High energy bills for your home eat into your income, and they’re also a sign of a high carbon footprint. It’s important to bring your bills down, and fortunately, there’s a very easy way — make sure your home is fully insulated. The most important part of that is insulating your loft.
Why Do I Need Home Insulation?
An uninsulated house leaks heat like water through a sieve. You have to pump out far more heat than you actually need just to keep your home warm enough. It escapes through the walls and floor, as well as through doors and windows, but more heat escapes through the roof than any other part of the building.
That’s because of one of the most basic laws of physics, that hot air rises. This means that, as the air inside your home warms up, it heads upwards to the roof, and an uninsulated loft gives it a clear route to escape. Not only are you paying for all that heat you aren’t using, but its generation pumps an alarmingly large amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming.
How Does Loft Insulation Work?
There are two ways of insulating your loft, but whichever method you’re using, you need insulation between the joists to a depth of at least 270mm, giving the U-value of 0.16 required under building regulations. There are various materials available, but mineral wool provides a reliable and inexpensive option.
This will prevent heat from getting into the loft in the first place, so if you want to use the roof space as a room, which needs to be kept at the right temperature, you’ll also need insulation between the rafters on the underside of the roof. Whereas fitting insulation between the joists isn’t too difficult, roof insulation is strictly a professional job.
What Will Loft Insulation Save Me?
Loft insulation isn’t expensive to have installed, and the good news is that it lasts for at least forty years, so once it’s done you can forget about it. The exact cost depends on what kind of house you have, but even a large detached house shouldn’t cost more than £400.
For that, you can expect to save around £240 a year, meaning you’ll get your money back in two years, as well as cutting your carbon footprint by 1,000kg. Smaller properties will both cost and save slightly less, but the payback time is similar.
If you need to know more about loft insulation, feel free to get in touch with us.
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