Sustainable Encapsulation for Your Oak Frame House

Airtightness is a key step in achieving an energy efficient home that lowers your carbon footprint in-use. Many modern oak frame homes are wrapped, providing an external envelope to your build that encases the walls and roof.

This will reduce heat loss and reduce your day-to-day running costs. This approach is known as encapsulation, and there are a range of systems to suit your project and even achieve certified Passivhaus performance.

Precise Manufacture

At Oakwrights, we offer two types of encapsulation systems – WrightWall and WrightWall Natural – which are fabricated bespoke to your individual home. The encapsulation panels are designed using the same innovative software as for your oak frame, ensuring the encapsulation wraps seamlessly around it.

On top of that, the panels are manufactured offsite, ensuring more accurate assembly with fewer connections required. As a result, they ensure high levels of airtightness that will decrease your overall energy consumption.

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This closed-panel encapsulation system has been manufactured and fitted with windows offsite for extra quality control and optimum airtightness

Energy Efficiency

Low U-values (a measure of how much heat can pass through a structural element) ensure optimum energy efficiency, and a home that performs more sustainably in the long run. Our encapsulation systems have U-values from 0.16 W/m2k to 0.15 W/m2k for the walls, and 0.13 W/m2K to 0.12 W/m2K for the roof, designed to ensure your home loses as little heat as possible.

Creating an efficient and enjoyable living environment also means preventing overheating, and finding an encapsulation system that allows your house to maintain a comfortable temperature is key to avoiding this. WrightWall Natural panels are built with excellent insulation density.

Oakwrights homes use a range of modern insulation products as part of the encapsulation systems, which achieve excellent thermal efficiency and airtightness, right up to Passivhaus standards. Photo: Mark Watts

This reduces the risk of overheating while still offering low U-values. This will keep your home at an optimum temperature for improved comfort and lower running costs year-round. Dense insulation also translates to an excellent decrement delay factor. During the summer, the midday sun won’t penetrate the wall panel until the evening, when the temperature is cooler, so higher levels of comfort can be maintained.

Natural, Low-Waste Materials

The type of insulation used in closed-panel oak frame houses can also contribute to your home’s overall eco credentials. Cellulose is a popular material for insulation, primarily made up of recycled newspaper.

Our WrightWall and WrightRoof Natural panels use cellulose insulation that’s FSC, natureplus and Swiss Label certified and benefits from having a renewable content in the region of 85%, with the rest being made up of a fire-retardant treatment.

The insulation used in the WrightWall Natural and WrightRoof Natural systems is made from recycled newspaper, enhancing its eco credentials

When insulation is blown into place – the technique which our Natural systems use – it ensures optimal and consistent density within the closed panels, even in the tightest of spaces.

The efficiency of the entire process results in substantial material savings, with minimal waste generated. The tightly packed cellulose fibre offers increased resistance to air leakage and sound transfer, while also being a more economical option compared to other natural insulation products.