A Beginners Guide to Home Insulation

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Week 4 Lost Insulation: Image: Photo by Greg Rosenke on Unsplash

It’s nearly time for Winter. It’s nearly time for hot chocolates and fluffy socks, dark and cosy evenings in front of the fire with a good book. It’s also nearly time for rising fuel costs, extortionate heating bills and sitting at home with a hat on because you refuse to turn up the radiator. The energy crisis is one on many people’s minds at the moment. It’s filling the newspapers, monopolising radio shows and even inspiring TV adverts. What can you do to save money while still being comfortable at home this winter? You can do more than buy an electric blanket and an air fryer. It’s time to look at how well you home insulated! Insulation can make a massive difference to your energy bills, and it isn’t as scary a subject as you may think; in fact, it can be as simple as a few well-placed rags around the home to block out the draft. It’s one of the best investments you can make and one of the strategic ways to reduce your energy consumption and improve your efficiency. Here is all you need to know about home insulation!

The Different Materials for Insulation

There are so many different materials that work well for installation you may feel a little bit overwhelmed on you start to look into them. What you need to do is take your time research each option and find the different benefits and drawbacks that each offer. The best insulation choice for one person won’t be the same for another as it all depends on what you want to do with your home and what the budget for your project will be. It’s a good idea to browse the products of reputable suppliers, such as Materials Market, so that you can find the best choice for you and your home

How to Insulate Your Home

There are a few steps you need to take in order to successfully insulate your home and prepare it for winter. First of all, you need to gather some information…

Assess Your Energy Use

To get the full picture of the energy you are wasting in your home, contact a professional to complete an audit of the energy consumption in your home. you may be surprised at how much energy is going to waste and which areas of your home are wasting it. With this vital data you can make an informed decision about what to fix and where to start in your home insulation project. Then it’s time to start from the top and work down and…

Insulate Your Attic

As hot air travels upwards, the attic is one of the most effective places to start your installation project. while the darkness of an attic may make it difficult to insulate yourself, professional installer will be able to complete this job with no problems. When you get the help of an expert, you will also benefit from their knowledge of the materials needed as they will be able to make a decision based on the condition of the area that needs insulating. If you’re looking to insulate your attic space quickly then spray foam insulation, otherwise known as SFI, works great as an installation method in this kind of area. it is placed between the decking of your roof and the choice of the ceiling which will block up any gaps that warm air can escape through. The great thing about SFI is how easy it is to install yourself; with the right products and a helpful ho-to guide, you’ll be on your way to insulating your home successfully!

Insulate Your Windows

When it comes to installation your windows may not be one of the first things you think to tackle. depending on the number of windows you have in your house you may find but they don’t help in your efforts to become more energy efficient. If the air in your home sometimes feels stale and uncomfortable, even in the depths of winter, it may be that heat is coming in through your windows and good insulation will help you to deal with this.

Choosing the Right Insulation

Now you know what to insulate you need to decide what you’re going to insulate it with. a lot of this decision making is made for you in the budget that you have available and how much time you have to spend on it. If you want a cheap quick fix, there will be certain materials that will work better for that. If you want to make an investment and insulate your home for the long term, there will be other materials that suit that need. Do your research, know your options, compare prices and quality, and stick to your budget. 

Maintaining Your Insulation

Choosing and installing the right insulation is just the first part of your energy efficient journey. The key to good insulation is to maintain it. Even the most well insulated home with the most insulating materials will eventually lose some of its insulation properties over time. Keep track of the installation materials within your home so that you can monitor how well they are doing at improving your energy efficiency. There are always ways to keep improving, adapting, and expanding.

Essential Insulation

The bottom line is that there is no point in spending all your hard-earned wages on putting the heating on this winter if all the energy you pay for is escaping out of your poorly insulated building. Do your bit to improve the insulation of your home and you’ll see the positive effect it has on your energy usage and subsequent bills. Plus, there’s more at stake than just your bank account – all our efforts to improve our energy efficiency will have an impact on the health of the planet and for generations to come. It may seem like just a drop in the ocean, but all these drops together will amount to a tidal wave if we do our bit to insulate our homes and save energy.


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