having the weight of the structure centered on the frame studs, the entire shell is able to shoulder the load. These homes also tend to do better during natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes -- although this is in no way a guarantee that the house will weather the storm.

Bottom Line: Now let's get down to the brass tacks. ICP homes generally cost more to build than stud frame homes, but they work hard to earn their keep. Besides the money saved during construction (remember the prefab savings, the decreased labor cost, the lack of materials waste and they also offer long-term savings. Reductions on utility bills,. investment? ICP homes tend to bring home the bacon as far as resale values are concerned. So if you're looking to go block or wooden frame in your next dwelling think again, with good research and planning, a ICP home can be the coziest and sweet home you will ever have

Airtightness is essential to prevent heat loss via the fabric of the building and maximise the effectiveness of thermal insulation thus reducing energy consumption. For example, an 80m2 house with poor airtightness requires the same energy to heat as a 400m2 house with the same thickness of thermal insulation, but which has a very high standard of airtightness.

Air tightness must be incorporated into the building at design stage. Trades such as plasters, electricians and plumbers need training as the concept of airtightness is new to most sites. Block and mortar are not airtight, neither is plasterboard and skim. Sand cement plaster is airtight. Around the ends of first floor joists air tightness is difficult. The best method of addressing this is ensuring you build your home with Campion Insulated Concrete Panels.

Many people are aware of draughts coming from recessed lights. Normally this cold air is coming from the cavity – and it is costing you money and comfort.

When we talk of air tightness, what we're essentially speaking about is the elimination of draughts. In other words when we want fresh air, we open a window or slide the cover of a vent across, and we have the fresh air that we want. Draughty buildings provide fresh air whether we want it or not. In winter when ambient external temperatures may be only three or four degrees and we like to relax indoors in temperatures around twenty degrees, we end up footing the bill for warming-up any incoming air. The less cold air that we have to heat the better – so air tightness or air control saves money. Airtight buildings offer another economic benefit – they don't let much warm air escape either.

When we blow up a balloon we create what we call a static pressure inside it. If we then form an opening at the valve which is tiny compared to the surface area of the balloon then all the air will escape very quickly at high velocity,” explains McHugh. “Now if the wind blows against the side of our house, a similar kind of static pressure builds up. Any small openings which exist in the building, such as around window frames, pipes, and so on, will allow air through, in the form of draughts

Air Leakage (or infiltration) is the flow of outside air into and out of a building. It is not planned by the designers and is due to imperfections in the building ‘envelope' (or outer skin).

It will typically take place through:
• joints, gaps and cracks in the construction
• gaps created where the structure penetrates the outer skin of the building
• cracks around door and window openings
• gaps where services enter the building

Air leakage will have detrimental effects on the buildings thermal performance, comfort levels and energy efficiency.

Get your home airtight with Campions Insulated Concrete Panel housing system

The Carbon Economy of the 21st Century places new demands on us all as consumers, to reduce our carbon footprint by consuming less energy. We need to alter our lifestyles so that we demand less from finite energy resources that will continue to become more and more expensive.

Many Governments are introducing financial penalties or carbon taxes, as they struggle to meet the annual carbon budgets (limits) set by global climate change treaties. This means that taxes will be levied on those homes that waste energy unnecessarily. The introduction of Energy Rating Certificates on homes in Ireland is now a factor in the valuation of a property and likely to become a more dominant factor.

Regardless of how cheap or expensive it is to purchase or build a new home, the larger expense will be the annual energy costs over the lifetime of the home - an ongoing cost that we have little or no control of.

Have CAMPION HOMES erect your home and see the dramatic reduction in your energy costs. With our system you are ensuring there is no space between the insulation and the inner and outer leaf, which means your keeping the heat inside rather that escaping through the wall and this is what is happening with traditional block building……

Campion Homes Insulated Concrete Panel is an innovative, environmentally friendly, energy efficient and fast way to build your home or office. Increased U-Value increases the energy performance of a building so that operational energy costs are minimised. The Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) over the life of the building asset is minimised. This has become an important factor to future valuations of homes, workplaces and building assets in general.

There are many advantages:
- Safe, solid, quiet & secure
- Unparalleled acoustic insulation
- Superior thermal insulation
- Significantly reduced operating & maintenance costs
- Durable, reinforced concrete construction
- Speed & ease of construction

Or send your plans in remember your new home is probably your largest single financial commitment let us help you save money!!!!

Did you know that around a third of all the heat lost in an un-insulated home is through the walls? Cavity wall insulation is an effective way to save energy and money at home. A well insulated house keeps warmth exactly where you need it - indoors.

