Improve Your Home Insulation and Save

It may be high time to have a thorough inspection of your home insulation
If your home is older than 5 to 10 years the chances are that the home now needs a energy system retrofit. It may be high time to have a thorough inspection of your home insulation. While some houses constructed during the past 7 years are well insulated there are many that are under insulated. Also there are still many houses devoid of any insulation whatsoever.

Benefits of Home insulation

Thermal insulation will contribute to the following in your home;

Improved comfort
Better Energy efficiency
Healthier Environment
Life time of savings
Lower Energy bills
Reduced equipment capacity (due to reduced heat load)
Reduced Equipment and operating cost
Reduced noise levels

As you see it is a quite a handful. The cost benefits outweigh the cost of insulation by tons.

Where can one expect to see inadequate home insulation?

Heat Flows from a higher level to a lower level. In the case of warm and cozy rooms the energy flow is towards the adjoining unheated spaces of the house or in the case of peripheral rooms to the outdoors. This is during the colder seasons and weather. The heat flow takes place in the opposite direction in warmer days when air conditioning is the requirement rather than space heating. It so follows that barriers, partitions, roofs and walls between conditioned and non conditioned spaces are the prime areas needing attention. (These could be your attic, garage, basement, bath room, store rooms, corridors and passages etc.).

The heat transfer also may take place through colder air flow which may be more over saturated with moisture, causing avoidable latent heat load. This directs you to additional areas needing attention such as windows, doors, water permeability of wall construction etc.

The location and type of glazing determines the heat loss through radiation, conduction and convection. This is in addition to any heat loss due to leakage air through them.

Types of insulation

The type of insulation suited for various locations also will vary according to the heat loss problems encountered. In general however the common solutions are as follows:

Attics and Roofs- Fiber Glass Wool (loose fill), Blankets, and batts. Also Expanded Polystyrene, polyurethane and polyethylene foam slabs.

Walls (interior) ?

Fiber Glass blankets, rigid board etc. with Kraft paper/foil moisture barrier.
Dry lining

Exterior Walls ?
Rigid Fiber glass insulation (board) and vapor barrier
Expanded Polystyrene Foam Slabs (EPS) with vapor barrier

Glazing-
Double glazing ?(If your winter is severe use Argon filled low emissivity type)
Double glazing ? (if your winter is moderate use Argon filled type)

If your winters are harsh Locate glazing where ever possible in a southerly orientation.

Design your doors so that the cold draft is not directly let in to the heated rooms. (i.e. cause an air lock effect).Use of proprietary Magnetite type secondary insulating panes or double glazing would also provide improved insulation.

The double glazing with inert gas Argon and with low emissivity coating on the inside of inner pane can lower the heat loss significantly over single glazing and is the popular choice of new house builders and retrofitters. Triple glazing with low ? e glass is also now available which reduces heat loss further though expensive.

The home insulation of your building properly will save you a fortune over the years. The initial investment is not high especially if it is a "top-up" of the thickness. Special grant aids such as HES will further lighten this burden for you.

John Mahoney is a freelance author who writes about various renewable energy topics topics including Home Insulation.

Improve Your Home Insulation and Save
Home Insulation