The Effect of Wall Insulation on Energy Efficiency
Effective wall insulation is a must-have for homeowners looking to create an energy-efficient house that’s both environmentally friendly and has low-cost gas and electric bills.
Older homes dating back to the Victorian era (and sometimes more recently) were built without cavity walls and wall insulation to keep in the heat. Therefore they’re incredibly inefficient when it comes to energy efficiency.
Don’t worry though, because older homes can be upgraded with new wall insulation. As we’ll explain in the following post, the effects on energy efficiency are exceptional.
What Is Wall Insulation?
Before we look at how wall insulation affects energy efficiency, it’s good to know what we mean when we’re talking about wall insulation.
There are a variety of methods for installing wall insulation using a range of different materials. The overall goal of wall insulation is to keep heat and energy inside a home by forming an insulating barrier that traps heat and stops it from escaping.
Wall insulation can be as simple as a plyboard wall that’s filled with foam insulation, and there are different types of wall insulation for inside and outside the home.
How Does Wall Insulation Work?
Modern homes have wall insulation installed as standard. These usually take the form of cavity walls, which create a double layer of wall (an inner and outer) leaving a gap in the middle that traps air and is filled with insulating materials.
Older homes don’t have this. Victorian homes were built with solid brick or stone walls. There’s just one layer of wall, and that’s bad for insulating. Rather than hot air being trapped between the walls and in the insulating material, cold pockets easily form and hot air simply escapes.
Wall insulation aims to replicate cavity walls. A second layer of ‘wall’ is constructed either internally (inside a room) or externally (on the outside of the wall). This second layer creates a gap that can be filled with insulation.
Does Wall Insulation Improve Energy Efficiency?
There’s no doubt that wall insulation improves energy efficiency. If your home has a single, solid wall, then you are guaranteed to be losing massive amounts of energy that could otherwise be saved.
Installing wall insulation allows you to effectively trap heat before it leaves the building. Once installed, the insulation stops heat from being lost through the walls, which therefore saves energy from being lost, too.
Ultimately this helps you, the homeowner, to save money on your energy bills (despite the upfront cost of installing wall insulation, you save money in the long term). Perhaps more importantly wall insulation allows you to reduce your energy consumption, which is fantastic for the environment.
Contact Danford, Brewer & Ives for More Information on Wall Insulation
For more information and advice on wall insulation and energy efficiency, please contact our friendly team on 01765 804050 or fill in our online contact form. Our experienced specialists will be on hand and ready to offer expert advice tailored to resolve your problem.
Internal Solid Wall Installation Costs and Savings
Solid stone or brick walls are notoriously poor insulators. Without proper insulation, solid walls can cost homeowners hundreds of pounds in unnecessarily high energy bills every year.
But homeowners can undertake building work to install internal solid wall insulation throughout their home. This not only lowers energy bills and saves money, but it’s a positive step for the environment too.
If you’re a homeowner with solid walls and expensive bills, discover how internal solid wall insulation can save you money.
What Is Internal Solid Wall Insulation?
Internal solid wall insulation is a type of insulation that’s applied to the inside walls of a property, with the primary goal being to lower energy consumption by preventing heat loss.
Solid walls – usually found in older houses built before cavity walls were introduced – allow heat to escape easily, as there’s no way for it to be trapped.
Inside the home, solid wall insulation can consist of a number of different materials, but is generally composed of a protective layer (plyboard, for example) that’s filled with insulating materials (such as foam).
This internal layer acts as an insulator, effectively creating a barrier that stops heat from being lost through the solid wall.
How Much Does Internal Solid Wall Insulation Cost?
The costs of such building projects vary, but we can safely say that internal solid wall insulation is a cheaper option than external solid wall insulation – despite the upfront cost, you will save money in the long term.
Costs can vary from a few hundred pounds for a small room to be fitted with solid wall insulation, up to a few thousand for an entire home.
The main factors that determine the overall cost of a project include:
- The size of the area being insulated (bigger houses will cost more to insulate).
- The amount of time the project takes (more installation means higher costs).
- The types of materials used in the project (some insulating materials are more expensive than others).
- Other works that needs carrying out (for example, if plug sockets and electrics need to be moved and rewired).
Solid Wall Insulation Savings
Potential solid wall insulation savings can be excellent for homes that are burning through energy and paying expensive electricity or gas bills every month, particularly during winter.
As with the cost of installing insulation, the savings you are likely to make depend on a number of factors. The larger the home (and the more energy you lose through poor insulation), then the more savings you will make.
