We are all told that insulation can save us money on our energy bills but what is insulation and how does insulation save money? The simple answer is that energy costs us money to heat and light our homes. Insulating homes reduces the need for energy so we use less energy and this means we save money on energy with lower utility bills than we would otherwise have.
What Is Insulation?
Insulation is anything that slows down the movement of energy. We like our homes to be warm and comfortable but energy naturally tries to even itself out everywhere. This means that warm air tries to move to cooler air to make a more even temperature. The effect of this on our homes is that the warm air is trying to move its energy to the cooler air outside, or the reverse in hot weather when we try to keep our homes cool.
The heat energy can travel in several ways. The most obvious is warm air escaping through open windows and doors or through gaps. These gaps can allow the warm air to escape and this movement of air is known as convection. The other ways are through conduction, where energy is transmitted through a material and Radiation, where the energy is emitted as waves of energy from the hot material. We call central heating radiators that name because they Radiate the heat into the room. The secret to saving money on energy bills is by insulating our homes with materials that can slow down the heat energy transfer from warm air and surfaces in our homes to the colder air and materials outside.
Insulation works by slowing down energy transfer by making it more difficult for energy to move. This is most commonly done with insulation that is made of a material that contains lots of tiny air spaces because energy finds it more difficult to move through air than most other materials.
Where To Use Insulation
To help keep your home warm you should think of it as a box. You can insulate the roof, the walls and the floor. You can reduce the flow of air in and out of your home by sealing gaps around windows and doors.
Wall insulation may be carried out by fixing an insulating surface to either the inside or the outside of the wall. If you have cavity walls the insulation can be used to fill the gap between the inner and outer walls.
Roof space insulation can be fitted under the tiled surface or on the attic floor and floors can be insulated by adding a layer of insulation and surfacing over that or by fitting insulation underneath the floor if you have access to a space beneath your floor,
Insulation Works Because It Contains Air
It is a strange fact that most of the insulating materials you can buy contain more air than anything else but what you are paying for is the material which contains thousands of tiny bubbles of air which slow down and restrict the movement of energy from warm surfaces to cooler ones.
The greater the thickness of the insulating material, the more heat transfer is slowed down and the less heat energy is lost to the outside air. Different types of Thermal Insulation provide different efficiencies of heat transfer reduction but not all are suitable for every situation so you must choose the most appropriate type of insulation for each specific installation.
Poor Insulation Wastes Energy
Poor insulating materials like brick of concrete transfer heat energy very well so uninsulated walls or floors made of these materials transfer a lot of expensive energy outside of your home relatively quickly and this heat needs to be replaced to keep us warm in our homes. Even a thin layer of insulation added to their surface can make a significant difference and make your home feel warmer but if you add the recommended thickness you can reduce the heat lost to very low amounts and the cost of the insulation should be recovered quite quickly after installation of the insulation.