Insulating Your Home For Winter

By Author: Andy Guy
Total Articles: 3
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Up to 40 per cent of heat loss in an uninsulated home can take place through solid walls, while other types of walls, loft space, roofing and windows contribute to additional heat loss. In simple terms, all this adds up to hundreds of pounds wasted on energy bills – bad for your finances as well as the environment.

In an ideal world, every home would come well-equipped to prevent previous heat from escaping, however, many homes are simply not. But the good thing is that there are many ways to insulate your home, of which we’ve outlined some of the most popular below.

Roof and loft insulation

This is a rather simple and effective way of reducing heat loss from your home. Depending on the structure of your property, you should be able to use rolls of mineral wool insulation that will keep energy from escaping through the roof.

Having said this, once you have insulated the loft area, it will generally become much colder so any pipes or water tanks above will be more prone to freezing – so make sure these objects are carefully insulated too.

Cavity walls

Older homes with solid walls ...
... are less likely to have effective insulation leading to large amounts of heat loss. Nevertheless, these walls can still be insulated depending on their type. If your house was built after the 1920s, it’s likely to have cavity walls (walls with a gap between them), which are better for insulation.

Solid walls let through twice as much heat as cavity walls, but they can be insulated, either from the inside or outside with thermal rendering. There are advantages and disadvantages to both types – the trick is to enhance the insulation of your wall by adding internal and external insulation and using the right cladding and rendering.

Don’t forget the floors

Floors are an incredibly underrated area of heat loss. They are also a great way of saving on energy usage with underfloor heating systems that generate heat from below, spreading it evenly across your flooring and through the rooms of your house. You can also seal the gaps between floors and skirting boards yourself with a DIY store sealant as a quick fix.

Many older homes are likely to have suspended timber floors, which can be insulated by lifting the floorboards and laying mineral wool insulation between the joists. Other homes with a solid concrete ground floor can have rigid insulation laid on top.

Thermal wall insulation

Thermal wall insulation is the process of insulating walls to prevent the loss of heat. Depending on the type of home you have, walls can be insulated by the insertion of a layer between the brick courses in the form of a solid insulating layer or an injected foam which expands.

If neither of these is practical then a thermally insulating layer of render can be applied to the external wall, which can be a major contributor to reducing your energy costs. Thermal wall insulation in Aylesbury has become incredibly popular as well as throughout other areas of the UK, as both an aesthetic and insulation choice.

Tanks, pipes and radiators

Insulating water tanks, pipes and behind radiators reduces the amount of heat lost in your home, which will help you to spend less money heating water – keeping it hotter for longer.

There are many simple ways to do this, including fitting a hot water cylinder jacket or pipe insulation, which is simply a foam tube that covers the exposed pipes between the hot water cylinder and boiler. Both can be easily bought from a local supply store for a reasonable cost.

You should also look for draughts in your home and try to reduce energy loss here. It is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to save energy, and it’s as simple as using sealant to block unwanted gaps around areas such as windows, doors and pipework leading outside.

Just make sure while you are doing this that you don’t block any intentional ventilation, such as under-floor grilles, air bricks or vents as this could create an unhealthy living environment.

UK Spray Rendering Ltd. provides professional and customer-focused advice to all its clients on wall rendering, insulation, floor screed and underfloor heating systems. It offers support throughout the project planning and installation processes offering expert advice, craftmanship and aftercare for all its rendering and installation services including thermal wall insulation through the UK.