Rapporten inneholder et forslag til system for klassifisering av byggetekniske løsningers robusthet. Hensikten med et slikt klassifiseringssystem skal gjøre det lettere for aktører i byggenæringen å velge løsninger og materialer tilpasset ønsket kvalitetsnivå, stedlig klima og den utførendes kompetanse. Byggenæringen må i større grad enn tidligere forholde seg til mange produkter med til dels overlappende bruksområde. Det kan være svært vanskelig å få oversikt over forskjeller i teknisk kvalitet og hvilke produkter som er mest hensiktsmessig i det enkelte byggeprosjekt.

Vacuum insulation panels (VIPs) are regarded as one of the most promising existing high performance thermal insulation solutions on the market today as their thermal performance typically range 5–10 times better than traditional insulation materials. However, the VIPs have several disadvantages such as risk of puncturing by penetration of nails and that they cannot be cut or fitted at the construction site. Furthermore, thermal bridging due to the panel envelope and load-bearing elements may have a large effect on the overall thermal performance. Finally, degradation of thermal performance due to moisture and air diffusion through the panel envelope is also a crucial issue for VIPs. In this work, laboratory investigations have been carried out by hot box measurements. These experimental results have been compared with numerical simulations of several wall structure arrangements of vacuum insulation panels. Various VIP edge and overlap effects have been studied. Measured U-values from hot box VIP large-scale experiments correspond well with numerical calculated U-values when actual values of the various parameters are used as input values in the numerical simulations.