When you insulate your home it acts as a block against heat loss and heat gain, particularly in roofs and ceilings, floors and walls.
A house with good insulation can reduce heating and cooling costs by up to 50%. This translates to huge savings on energy bills. The money saved from reduced energy consumption greatly outweighs the cost of the insulation which, in the end, will pay for itself.
In many homes insulation is the most practical and cost-effective way to make a house more energy efficient, keeping its ambient temperature constant in summer and winter. In addition, insulation can reduce condensation in the home, this can provide health benefits by reducing mould and damp.
Whether you are considering investing in other energy efficiency products such as solar panels and battery storage, the first step you should take is to improve your home’s roof insulation. This will ensure that you maximise the use of natural resources and don’t waste energy. If you skip this step, you will end up spending a lot of money buying a very powerful AC system to cover the energy needs of a badly insulated house.
How Does Ceiling Insulation Work?
On a hot day a roof that is exposed to the sun without insulation will start to absorb heat from outside the building. The roof will become hotter and hotter, and then will emit this heat into the house, resulting in a hotter environment within.
The opposite happens during winter, in which the heat from the house is absorbed by the roof and released outside. During the night the inside temperature can often be as chilling as the temperature outside.
Heat always travels from the hotter area towards the colder area. The only way to stop this process is through good insulation. In a house with good quality ceiling insulation, heat flow through the roof is dramatically reduced, thus the building temperature can be kept comfortable with much less energy used for heating and cooling. Therefore, the inside of the building remains relatively cooler than the hotter outside environment during the summer months, and on a cold night or during winter, the majority of heat that is inside the house will remain trapped by the insulation barrier, thus keeping the home much warmer.
Insulating your home is like wearing a thick jacket in winter, and like staying under an umbrella in summer.
What Is the Next Step?
Once you have checked and improved your home’s insulation, you are ready to give your home’s energy efficiency the once over! You can heat your house and produce your own electricity by applying some energy efficiency systems that will eventually pay for themselves. This way you will reduce your household’s carbon footprint and also, in the long term, save a lot of money!
Cool or Cosy is a long-standing member of the Clean Energy Council and can undertake any type of Energy Efficiency project from ceiling insulation to solar systems and battery storage and solar hot water with our range of safe, efficient and quality endorsed products. Our passionate and knowledgeable team, expert installers and reputable brands are ready to be a part of your next project.