Reflective subfloor insulation installed to contemporary industry practice

The adoption of increased thermal performance requirements, as specified in the Australian National Construction Code, has been linked to a significant reduction in the use of timber platform flooring systems. This appears to be related to perceptions of thermal performance differences that may occur between timber platform and concrete slab-on-ground flooring systems. Industry has responded by providing a range of products that provide subfloor insulation, including batt-bulk, rigid, spray-in-place foam and reflective systems. For what appears to be a cost-of-construction reasoning, the reflective systems have gained a significant portion of the subfloor insulation market. However, industry and government have raised concern with regard to industry knowledge of and the application and installation of reflective subfloor insulation products as a component of platform floored systems. In this research, a contractor installed a reflective subfloor insulation product as per their standard practice. The insulation was not installed to the manufacturers specification. To quantify the thermal performance effect, data was collected from unoccupied unconditioned and conditioned modes of operation. For comparison purposes detailed thermal simulations were completed using the AccuRate HER software. This paper discusses the differences that were observed between the measured and simulated zone temperatures and energy data during the heated mode of operation.