What is Insulation?
Insulation, or more correctly thermal insulation, is a general term used to describe products that reduce heat loss or heat gain by providing a barrier between areas that are significantly different in temperature. There are a number of items in the home that benefit from insulation – such as central heating boilers and hot water pipes – however buildings themselves need some extra help to make them more energy efficient. Home insulation therefore reduces the amount of heat that escapes from a building in the winter and protects it from getting too warm in the summer.
Why do I need Insulation? How Does it Work?
Insulation is very clever. Not only does it make your home warmer in winter, it also helps keep it cooler in summer. This is a little bit like a flask which keeps drinks hot or cold by providing an insulating layer between the drink and the outside air.
Air is a poor conductor of heat, so the tiny pockets of air trapped in insulation minimise the amount of heat which can pass between the inside and outside of your house.
This means that in winter, the heat stays inside a home and in the summer it stays outside!
Different types of insulation materials have different properties, so are suitable for different areas of a building.
What are the different types of insulation?
The world’s most popular and widely used insulation material, glasswool is made from recycled glass bottles, so it is ultra-eco-friendly. It is easy to handle and install, plus it is the most cost-effective insulation available.
Rock mineral wool has a more solid structure, so is ideal for situations where it may be under compression, (e.g. on a flat roof).
Rigid foam insulation has high compressive strength and is usually used where it needs to support weight (e.g. under a floor, or in lofts as a storage solution). As well as strength and durability, rigid foam insulation can also provide additional properties such as fire resistance and acoustic insulation to minimize the level of sound traveling through walls and floors.
Spray foam is a chemical product created by two materials, isocyanate and polyol resin, which react when mixed with each other and expand up to 30-60 times its liquid volume after it is sprayed in place. This expansion makes it useful as a specialty packing material which forms to the shape of the product being packaged and produces a high thermal insulating value with virtually no air infiltration.
Where does insulation go?
How do I get a quote?