So, insulating your cavity walls will help you to heat your home more efficiently. Using less energy reduces carbon dioxide emissions (CO2): one of the biggest causes of climate change. You will also save money on your bills too.
Cavity wall insulation can also help to reduce

Cavity wall properly insulated are so cost effective that it will pay for itself over and over again. The better insulated your home, the less energy you need to keep it warm - and the more money you'll save.

By insulating your cavity walls you could cut your heating costs and, by saving energy, your household will produce less CO2. So, insulating your cavity walls is a great way to help fight climate change.

Heat will always flow from a warm area to a cold one. In winter, the colder it is outside, the faster heat from your home will escape into the surrounding air.

Cavity wall insulation slows down the rate at which it escapes, keeping as much of it as possible inside your home for as long as possible. How? Insulation makes it much more difficult for heat to pass through your walls by filling up the cavity with a material with lots of air pockets in it. These pockets greatly reduce what is known as your walls' U value - which is a measure of how quickly they lose heat - from around 1.5 to 0.5 W/m2K . The lower the U value, the slower heat is lost - and the less energy you need to keep your home warm.

You may on occasions also see references to an R-value. This is a measure of thermal resistance and is the inverse of a U-value - the higher a U-value is the lower the R-value is

Precast wall panels are superior to block construction in a variety of aspects. Precast panels can be erected more quickly and is capable of handling greater structural loads, offers greater energy efficiency while reducing long term Maintence and energy costs. We guarantee our u-value of 0.25 and 0.18 as our insulation is placed pressure tight to inner leaf which can not be achieved by block work.

Campion Concrete Products have been established since 1989, we are one of the leading manufacturers and suppliers of concrete products to the Irish building industry. Our manufacturing facility is conveniently situated in the midlands at Borris-in-Ossory, Co Laois.

Our plant has over 800 square foot of production facility standing on a 50 acre site.

Due to the growing demand for highly insulated houses with low carbon emissions, we are now adding to our range of products a highly insulated concrete wall panel(U- value ranging from (0.25 to 0.18).

"All our panels are manufactured in a controlled factory environment; this enables quality controls of the highest standards. All walls are flat, true and plumb! "

INSULATION – The Insulation industry comments that “For insulation to work properly it must be fitted tight to the inner wall”. The insulation in the Campion homes ICP system is fitted pressure tight to the inner leaf as it is sandwich between 2 layers of concrete between 2 layers of concrete. This panel consists of 100mm reinforced inner structural leaf, either 90mm or 130mm high density polyisocyanurate insulation and a reinforced outer concrete. The leafs are tied together with Thermomass connectors which eliminates cold bridging.

SEMI –DETACHED HOMES - Insulated party wall consisting of 100mm concrete, 90/130mm high density. Polyisocyanurate insulation and 100mm concrete. In other words you only heat your own home, not your neighbours!

Campion Concrete is established since 1989 and has gained a reputation for setting high standards. We have worked with concrete from Cattle slats, hurling walls to building homes with highly insulated panel's houses being erected in 2-3 Days. We believe in a high quality product and customer service.

D.J Carey: ‘I would solo run, ball and hurl 2 miles home from school, throw the bag in the corner and for hours until it got dark, hit the ball against the wall. Dreaming of Eddie Kehir and Ger Henderson, coming back from 25 points in an All Ireland final, every time you hit the ball you were scoring the winning goal.'

1) Cavity wall technology may be reaching its limit. Wider & wider insulation batts are pushing masonry leafs further apart and making wall ties longer leading to structural implications. Additionally, several studies point to marked differences between predicted and measured U – values, while certain issues that were highlighted as long ago as 1990 have not been taken on board by the building industry or the legislators.

2) In older cavity walls before insulation was used, “block layers” built the structure and plasterers provided the weatherproofing in the form of external render and internal plaster. Significantly, Block layers rather than specialist trained installers were given the task of installing the insulation, something which they have not been trained to do nor getting paid to do!

3) As long as the ties slope down & the bottom of the cavity is kept clear, the inner leaf should remain entirely dry. Is this happening and who keeps a check on these things?

4) Homebond's “Gold Shield Homes” Construction Certifying Scheme has a link with insurers which are so strong that it has a marked effect on the willingness of builders, architects and clients to pursue non standard – in other words NON - HOMEBOND – forms of construction in the housing sector.

5) Pre fabricated panels maximise the effect of shop floor quality control on the final building and consequently reduce the impact of site works on quality & performance. The manufacturers of pre fabricated panels emphasize their high thermal performance and low fuel bills.