Remember, this is comparative. Smaller homes also benefit from savings, but the cost of insulating a smaller home is less than the cost of insulating a larger home.
Why Install Solid Wall Insulation?
The main reasons to install solid wall insulation are to save money and energy. Despite the initial upfront expenditure, you stand to make your investment costs back over several years through energy savings.
Just as importantly, those energy savings stand to help the environment by cutting down the resources your home consumes to stay warm.
Contact Danford, Brewer & Ives for Solid Wall Insulation Installation
For more information and advice on the savings you can make through internal solid wall insulation, please contact our friendly team on 01765 804050 or fill in our online contact form. Our experienced specialists will be on hand and ready to offer expert advice tailored to resolve your problem.
How to Tell If Your House Is Well Insulated or Not
Poor insulation is a common problem in houses across the UK. For homeowners, poor insulation can lead to high energy bills and mounting repair costs if nothing is done about it.
But how can you tell if your house is well insulated or not? Aside from calling in the professionals to undertake an energy-saving survey of the building, there are several tell tale signs that homeowners can look for.
From frozen pipes to drafty rooms, here are nine warning signs that your home needs better insulation.
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Your Energy Bills Are Way Too High
The biggest giveaway that your home has poor insulation can be found in your energy bills. It’s a good idea to check what the average cost for gas and electricity is in your area – ask friends and families or run a quick Google search).
If your bills are considerably higher than average, then it’s often because you're letting out too much heat and using more energy than you should be. Likewise, keep tabs on your energy expenditure throughout the year; if it’s consistently going up, it’s a good idea to have an energy-saving survey carried out.
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Your Walls Are Cold
Cold walls are a sign that your home is poorly insulated. Buildings lose up to 50 per cent of their heat through the walls, and if the walls aren’t trapping heat (because there’s no insulation) then cold spots begin to form.
The same problem can occur in other areas of the home too, including ceilings, the roof, and doors that open to the outside.
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Your Home Is Drafty
Do you feel cold drafts of air when you walk through the property? If the windows and doors are closed but you’re being hit by cold air when you walk into a room, then your home’s insulation isn’t up to scratch.
Cold drafts can often enter the home through windows and doors that aren’t properly sealed, or that won’t close tightly. This also lets hot air out and increases your energy usage.
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Your House Is Leaking
Is your house leaking when there’s heavy rain? If the answer’s yes (even if there are just a few small leaks here and there), then it’s an important warning sign that the insulation isn’t working properly.
A fully insulated house will also be waterproof. If water is getting inside the home, then it means the roof, windows, doors or masonry are letting heat out as well.
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You Have a Serious Damp and Mould Problem
If water is getting inside the house because of poor insulation or if there are big cold spots on the walls, floors or ceilings, then you open your home up to serious damp and mould problems.
If you notice damp patches or if mould is growing in the bathroom, you’re guaranteed to have poor insulation (as well as a damp and mould problem that needs fixing!).
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Your Pipes Are Freezing Over
Poor insulation can lead to serious household problems if your pipes are freezing over. In winter, if the temperatures drop below freezing, then water pipes can freeze if they aren’t insulated against the cold.
This can lead to expensive repair jobs if the pipes are damaged, so it’s important to ensure that your home is effectively insulated before winter arrives.
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Your Home Never Gets Warm Enough in Winter
Poor insulation causes heat to escape from the house. In winter, this can be much more apparent when you’re trying to heat your home.
If you’re struggling to keep the house warm despite turning the heating up, then you’re losing too much heat through inadequate insulation.
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Your Home Gets Too Hot in Summer
Insulation is designed to keep heat inside during cold winters, but the best insulation is also designed to keep your home cool in the summer.
If your house gets overbearingly hot during the summer months, then you could be in need of more effective insulation.
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Your Rooms Have Massive Temperature Fluctuations
Central heating systems are designed to spread heat evenly throughout the home, so if you find that certain rooms or particular parts of the house are hotter and colder than others, it’s a sure-fire sign that some areas of the home are better insulated than others.
Take a stroll through the house when the heating is on, and see if the upstairs is colder than the downstairs, or if the living room heats up when the bedroom stays cold.
Contact Danford, Brewer & Ives for More Information on Insulation
For more information and advice on insulating your home, contact our friendly team on 01765 804050 or fill in our online contact form. Our experienced specialists will be on hand and ready to offer expert advice tailored to resolve your problem.
How To Save Energy With Insulation
A well insulated home is the best way to save energy, lower energy bills and give the environment a little helping hand at the same time.
