Roof Insulation

You put a hat on your head and keep your body heat in. Thermal insulation in your roof will do the same for your house.

If you do not have insulation in your roof, up to 30% of your heat could escape, costing you money and contributing to atmospheric pollution and global warming.

If you have already insulated your roof, you may want to replace it or add another layer to improve its performance and bring it up to current Building Regulations Standards. (more…)

Guide to Wall Insulation

Up to half of the heat loss from a house occurs through the walls. This can be reduced by two-thirds by insulating the walls.

Most houses built before about 1980 have no wall insulation. Many (though not all) houses built during the 1980s have some wall insulation. Houses built since the 1991 Building Regulations came into effect are required to have wall insulation.

Insulation may be placed on the outside, in the cavity or on the inside of a wall, without altering the overall insulation properties.

When considering wall insulation, first you should find out whether your house has cavity walls or solid walls. A  building contractor, BER Assessor or architect will be able to tell you if you have cavity walls in your new or older house.

Cavity wall insulation

The walls of many houses consist of two ‘leaves’ of brick or concrete block with a cavity or space between them to resist rain penetration.

In older houses insulation can be injected into this cavity through holes drilled through the outer leaf, by means of a blowing or pumping machine.

Since the work is done from outside, it cause minimum disturbances inside. The drilled holes, which are typically about 25mm (1 inch) in diameter and spaced a metre or so apart, are then filled to match the wall appearance as closely as possible. The job typically takes less than a day.

In relation to the pumping of your walls with a bonded bead system you would noticeably improve the overall thermal properties of your house and in turn reduce your energy bills for the winter months.

Suitability of Cavity Insulation

It is important before deciding to insulate existing cavity walls that you check their suitability for cavity insulation. This assessment will take account of the degree of exposure of the house to wind-driven rain and the construction details and condition of the walls. Any ventilation openings in the wall will also be checked to ensure that these will not be blocked by the insulation.

There are a number of issues you should be aware when filling your wall’s cavity:

If there were any frost or structural damage to any of the house’s external walls pumping of beads into the cavity would not be advised.

The width of the cavity between your external wall leaf and the installed aero-board should be at least 50mm.
 

If there is any problem with dampness in the internal leaf it would not be recommended to add the beads to the cavity as they would only increase the path for water to travel into the wall.

If the wall suffers from rain penetration at times, this problem must be remedied first.

In some cases, the walls may be found to be unsuitable for cavity insulation or may require some remedial work beforehand.

Savings

The cost of cavity wall insulation depends on a number of factors, including the width of the cavity, but it is typically in the region of €5 to €7 per square metre. For a typical semi-detached house, this gives a total cost of about €550-€700. With annual fuel savings of €200 to €320, the payback period will be in the region of 4 to 7 years.

You may be able to negotiate a lower price if you can persuade some of your neighbours to have their walls insulated at the same time.

As the rainbow coloured dew falls from the burst construction bubble, landing on the streets and town lands of Ireland, we look around at the remnants of what is left behind. What have you and your family been left with after buying into an over-inflated, over-priced housing market?

Non-existent building control and greedy builders, who cut every corner imaginable in a bid to increase profits and rush to the next exorbitantly overpriced job, have left you with a poorly constructed and overpriced home. Inadequate insulation, minimums of control of your heating system and incorrectly sized boilers and radiators mean that you are spending far too much of your increasingly hard earned money trying to heat your home to the comfortable level you envisaged when you first set out on the road to buying or building your new home.

There is, however, some light at the end of the tunnel in these times of doom and gloom. The Home Energy Saving (HES) Scheme which was recently launched by the government under the auspices of Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI) provides for sizeable grants towards retrofitting works to improve the energy efficiency of you home. The types and amounts of these grants are detailed below:

* Please note that while you are entitled to apply for each Measure there is a minimum requirement that the grant amount in the first application must be €500 or greater. The BER grant cannot form part of this €500 amount.

Most houses built prior to 2006 will have inadequate levels of each of the measures outlined above. As a result the scheme is open to all homeowners who own a house which was built before 2006. It doesn’t matter if you have more than one home, a grant can be received for each individual house.

You must apply for and receive confirmation of grant approval prior to buying any materials or carrying out any works. All works must be carried out by a contractor from the SEI’s Registered List. If undertaking a BER, these must be carried out by a registered BER Assessor.

In future blogs I will explain in more detail: how to apply, the benefits of carrying out each measure and the savings you can expect to make on future energy costs.