Building insulation-Your Options
Heat energy is money
Heat lost is money lost. Neglect your home insulation and you will simply throw away your hard earned cash. Do you realize this money could have been put to better use either for your self or your beloved family members?
Heat Loss
There are 6 major locations where your home heat is lost from;
' Attic and Roof
' Walls
' Windows and doors
' Hot water storage tanks and Plumbing
' Hot air distribution ducting
' Chimney vents
How it is lost
In all cases improving building insulation (either by replacing in full, increasing the thickness of the existing, changing the type of material, adding vapor barriers etc.).Simply adding some insulation blindly to the existing (or none existing, as the case may be!) is not going to solve your problem.
- Heat flows from a higher level to the lower level
- The 'R' factor is the resistance offered by a material to heat flow
- The higher the 'R' value the lesser the heat energy lost across that material
- The reciprocal value (i.e. 1 / 'R' ) is called the 'U' value which is the heat value transmitted across a unit area of that material.
- In reality 'U' value is a composite figure which includes all material integral to the insulation and also the heat resistance of the air film adjacent it.
- When it is 'U' factor the lesser the value the better the insulation property.
- In insulation the type of material (chemical and physical composition, weight [density= kg/m 2 ] and the thickness of it, the presence of a vapor barrier etc.) also have a big say in the heat lost.
How do you check the Insulation Quality?
- Today the easiest way to locate areas of heat loss is the Heat Imaging or Infra Red Thermal Imaging. The imaging instantaneously tells you where the weak spots in insulation are.
- This method does not tell you how much the building insulation thickness is, the type of material, the quality of insulation etc. These of course have to be determined by physical examination.
- The highest portion of Energy loss to out side of your home is attributed to external walls (shell).The walls of your pre new millennium home may be with un-insulated cavity between the two walls. Drilling at pre determined spots are necessary to determine the settling of insulation fibres, the type and thickness, availability of moisture barrier etc. will reveal the extent of retrofit required.
A retrofit is your answer to this situation. After all why back pedal when SEI (if you are in Ireland ) and other similar organizations all over the world are very keen to help you, even to the extent of reimbursing your investment.
About the Author:
John Mahoney is a freelance author who writes about various technology realated subjects. For more information about John visit his website www.techstore.ie.