But with so many different forms of insulation available, it can be difficult to know the most effective way to insulate your home in order to save energy.
In this article, we asked the expert energy saving team at Danford, Brewer & Ives how to save energy with insulation.
Why Is Energy-Saving Insulation So Important?
Insulation is the best way to save energy because an effectively insulated home is able to trap heat and stop it from escaping. Energy-saving insulation allows you to keep your home warm in the winter, for longer periods of time and without running up huge bills that are detrimental to your wallet and the environment.
Insulating materials allow heat to be saved, rather than it being lost to the outside world. This ensures that your central heating system – whether gas or electric – doesn’t need to expend as much energy to keep a room at a constant temperature.
Take the insulation away, and heat can be lost through the walls, floors, roof and any draughty areas of the home. To keep a home at the same temperature, the heating system needs to burn through much more energy than it would otherwise.
Saving energy through insulation not only saves you money in the long run, but it helps to promote a greener, more sustainable style of living in your home.
What Are the Different Types of Energy-Saving Insulation?
There are a variety of different methods and types of insulation that can be used to save energy. The type of insulation your home needs in order to save energy will depend on the existing insulation in place, the age and size of the house, and the size of your budget.
But while the most effective insulation is almost always going to be the most expensive, saving energy stands to save you money over multiple years and even decades. Think of energy saving as an investment, rather than an upfront cost.
The most common forms of insulation that save houses the largest quantities of energy are:
- Solid wall insulation
- Floor insulation
- Loft insulation
- Draught proofing
Let’s take a look at how these forms of insulation save energy in more detail.
Solid Wall Insulation
Older houses that predate the 1920s were commonly constructed using solid brick or stone walls, rather than modern cavity walls. Solid walls consist of just one layer of material, so heat is easily lost as cold spots form due to a lack of insulation.
Solid wall insulation adds an extra layer of wall either internally or externally, creating a space (or cavity) that can then be filled with insulating materials. The insulation traps heat, thereby stopping it from escaping, and saving energy.
Floor Insulation
Floor insulation works in much the same way as solid wall insulation, as often floors are constructed from solid concrete or timbers.
Creating a cavity space that can be filled with insulating materials is the best way to stop heat from being lost through the floor, or if a cavity space already exists this can be filled with insulating materials.
Loft Insulation
Large quantities of heat escape through the roof, so it’s crucial that a loft is insulated if you’re looking to save energy.
Lofts can be insulated simply by being filled with insulating materials. If you wish to use the loft space for storage, then an extra layer of flooring can be laid down which can be filled with insulating materials.
Draught Proofing
Draughts cause heat to be carried outside the home, so draught proofing a building is an important step towards saving energy.
Draught proofing is as easy as closing doors and windows when the heating is on, but it can also involve sealing up gaps in the masonry, windows or doors that allow air through, or fixing shutters or brushes to letterboxes and chimney openings.
How Much Energy Can I Save Through Insulation?
Installing the best and most effective insulation in your home can save large amounts of energy that would otherwise be lost to the outside world.
The exact quantity of energy that any individual household stands to save depends on a number of factors, such as the size of the home, the amount of energy currently expended, and the type of insulation being fitted.
A few key figures to consider include:
- Up to 50 per cent of heat can be lost through walls
- Up to 25 per cent of heat can be lost through the roof
- The remainder is lost through the floor or through draught spots such as open windows or gaps in the masonry
Insulation helps to cut these figures down drastically, ensuring that heat stays inside the home rather than being wasted as it escapes to the outside. The better and more effective the insulation, the lower the percentage of heat lost.
Energy-Saving Surveys Can Identify Key Areas to Insulate
To better understand how to save energy through insulation and to better estimate how much energy can be saved with effective insulation, we always recommend having an energy-saving survey carried out by a professional.
Energy-saving surveys highlight the best places to focus on around the home in order to save the most energy for the most cost-effective investment. For example, an energy-saving survey could identify the loft space as a key area to insulate or it could identify problem areas you didn’t know existed, such as an unsealed window or doorframe.
Energy-saving surveys and insulation projects can also be combined with other important household maintenance or improvement projects – particularly damp and timber surveys, and damp proofing – thereby saving you time and money in the process.
Contact Danford, Brewer & Ives to Find Out More About Saving Energy With Insulation
For more information and advice on saving energy through insulation, then please contact our friendly team on 01765 804050 or fill in our online contact form. Our experienced specialists will be on hand and ready to offer expert advice tailored to your needs.
