TerraVac | Vacuum insulation and cooling

FAQ

Questions we hear often.

New technology raises questions. Here are the ones we hear most often.

What is vacuum insulation and how does it work?

In an insulation material, heat is mainly transported by gas molecules. Vacuum insulation removes exactly these molecules. A porous core material is enclosed in a gas-tight high-barrier film and evacuated. What remains is a structure that barely conducts heat. The result is insulation performance many times higher than conventional insulation of the same thickness.

What are the advantages of vacuum insulation over conventional insulation?

For the same insulation performance, the insulation layer is much thinner. That frees up installation space, giving more usable volume within unchanged outer dimensions or more compact products. At the same insulation thickness, energy consumption falls, enabling a better energy efficiency class. With TerraVac, the vacuum body is also self-supporting and combines structure and insulation in a single component.

Who is TerraVac?

TerraVac is a Deep Tech company for industrial vacuum insulation based in Karlstadt, Germany, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Liebherr Group. We develop film-based perlite vacuum insulation and other insulation technologies, from thermodynamic design to series production. The technology has been in series production since 2019 and is used today in refrigerators and freezers, storage tanks, pipes and panels.

How does perlite vacuum insulation differ from vacuum insulation panels (VIPs)?

VIPs are inserted or foamed in as finished panels, with thermal bridges at every joint. Perlite vacuum insulation instead forms a continuous, self-supporting vacuum body in the shape of the product. Then there is the core material. Perlite is a volcanic rock, which makes it much cheaper and less energy-intensive to produce than fumed silica, and therefore more sustainable.

How thin can vacuum insulation be?

Vacuum insulation only makes sense above a certain thickness. A lower limit for STRATMO is 30 mm, for STRATMO+ 10 mm. There are exceptions, and in some cases even half that thickness can be economically viable. Because our technology often changes the product architecture, installation space becomes a design parameter rather than a constraint.

When is vacuum insulation economically worthwhile?

When insulation has to do more than insulate. As soon as installation space, energy efficiency class or usable volume define the value of a product, it pays off, often through eliminated process steps and design elements alone. What matters is the overall picture. Anyone who only compares material costs per square metre misses most of the benefit. And even on cost alone, our technology can keep up in high-volume production.

What does a better energy efficiency class cost, and what does it deliver?

The additional cost depends heavily on the product and the volume. In our calculations, it is regularly below the premium the market is willing to pay, and in some cases manufacturing costs even fall because design elements are no longer needed. The benefit is twofold. A better label today, and compliance with future tightening without another development cycle.

Passive insulation. Active cooling.

Passive insulation. Active cooling.

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