In order to reduce energy consumption and thus reduce environmental pollution and greenhouse effect, after the 1970s, foreign countries generally paid attention to the production of insulation materials and their application in construction. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the global building insulation material market is developing rapidly. As North American consumers become more aware of building energy efficiency and government-developed building energy regulations, the proportion of new buildings in North America using insulation materials is increasing. Although affected by the financial crisis, the size of the North American building insulation materials market will shrink in the short term, but in the long run, it still has a strong warmth. The foreign thermal insulation material industry has a long history, and the building insulation energy-saving materials account for the vast majority. For example, since 1987, construction insulation materials accounted for about 81% of all insulation materials, and more than 80% of the minerals in Sweden and Finland and other Nordic countries. Cotton products are used for building energy efficiency. Some developed countries in foreign countries have started building energy conservation work as early as the late 1970s, forcing the construction industry to implement energy conservation standards in new buildings.
In 1975, the United States first issued the ASHRAE (American Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineering Association) 90-75 new building design energy-saving standards. Based on this, in December 1977, the officially promulgated the “Energy Conservation Regulations in New Building Structures”, and received significant energy savings in 45 states. The US National Energy Administration, the Bureau of Standards, and the National Conference on Building Codes and Standards continue to propose new content in building energy efficiency design, and the ASHRAE standard is revised every five years.
The emphasis on building energy efficiency and some effective measures taken by developed countries have achieved great results, resulting in a significant decline in building energy consumption in these countries. For example, in 1985, the heating area increased by 30% compared with 1972, but the heating energy consumption decreased by 3.18 million tons of standard coal. The proportion of heating energy consumption to total national energy consumption also decreased from 39% to 28%; the United States has The implementation of energy-saving standards has saved a lot of money and expenditure, and it is estimated that by 2011, it will save 43 billion US dollars.
It can be seen that foreign building energy conservation regulations have achieved remarkable social and economic benefits for more than 30 years. Building energy conservation is not only based on the promulgation and implementation of building energy conservation regulations, but its implementation also involves a large industrial group, in which thermal insulation materials and products are an important factor affecting building energy efficiency.