How to Reduce Gas Bills By Insulating Your Home
Are you plagued with high gas bills and excessive energy usage? Then your home could be in need of a little extra insulation.
The average household loses as much as 50 per cent of its heat through the walls, floor and roof, so it’s incredibly important that key features of the home are sealed up, insulated and ready to stop that valuable heat from escaping.
In this article, the expert energy saving team at Danford, Brewer & Ives give their top tips and tricks to reduce your home’s gas bills.
Insulation Is Key to Reducing Gas Bills
Gas central heating systems are one of the primary methods of household heating across the UK. Gas is used as fuel to heat homes, but if your home isn’t adequately insulated, every time you turn on the heating you’re just burning gas away.
Without insulation, the heat produced by the gas heating system in your home escapes to the outside. This means the heating system has to use more gas to keep the temperature constant, and that means you are going to spend more money on higher gas bills.
Insulation is key. But given the many different forms of insulation available for homes, we always recommend having an energy-saving survey of your home carried out by a specialist. A professional survey identifies areas where heat is escaping, and pinpoints the best areas to focus on and insulate.
Insulate Solid Walls to Lower Gas Bills
If your home is an older house dating back to the 1920s or earlier, then it’s likely to have been built with solid walls rather than cavity walls.
Solid walls are a single layer of stone or brick masonry and they offer very poor insulation. When a room is heated, a solid wall provides no way to trap that heat inside. Instead, the heat from the room easily escapes to the outside, ensuring that your gas bills increase.
To lower your gas bills, the solid walls of the house have to be insulated. This is a task that can be completed either internally or externally, with the goal being to add a cavity space that can be filled with an insulating material.
When the heating is on, the heat is trapped in the cavity between the solid wall and the secondary layer that’s been built. The insulating material holds the heat for much longer than the solid wall could, and so your gas bill will be pleasantly lower than before.
Flooring Has to Be Insulated
If the flooring of your home isn’t insulated, then you’re going to have higher gas bills. A large percentage of heat can be lost through the floor, but with adequate insulation you’ll be able to save heat rather than letting it escape.
Floors are generally either concrete or timber, and the easiest form of insulation is to install a secondary layer of flooring that can be filled with insulating material. Multi layered timber flooring can also be filled with insulating material, while any gaps in the floorboards must be filled or repaired.
Don’t forget carpet also works as a great insulator, much more so than tiles or wooden flooring which allow cold spots to form.
Don’t Forget the Loft!
Homes lose the vast majority of their heat through the walls, floor and loft. If you want to lower your gas bills, then don’t forget to insulate the loft and roof.
Thankfully, insulating a loft is often the easiest way to save money on gas bills. If the loft space isn’t in use, then it simply needs to be filled with rolls or boards of insulating materials. This will trap the heat as it rises from the rooms below, thereby lowering the quantity of gas needed to heat the entirety of the house.
If you’re using it as a storage space, then a second layer of flooring can be added, which needs to be filled with insulating materials. If the loft is also used as an extra room, then the roof will need to be insulated as well to stop heat from escaping.
Draught Proof Your Home to Lower Gas Bills
Unwanted draughts are a big cause of unnecessarily high gas bills, but luckily draught proofing your home doesn’t need to be difficult.
When the heating is on, make sure you keep the doors closed and the windows shut. If you only keep the heating on in particular rooms, then close that room’s doors to contain the heat and stop it from dissipating throughout the house.
To prevent draughts, you need to also ensure that the windows and doors are fully sealed. Draughts can cause heat to escape through even the smallest holes or breakages in the windowsill or doorframe, so it’s good to be thorough and carry out regular inspections.
Heat can escape through the most seemingly insignificant of places too, including keyholes and chimneys. Have an energy-saving survey carried out to identify the most comprehensive draught proofing measures in your home.
Damp Proof Your Home
Damp proofing is vital for the long-term stability of any house, but did you know that thoroughly damp proofing your home also helps to keep it insulated?
Damp-proofing techniques commonly involve sealing up gaps in masonry walls or adding a waterproof damp-proof course to the walls or flooring.
While the main aim of damp proofing is to keep the water outside, it also helps to keep the heat inside a home. Other major insulation works can be carried out at the same time as damp proofing, ensuring less disruption and lower overall costs for the homeowner.
Contact Danford, Brewer & Ives to Find Out More About Reducing Your Gas Bills
For more information and advice on reducing your home’s gas bills, then please contact our friendly team on 01765 804050 or fill in our online contact form. Our experienced specialists will be on hand and ready to offer expert advice tailored to your property.