6) Ireland's construction industry must now come to terms with the ever increasing importance of insulation, air tightness, controlled ventilation and increasing environmental concern in light of global warming and the Kyoto Protocol. Residential buildings account for 30% of total national CO2 emissions and heating the home accounts for 60% of that total it is clear that there is a vital link between CO2 emissions and the actual thermal performance of dwellings. In other words we are wasting too much heat through our poorly insulated homes.

7) TGD L (2002) saw the U- values drop from 0.45 down to 0.27. When the document was being drafted one of the researchers involved in the creation of the document told Joseph Little that they had originally proposed a 0.25 U – value but settled on the 0.27 value specifically to allow cavity wall & hollow block wall construction to remain compliant – if only nominally! So I ask you - are they compliant?

8) Between 1998 & 2002 the Building Research Establishment (BRE) measured the thermal performance of houses and compared them with their calculated U – values and found that there was a difference between the calculated U – values & the Measured U – values. These houses had no insulation fitted. Some houses had a calculated U – value of 0.68 which could only be possible if the inner leaf was built with lightweight thermal blocks. This would have been a very unusual method of building in 1996.

9) Another house was deigned to have a U – value of 0.45 but ended up with a measured U- value of more than double this figure at 0.97!!
This highlights the differences between calculated and measured U values. Just because a person calculates on paper the U value to be a certain measurement, it does not mean that this measurement will be achieved when the house is actually built on site. The calculated U -values can only be achieved through controlled factory production methods.

10) When designers first started specifying insulation for cavity walls it fell to the Block layers to install it. This made sense in the sequence of work for them to install it as it was surrounded by their work. However, whether or not block layers ever received training to install insulation is suspect as due to the first hand experience of a great deal of architects, clerks of works and also Joseph Little, the insulation is very rarely fitted as it was meant to be. Once insulation is installed in between the cavity it becomes invisible! Furthermore, its performance may also be intangible as how can one see if the insulation has been installed correctly. Lastly, Block layers are more often than not only paid for the amount of blocks laid, which inevitably focuses the mind!

11) Comment by Joseph Little. - “Pre fabricated panels consistently out perform insulated block work structures” An important function of block laying is to ensure that the cavity remains clean. This was relatively easy when the cavity was empty. When insulation was introduced in cavity construction this became more difficult to control. Snots of mortar could now push the insulation away from the inner wall rendering the insulation virtually useless. The insulation could also bridge the cavity giving a bridging effect for concrete to lodge at that point & producing a connection from external wall to the internal wall which leads to penetrating dampness.

12) If cavity insulation is out of place by even a few millimetres it will lead to what is known as thermal looping resulting in significant heat loss through the wall. In tests carried out to achieve a calculated wall U- value of 0.34, it was shown that even with the insulation away from the inner leaf by a mere 10mm gap, an actual U – value of 0.65 was attained. This meant an increase of 193% in heat transfer. If the gap was 15mm it would lead to a 280% increase. In plain language this means your hard earned money is being lost through the cavity wall.

13) Thermal looping is one of the main causes of under performance of cavity wall construction. It is found that stringent requirements must be introduced concerning the application of insulation in cavity wall construction, since the presence of any small air leaks can cause a substantial increase in heat transfer.

14) Joseph Little architect states that “In my view the requirements that the cavity face of the inner leaf be perfectly clean & true and that the insulation be so tightly fixed to it that any resulting air gap is a millimetre or less in order to prevent a sizeable reduction in thermal performance IS IMPOSSIBLE ON SITE. THE ISSUE OF THERMAL LOOPING DEMANDS A MOVE AWAY FROM PARTIAL FILL CAVITY CONSTRUCTION. Joseph goes on to say “partial fill cavity construction has reached it's limit and is no longer useful in achieving this society's goals of improved living standards while also abating environmental degradation”

15) Key building industry publications mention little about the differences between calculated U – values & measured U values and the reasons why there are differences and have absolutely nothing to say at all about thermal looping. Strange when it is a very common occurrence.

16) The public are buying houses that are claiming a certain U –value but in reality are not getting what they are paying for. This leads to much higher fuel bills than were predicted (BER RATINGS TAKE NOTE!)

Our insulated wall panel system is the way of the future; we are all are now trying to reduce costs for our energy bills, in order to reduce costs you need to find where the problem is and rectify it. This is exactly what we have done; “For insulation to work as it was designed to, the insulation needs to be fitted (pressure) tight to the inside wall.”

This cannot be achieved by building in the traditional concrete block method. But it can be achieved with our highly insulated wall panel. The benefits of the Campion Homes system are as follows: