Thermal break

A thermal break or thermal barrier is an element of low thermal conductivity placed in an assembly to reduce or prevent the flow of thermal energy between conductive materials.

In architecture and building construction some examples include the following:

The effect of using different thermal breaks can be observed here by comparing various Uw values obtained with different thermal breaks and systems. With outstanding thermal breaks, aluminium frames are able to be used for passive houses. The geometry and material of thermal breaks are aimed to decrease heat loss because of conduction, convection and radiation. Conduction is decreased by using materials with minimum lambda values and also using profiles with hollow chambers. Convection is decreased by using flags on insulation profiles. And radiation is decreased by using low-e folio (e.g. insulbar LEF) on these flags.

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