Home insulation

biggsy137

Hi.

After some advise on home insulation... My loft has had additional insulation (100mm pluss) installed before I bought the place. I have had new double glazing fitted.

The walls are cavity walls, insulated with a cotton wool type material - I'm pretty handy when it comes to diy but cavity walls is something I've never had to deal with.

Is there anything else I can do to improve the insulation of the house?
It's currently on an electric boiler but I'm looking to get gas into the house. At the minute it takes quite a while to heat the house and it cools down quicker than I'd expect so any pointers would be most appreciated.

Thanks

Smiley_Dan

It's funny how one of the most important aspects of energy use has 0 replies. All this discussion on changing providers, when we could simply be reducing the amount of energy used? Crazy.

There's plenty more you can do. It depends on your goals.

A few background points.

Insulation is very sensitive to the quality of installation. Missing patches of insulation have a disproportionate effect on the overall insulatory value. Parts of a building, when retrofitting, can be very difficult to treat. Scrambling into the eaves is difficult if you're "bigger boned".

Try to measure rather than guess. Use a thermal imaging camera (some councils hire them out for free) to survey your home on a cold day in winter. This will show major weak points in your home's performance.

Insulation is not the only thing to consider. Air tightness is equally important. In fact, in many newer builds, it's the worst aspect. Insulation is useless if you have outside air rushing between it and the living quarters.

At the same time as considering air tightness, you need to be judicious about ventilation. All houses need ventilation. The best type of ventilation is controlled ventilation, NOT random holes and gaps left around the house. As you air tighten, keep a feel for how well ventilated the house is. You can get humidity meters for about £3 on ebay ("HTC-1").

Onto suggestions...

You don't have much loft insulation, so top that up. Aim for 400mm+. Lay each layer at right angles.

Seal air leaks in the loft while you are up there. The loft hatch, downlighters (use large upturned flower pots, seal with polymer) wall to ceiling junctions, internal wall cavities, gaps between joists and the wall.

If there are places where you can't fit enough loft roll (e.g. under the ladder) fit higher performing insulation (PIR/PUR).

You can get loft roll cheapest on Gumtree/local Facebook groups. Also Seconds & Co.

biggsy137

Thanks for the reply - as you pointed out, it's a shame there isn't more information forthcoming but hey ho.

My mistake on the loft insulation, there is the original from when the house was built (around 100mm) then a further 200mm ish thats been added before I bought the place. so it looks like it would be worth adding more. would a layer of something like this be better than a thicker layer of 'traditional' fiber glass insulation?

http://www.screwfix.com/p/ybs-superquilt-multilayer-insulation-1-5-x-5m/80967

So as well as topping up the loft insulation, is there anything else that's worth doing?
I have foil bubble wrap behind all the radiators to help reflect the heat into the room. Am I missing anything?

Is it worth getting a survey of the cavity wall insulation to see if that can be improved? I have heard stories though that cavity wall insulation as a retro fit can prvide a path for damp to make it's way through to the inner walls of the house... can anyone shed any light on if there is any truth in this?

saveallmymoney

Its hard to tell whats going on in any individual house, it sounds like you have a good start with the loft and cavity insulation.

See http://draughtbusters.net as some examples of how poor house construction can be letting your heat drain away.

I got an thermal camera addon for my iPhone and found all sorts of issues with my house. I've sorted nearly every problem now and my heating bills have just dropped away and i'm sitting here in the warm.

You can get people to come and do a thermal survey i think.

Extract_insulation

biggsy, i would be cautious about adding more loft insulation. i would see how the winter goes as some loft sweat with today insulation specs. which i think still is 270mm.

In regards to cavity wall insulation, it can cause problems. Fibre installs seems to suffer the most, but as beads get more popular we are seeing more & more problems with this.

There is a lot of press coverage about this at the moment, and most insulation companies advertising extraction now.

Ken68

Floor insulation was the most difficult insulation here, I used polystyrene (free) but an inexpensive way would be to infill with Rockwool over a retaining plastic net. BUT best done when doing other work such as decorating.

Ken68

The most neglected insulation method is on windows. Double or even triple glazing with heavy duty curtains go some way to cutting heat loss, but the proper answer is exterior shutters.
Maybe the next big thing.