Eco central heating guidelines and your home

Fitting out your your house with insulaiton will make your home heating more energy-efficient.

Have you ever desired to cut down your monthly energy bill? Then look no further then insulating your home. If your home loft is easy to access and has no damp or condensation problem, there is a good chance that it is easy to insulate - this could even be accomplished by yourself, but to begin with, lets have a look at types of insulation materials.

Types of house insulation A function of many products at present is the use of materials to make the product much easier to install, for instance encapsulating glass mineral wool in the layer of polythene, that makes it almost itch free. Like all the blanket products, it comes in thicknesses suited to topping up between the joists and thicker styles for installing across the joists (we'll take a look at how to lay it shortly after).

Long rolls of usual glass wool insulation can make fitting it across the floor joists simple and easy, while slimmer strips can easily be created for laying in between the timber joists.

Insulating your property helps the environment: a very well insulated home uses far less energy to keep it warm, for that reason far less CO2 is released. With insulation improved, your central heating will pump out less Carbon Dioxide; which is a "greenhouse" gas, that contributes to global warming. However, the insulation products themselves can be eco friendly by using high amount of recycle materials, for one example plastic bottles. The next advantage of this product is that it is completly itch-free, which generally makes it easy for fitting.

Glass wool insulation products use recycled glass, however some types use an especially high amount and are also made using technics that reduce or offset against carbon emissions.

A number of products are made of environmentally sustainable products and natural materials, including sheep's wool. Similar as we dress in wooly cloths to stay warm, we can also use wool to keep our home warm. And just like a wooly jumper, it is comfortable to touch, which actually makes it very simple to install.

How much loft insulaiton is required? To lower your heating use it is essential that your loft insulation is thick enough. The actual thickness is dependent on the materials you select to use. Every insulation has got a specific thermal resistance, known as "R" value: the higher the value - the better! You should be aiming for a minimum total R value of 6.1, preferably greater then 7 to reduce your monthly energy bills even further.

If you need extra help on calculating the values, check out this website - Energy efficient heating

Where do I fit insulation? When insulating you can insulate at the roof rafters, at the floor joists or even on loft boards, using rolls of mineral wool insulation as noted above.

Insulating at floor joists. The main portion of your insulation should be layed at the joists. Insulating material is needed both in between the timber joists and across them as a way to gain a satisfactory value. The minimum recommended "r" value of the two layers is 6.3. See product's technical documentation to verify the "R" value.

Insulating within rafters Blanket products can keep your home warmer in winter and cooler in summer season. If you are planning to make some use of the loft space in your house to create additional space for keeping valuables (books, photos and so on), then installing rafter insulation is the answer to the problem if you are afraid about the temperature within the loft itself. By insulating your roof rafters you will also eliminate your central home heating plumbing pipes and central heating storage tank being frozen.

All of this can easily be accomplished with expanded polystyrene insulation that squeeze easily anywhere between the rafters or by using the reflective foil roll that is simply stapled to the rafters. These products do not have a sufficient R value to replace insulation at the floor joists, that is why, are meant for top-up only.

Loft insulaiton and safety: The blanket materials could easily shrink, for these reasons it is vital that you never put anything directly over the top of the blanket products mainly because this may reduce its value. For example, putting a box on top of 270 mm of insulation may very well squash it to 100 millimetres, which is equal to only 100 millimetres worth of insulation.

There is always safety to give consideration to: joists covered with storage boxes are very difficult to tread on. fixing loft timber boards could definitely help you overcome this problem. Loft timber boards should of course be installed on top of a layer of your loft insulation between the joists. Note that you blanket insulation is not suitable for fitting over boards. Instead, a solid sheet of insulation material should be used either directly onto the timber joists or over current loft boards.

Many more good tips on making your heating system eco friendly - energy efficient electric heating