Walls of your home can account for your 20%-30% of your energy bill if not insulated or even if poorly insulated. Only proper wall insulation will save your otherwise wasted hard earned Euros.
Types of Wall Insulation
Best suited wall insulation for your home may be any one of the following:
- Cavity Wall Insulation
- Internal Insulation
- External Insulation
What is best for your problem?
There is unfortunately no easy answer to this. Some applications need some compromise from your side. In the alternative it could even end up a costly exercise. Let’s look at these solutions one by one to understand them better.
Cavity Wall Insulation
A cavity wall consists of two brick or concrete block built walls separated by an air gap.
An insulation material if can be inserted in to this air gap or cavity it will be an excellent way to provide the necessary barrier for thermal energy transmission.
- There are three things which will hamper such an operation.
- There is no easy access to the cavity.
- It is next to impossible to fill the gap with insulation material maintaining
the necessary density and uniformity.
All insulation material therefore cannot be used.
Therefore a technique adopted is to drill the external wall (drilling internal walls will cause lot of inconvenience to you and also is costly) and inject foam type insulations which will fill the cavity. The drilling of holes and foam spraying has to be carried out in a suitable pattern to achieve the best properties as it is virtually in a blind operation. The drilled holes are finally closed up.
Internal Wall Insulation (Dry Lining)
By the looks of it this operation should be easy but it is not so in practice. Why, because all your insulation work may disrupt your day to day home activities. The insulation will eat into your internal floor area as well. No need to say how messy it will be too. When you are insulating the internal walls one thing you will have to do first is to remove all the interior décor fixings and fittings. Further removing kitchen cupboards, fittings and any similar items will be time consuming, costly and also inconvenient.
Therefore this is not a preferred wall insulation method. However under certain conditions this may be unavoidable. For example the cost of external insulation may be beyond your budget. Or you may be able to tolerate the inconvenience caused considering the benefits it offers.
When dry lining is done firstly insulation boards (of suitable density, thickness and “U” factor) are fitted to the inside of your homes external walls. A vapor barrier is fitted along with this to prevent moisture ingress and condensation.
Finally a plasterboard lining is provided on the room side and finished with plaster and interior matching wall paint.
External Wall Insulation
In external wall installation Mineral Fiber, Fiberglass or Expanded Polystyrene Foam boards and slabs are fixed to the external surface of the wall. A vapor barrier (preferably of membrane or foil type) has to be fitted. The wall is rendered with masonry plaster reinforced with a steel wire or fiber glass mesh (this will hold plaster together, provide mechanical strength and help the aesthetics too).In external wall insulation a product less prone to moisture damage such as EPS Foam over Fibrous material may be more prudent.
In general external insulation is costlier than the other two options. However it offers the advantages of being:
- More convenient and easy
- Provide better resistance to rain penetration
- Provide better weather sealing
- Less damaged by Frost
It must be borne in mind what ever the solution you opt for the installation work must be carried out by highly skilled personal who are conversant with the products being installed and the manufacturers instructions. The Wall insulation products must also be NSAI Agrement Certified or of approved equivalent standard. The SEI’s HES Scheme provides grant aid to the tune of up to Euro 250 for Cavity wall insulation, Euro 2500 for Dry Lining and Euro 4000 for external insulation for retrofitting if complied with their stipulated standards and procedures. This will ensure a considerable saving in you retrofitting project cost.
Thanks the Techstore Team