How to Make Homes More Energy Efficient
Making sure that you have an energy-efficient home is not only a great way to save your household money on its monthly electric or gas bills, but it’s an excellent way to lower your carbon emissions while helping the environment.
Energy efficiency begins with excellent insulation. For many homeowners, simple fixes such as installing loft insulation or implementing a draught-proofing system can help to lower heat loss throughout the year.
In this article, our expert energy-saving technicians explore the best ways to make your home energy efficient.
Solid Wall Insulation
Older homes that predate the use of modern cavity walls were constructed using solid walls. Solid brick or stone walls have just one layer, as opposed to cavity walls which consist of two walls. While cavity walls can easily be insulated by filling the gap between the two layers with insulating materials, solid walls lose massive amounts of heat given their lack of insulation.
For homeowners with solid walls, the most effective way to insulate the house is to have solid wall insulation installed. Solid wall insulation can be installed internally or externally. In its simplest form, it consists of an extra layer of panelling that creates a gap, which is filled with insulating materials such as foam.
It’s a big job but given the fact that up to 50 per cent of a building’s heat is lost through the walls, solid wall insulation is a worthy investment. Over time, homeowners stand to reduce their energy bills massively, paying back the upfront costs and saving money year on year.
Floor Insulation
Homes are generally constructed with either wooden, timber flooring, or with a solid concrete floor. Both of these methods and materials of flooring need to be insulated in order to ensure that your home is as energy-efficient as possible.
The most important layer of the home to insulate is the ground floor. This is where any heat lost through flooring will escape to the outside, although if you desire a super-warm bedroom, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to insulate the upper floors too!
Floor insulation varies, as the best method depends on the type of floor the building has. Concrete floors can be insulated using rigid foam boards or other similar insulating materials; timber floors can be filled with insulating materials with sealants used to fill up gaps in the flooring or skirting boards that allow heat to escape.
Floor insulation is commonly installed if a home’s floor needs to be replaced, or if the house is having a makeover and having new timbers or new carpets installed. The homeowner also needs to remember to insulate any rooms that are above spaces that aren’t heated. This includes rooms or bedrooms that might be above the garage, for example, where there’s no heating system in place.
Loft Insulation
As well as heat being lost through the walls and floors of a home, a large percentage of heat loss occurs through the roof. This is particularly true if your home has a large attic or loft space through which heat easily escapes.
There are several different ways to insulate a loft, and the best method depends on the size and layout of the loft and how often you need access to the loft space. The simplest and cheapest way to insulate a loft is to fill it with insulating materials. Foam boards can be set down on the floor, while the timbers and supports can be wrapped in insulating materials.
However, this simple form of insulation takes up lots of space and prevents access to the loft area. If you intend to store things in the loft, then a better option is to install a layer of plyboard flooring to create a cavity. This cavity can then be filled with insulating materials, without taking up too much space.
If you are planning on converting the loft into an extra room, then you’ll need all the space you can get. Again, installing insulation under the flooring is the best option, but you’ll also need to insulate the roof above.
Draught Proofing
Draught proofing a house is the easiest way to improve a building’s energy efficiency and save money. Draughts occur when air rushes inside or outside the home through gaps in the structure. This could be through a gap in the masonry, a broken seal on the window, or simply a door that’s been left open.
Draught proofing a home is as easy as ensuring that the windows and doors are fully closed when the heating is on, while window and door frames should be checked for faults and sealed up where necessary. Heat can also be lost through chimneys, letterboxes, cat flaps and even keyholes, so if you’re looking for the ultimate in energy efficiency, install covers or brushes in these locations that stop heat from escaping.
Remember that your home needs adequate ventilation to stop condensation, damp and mould from occurring inside. Never seal up or try to insulate intentional ventilation spots – especially those in the bathroom or kitchen – or you’ll find that condensation becomes a problem in winter.
Energy Saving Surveys
To identify the potential energy savings that can be made through insulating loft spaces or installing solid wall insulation, we recommend having a professional energy-saving survey carried out on your home.
Energy-saving surveys highlight potential areas for improvement, providing expert solutions that can save you money in the long run while also helping to lower your home’s carbon emissions. Energy-saving surveys can be carried out in conjunction with other important household surveys such as damp and timber reports.
Contact Danford, Brewer & Ives for More Information On Making Your Home Energy Efficient
For more information and advice on making your home energy efficient, then please contact our friendly team on 01765 804050 or fill in our online contact form. Our experienced specialists will be on hand and ready to offer expert advice tailored to your property.