Some ‘cool’ facts on insulation
Everyone knows that insulating your home is one of the single most useful things you can do to help you start saving energy. Between lagging your pipes, looking after your loft and filling up your cavity walls, there’s hundreds of pounds – and tonnes of carbon – to be saved. It’s a familiar old song, and everywhere you look, someone seems to be singing it!
Odd Performance Facts
There are lots of performance facts bandied about, especially over how much you can save by installing proper insulation in your wall cavities or loft ,but here are a few of the more unusual ones.
These guys know about insulation!
Swedish builders put three layers of insulation in lofts, each 100mm thick and separated by a layer of building paper. It improves the insulation effect by around 60% when the wind blows, since it traps air within the insulation and stops it from being forced out. According to some estimates, as much as a quarter of the heat lost through the fabric of a typical house occurs as a result of cold bridging – losses around un-insulated areas such as where the walls meet the floors or roof, and around windows and external doors. o
Around 300mm is the optimum depth for loft insulation; doubling the depth beyond this will not double the energy saving.
