Wondering what insulation to use inside your house? Here's a quick summary скачать в хорошем качестве

Wondering what insulation to use inside your house? Here's a quick summary

If it's time to insulate your house but you don't know what to use, then you've come to the right place. All the information you need is here There are a load of different options for you to choose from. I’ll talk you through the options – sustainable and otherwise. (To find out more about retrofit, take a look at my book Beginner's Guide to Eco Renovation https://amzn.to/3XHhnZc) We insulated our Victorian terrace house internally four years ago. We are now saving 75% of our energy usage, our EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) has gone from D to B and our house is worth £90K more than it’s non retrofitted equivalent. So nothing to lose here – not to mention that we’ve cut our carbon emissions a shed load and cut our contribution to the 21% of UK emissions that comes from leaky homes. The downside is it's a bit messy because you may need to take the plaster off the wall . See video link Understanding efficiency Insulation is measured in U Value: how much heat that can pass through the material or thermal conductivity: the amount of heat that is conducted through the material. Put simply - the lower the better Type of insulation will depend on the age of your house. Get to grips with this before making your choice. If your house was built before 1940, then it will be breathable – ie :vapour permeable, so water vapour can move freely through the walls. And paradoxically means they stay nice & dry. So what difference does this make? Younger houses – cavity wall, solid concrete floors - aren’t usually breathable so you have more choice of insulation – you don’t have to think about permeability. Older houses are more picky. Once breathable, always breathable. So if you want to do a good job without storing up problems for the future, then go with vapour permeable insulation. Using non vapour permeable insulation can cause condensation within your walls – interstitial commendation – and that can damage the brick. Of course the other element we all need to think about is sustainability. Anything sustainable is more climate friendly and less polluting. On the sustainability front there are some really interesting options for insulation. 1. Wood fibre can be used for internal wall insulation. It comes in different forms and in different thicknesses from 30mm to 200mm It comes in flexible batts which work well under suspended floors walls, and lofts & rigid batts for walls. Also as an alternative to plaster board that goes over the flexible batts and takes lime plaster. 2. Denim insulation - made from old clothes eg old denim jeans, cotton t-shirts and velvet. 3. Hemp is now being farmed in the UK for insulation. In it’s flexible form it can be used for walls, floors and roofs. It's also made into hempcrete blocks for internal or external walls. 4. Cork is great for insulation and sound proofing. 5. Sheep's wool is fully sustainable, but make sure it’s been treated for mites / moths or you may end up with a problem. This is great for loft insulation, walls and floors 6. Diathonite is a thermal plaster that can be the thickness of your choice. Used internally & externally. 7.Then there is Sisal – made from the sisal plant, recycled sisal and recycled wool. It’s used in floors, walls, lofts and has great acoustic properties. The one challenge with sustainable materials is that they have to be ordered in advance. Sometimes from a more specialist provider, sometimes from companies like Wickes. I’ll put some links in the description below so you can go exploring If you don’t need breathable, you can go for the more commonly used options. The most common form of non vapour permeable, petrochemical insulation is PIR. Builders will default to this so be ready to question their choice if it doesn't suit your house. 8. PIR is very efficient so you can get good performance from a thin piece of material. 9. XPS WF is a rigid thermal insulation board made of extruded polystyrene foam (XPS) produced according to climate-friendly CO2 technology. NB Spray foam - I would never recommend using this. Its not sustainable; it is impossible to take out once installed; it causes condensation. If you are considering this, research very thoroughly. A number of insurance companies won’t cover houses with this in and some mortgage providers won't lend on them. Any questions, please let me know. Providers of sustainable Insulation https://unitylime.co.uk https://www.ecologicalbuildingsystems... #homeimprovement #insulation #diy #sustainability #climate Sustainable insulation, how to choose the right insulation, what insulation to use in an old house, how to insulate an old house uk, how to make an old home more energy efficient, how to improve energy efficiency in home, how to make my home warmer