The objective of the Hillside Project was to build a home that featured quality thermal and fire efficiency. The challenge was to create an energy efficient house with a comfortable environment, requiring minimal heating and cooling. The house was constructed using THERMOMASS insulated precast concrete sandwich panels and fire resistant windows.

Sarah Bachmann, National Precast Executive Officer, believes in putting her ideas into practice, and has created a house which fronts onto the bush of the Adelaide Hills.

“Yes, fire resistance was a determining factor in the choice of precast concrete for the house, but we will also derive the benefits of an extremely thermally efficient, acoustically efficient and durable home. We have taken advantage of the thermal storage properties of precast concrete sandwich panels to even out temperature extremes on hot summer days and cold winter nights,” she said.

THERMOMASS is a fully fire tested concrete sandwich panel insulation system that provides owners and occupiers complete peace of mind. THERMOMASS insulated precast concrete panels require minimal maintenance and allow for fast erection with completion of the internal and external wall in one process.

The use of precast concrete sandwich panels and double glazed windows make a huge contribution to Hillside being energy efficient and fire safe.

Insulated precast wall panels offer the advantage of being a permanent barrier to fire, heat, impact and smoke, and require no additional protection.

The high thermal mass of the insulated precast sandwich wall panels together with concrete floors allows heat to be absorbed during the day in winter, and to be released into the night, maintaining a constant temperature throughout. In summer, it has the opposite effect, by direct sun not entering the house and thereby not taking on heat load.

The insulated sandwich panels for the Hillside Project were manufactured by Bianco Precast.

THERMOMASS insulated precast concrete sandwich panels are available from Composite Global Solutions .