UK Market Update 14 March 2025

EcoDuct Pre-insulated Ductwork and DW144 Compliance

DW144 is a guidance document issued by the Building & Engineering Services Association (B&ES) proposing a standard specification for ductwork manufacture and installation. The EcoDuct ductwork system is able to meet (and comfortably exceed) the air leakage requirements and pressure classifications that are referenced in DW144, BS EN 1507, BS EN 12237, SMACNA and BS EN 13403 (refer to table 1.2 below) when following the principles of the product specification manuals and the fabrication guidelines.

This is confirmed in the VSS test report which gave a Class D air leakage rating at 2,500pa – see graph in table 1.1 below from that report. From that it is evident that EcoDuct has the same leakage rate at 2,500pa as GSS ductwork has at 500pa. EcoDuct ductwork has an air leakage performance that is inherently Class D, which are the lowest levels of leakage of any UK manufactured HVAC ductwork, be it galvanised or pre-insulated.

Furthermore, EcoDuct ductwork is fabricated and installed in a manner consistent with the requirements of DW144, to the extent that the guidance applies to pre-insulated ductwork, and this is fully detailed in the published EcoDuct Fabrication and Installation Guides. This relates to, inter alia, access panels, turning vanes, strengthening rods and installation/hanging methodologies.

Finally, EcoDuct conforms to all the relevant building standards, guidance and certification requirements in the UK and EU. These are detailed in a separate document that is available on request.

Table 1.1:

Graph showing Class D air leakage – maximum allowable compared to EcoDuct performance:

Table 1.2

DW143 is a Practical Guide to Ductwork Leakage Testing (based on DW144 – Specification for Sheet Metal Ductwork) and all the testing requirements can easily be satisfied when applied to pre-insulated ductwork.

Furthermore, airtight connections between EcoDuct sections, that formed part of the tested system, and, where necessary, metal ductwork and EcoDuct, are efficiently made in a variety of ways and the combination of both ductwork types allows full compliance of the entire ductwork system.