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Thermal Insulation for Your Home | |
Humans are a delicate species. To fluorish, we need the right kind of water, the right mix of gases, the right amount of diet, the right kind of atmosphere, the right kind of temperature, and so on and so forth. Thus, we have always found the need to control our surroundings.
If something vital to our survival is missing, we have always found a way to invent it. We needed a means for speedy travel, so we invented cars. We needed energy to do our daily activities so we set up power plants. And if something is not conducive to our survival, we always find a way to eliminate it or modify it to suit our requirements. People who lived in landlocked places designed swimming pools and artificial lakes. People surrounded by water invented ships. And people who have to contend with extreme temperature conditions have discovered thermal insulation.
What is thermal insulation?
It is a universally accepted truth that if two objects of different temperatures are brought in contact with each other, the warmer object will transfer heat to the colder body until they reach an equilibrium, i.e. they have the same temperature. Therefore in places of extreme temperatures, you will interact with your surroundings to attain an equilibrium. You will either be the origin of heat or the recipient of it. In severely hot places, you will therefore feel hot because you are receiveing heat from your environment. Likewise in severely cold places, you will feeel cold because you are transferring your meager heat to your environment. Without thermal insulation, such heat transfer can have drastic consequences to your well being.
Thermal insulation is the process of controlling the transfer of heat from one entity to another. You may not be aware of the concept but you have been practicing this in your everyday life. When winter comes and temperatures go perilously low, you find the warmest and thickest clothes you can find. You also wear as many articles of clothing as you possibly can. And to prevent freezing temperatures in your sleep, you have installed heaters to continuously supply your home with heat.
But heaters, electric or not, are costly ways of staying warm. That is why it should be used with extreme economy and in combination with an ingenious home design. Your home should in itself retain the maximum amount of heat and impede heat from going out. Relying on your electric heater alone to stay warm is impractical and foolhardy. Just the thought of your heating bills when they come due should be enough encouragement to give serious thought to modifying your home to become more efficient.
Now, you might be telling yourself that the winter will not last forever and your electric bills would be lower when its over. So why care? You forget that the summer will also come and your house will heat up like a furnace. And to counter this, you would crank up your airconditioners to the maximum setting and bask in the glorious cool. But come electricity bill day, and you nearly faint at the figure you are seeing. And yet again, the wisdom of proper home insulation is appreciated.
As for the seasons between summer and winter, do not fool yourself into thinking that you do not need to have insulation. Temperatures are hardly constant even then, and you are either heating your home or cooling it.
The benefits of home thermal insulation.
Insulating your home against the varying temperatures can easily be the one of the wisest investments you can make. Home thermal insulation will give you better control over the temperature inside your house. Your house will thus be geared to retain the best conditions for your comfort. If your home is well and properly insulated, your house will lose heat slower and your heaters need not work as hard to maintain your ideal temperature. Your heater will thus consume less energy and you will reap the benefits through a lower electric bill. Likewise in the summer, if your home is properly insulated, you can turn your airconditioner on without worrying about the upcoming electric bill. Proper insulation will slow down the transfer of heat from outside. Therefore, you retain your desired cooler temperature inside the house without having to crank up your airconditioner to maximum settings.
Simply put, thermal insulation is a powerful efficiency maximizer when properly applied to your home. It will allow you to retain the desired heat or cool for far longer periods of time.
Tips in insulating your home.
First, inspect your home. Before going to the trouble of buying the materials for insulation and spending valuable time in your plans, you need to know exactly what your house needs in terms of thermal insulation. If you go ahead and buy your materials without inspecting your house first, you might be wasting valuable resources on things you may not ultimately need. Check every part of the house for integrity so that you can be absolutely sure you will have your space sealed in tightly. You also need to check whether additions to, modifications to or replacements for your house’s building materials are necessary. It could be that your house is already quite insulated and that you only need a few alterations here and there to optimize its efficiency. It is suggested that you retain the help of experts in evaluating your house prior to finalizing your house renovation plans.
Next, put your plans to action with the right mix of materials to properly insulate your home. You can install some reflective material outside your windows that can be let down in the summer to reflect heat back outside. For most of your insulation needs, polyurethane-based materials are a good choice. Polyurethane is a material that contains a gas with low conductivity. Thus, you are assured of great resistance to heat transfer. What makes it even better is its flexibility. It can take the form of a liquid foam that can be sprayed to hard to reach places, a foam board that would make great additions to your walls, and it can also be manufactured to make insulation panels which would make it perfect if you want to completely overhaul your house. But of course, there are other materials available for your use like cellulose, fiber glass, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), rocks, and ceramic. Your insulation needs will ultimately decide what materials you will use. Different parts of the house and the location of your house determine your insulating needs.
Again, it is highly recommended that you consult professionals for this type of undertaking. You would not want to waste your money, time and effort on amateurish insulation results.
Comment by: Heather
2006-12-19 00:05 | Your site really helped me with a science project. I am testing different insulators and one of my research questions was "What is thermal insulation" I've been looking at a lot of sites and this one helped me the most.
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Comment by: unnat
2007-04-05 20:01 | i like ur information on thermal insulation and i m thank ful to you. and have small request that plz send me such type of information to my i.d. and also mail me about which heat insulater material are used in nowadays?
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Comment by: Mona
2007-05-29 13:18 | hi! very thankful for the info, but i was wondering about thermal insulation history... have been searching on the web and havent found anything useful, wondered if you had some advice??
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Comment by: PARTHIBHAN
2007-07-05 18:39 | how does saw dust act as an insulator for ice blocks?the theory behinds this.
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Comment by: Dennis
2007-08-21 07:10 | i'm looking for purchase information on "aerogel" insulation. can you provide any assistance. this product has been around since 1931 but not used as household insulation. i'm wondering why not. many thanks.
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Comment by: i. nagrani
2007-09-18 14:07 | we have a typical problem . we have designed a room for 42 deg. f in mumbai , india ( external condition 100 deg. f and 90 % rh ) . the ducting work is insulated with 2" thick polyurethane of density 40 kg/m3 . the insulation is wrapped with plastic cloth to provide vapour barrier . with above external conditions we observe sweat on the ducts , particularly return air ducts which is not acceptable . could you provide a solution to this problem urgently .
regards
-- nagrani
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