INSULATION

External Wall Insulation is a form of insulation fixed to the exterior of an existing or new dwelling. The high-performance insulation slab is then rendered to give a protective and decorative coating to the existing facade.
Around a third of all heat lost in an UN-insulated home is lost through the walls. External wall insulation is one of the most effective ways ways to reduce the amount of energy needed to heat a home.

Around a third of all heat lost in an UN-insulated home is lost through the walls. External wall insulation is one of the most effective ways to reduce the amount of energy needed to heat a home.

KEY BENEFITS

• Saves money Save around £500 per year on energy bills.
• Great for the environment, Save around 2.5 tonnes of CO2 a year.
• Increase longevity Extends the lifespan of the building.
• Improve appearance Significantly improve the appearance of the building.

Cavity wall insulation acts as a blanket to help stop heat escaping through the walls of your home. Insulating your home isn’t a one-off saving either, it will keep your home warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, helping you to save money on your energy bills year after year. It’s simple to install and usually takes less than a day. Cavity Wall Insulation is a filling blown into the gap between your exterior wall, so there’s little fuss or mess.

Cavity wall insulation is a fantastic way to significantly reduce the amount of energy you need to heat your home. The average house could reduce heating costs by 15%.

What we recommend !!!

Your installer will suggest the most suitable type of insulation for you but check that the installation is covered by under the Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency (CIGA): this means it complies with British standards and it has a 25-year guarantee. Ask your installer to make sure you make the best choice.

Insulating your solid walls could cut your heating costs considerably because solid walls let through twice as much heat as cavity walls do. The good news is they can be insulated – from the inside or the outside.

If your home was built before 1920, its external walls are probably solid rather than cavity walls. Cavity walls are made of two layers with a small gap or ‘cavity’ between them. Solid walls have no such gap, so they let more heat through. Solid walls can be insulated – either from the inside or the outside. This will cost more than insulating a standard cavity wall, but the savings on your heating bills will be bigger too.

Internal or external insulation?

Internal wall insulation is done by fitting rigid insulation boards to the wall, or by building a stud wall filled in with mineral wool fiber. External wall insulation involves fixing a layer of insulation material to the wall, then covering it with a special type of render (plasterwork) or cladding. The finish can be smooth, textured, painted, tiled, paneled, pebble-dashed, or finished with brick slips.

Insulating under the floorboards on your ground floor will save you around £60-£75 a year, and you can seal the gaps between floors and skirting boards to reduce draughts too. Gaps and droughts around skirting boards and floors are simple to fix yourself with a tube of sealant bought from any DIY store. Floorboards will rot without adequate ventilation, though, so don’t block under-floor air-bricks in your outside walls.

Older homes are more likely to have suspended timber floors. Timber floors can be insulated by lifting the floorboards and laying mineral wool insulation supported by netting between the joists.

Complying with building regulations

If you are adding extra insulation to your floors, the work will need to comply with the relevant Building Regulations for where you live. Your installer will normally arrange this for you but if you are doing it yourself, it is your responsibility to comply. If you live in England or Wales, the floor should achieve a U-value of 0.25 W/m2K or less, if possible. The U-value is a measure of how quickly heat will travel through the floor.

Heat rises, and in an uninsulated home, a quarter of your heat is lost through the roof. Insulating your loft, attic, or flat roof is a simple and effective way to save that waste and reduce your heating bills – you can even do it yourself.

Loft insulation is effective for at least 40 years, and it will pay for itself over and over again at that time. If your loft is already insulated, it’s worth checking that you’ve got enough insulation to get the maximum saving. If everyone in the UK installed 270mm loft insulation, we could save nearly £210 million – and almost 1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year, the equivalent of taking nearly 364,000 cars off the road.

Grants & Reduced-Cost Loft Insulation

On September 11th, 2008 the Government announced a range of measures to improve energy efficiency in our homes. One of the measures was to offer half-price loft insulation, regardless of income, with those on benefits and/or over 70 entitled to free insulation.

The measure, part of the Home Energy Saving Program, will cost UK energy firms some £910m. So how to take advantage?