GREEN INSULATION ADVICE
We recognise that improving a building’s thermal performance is more than just adding insulation, it’s also important to consider the wider implications:
As experts in the thermal efficiency of properties, we can provide eco-conscious green insulation advice as part of our home thermal imaging survey. This will complement the findings in our report. In turn, this will help you weigh the pros and cons of the different materials available to improve your home in terms of cost, efficiency and carbon footprint.
The standard approach to modern insulation is to use mineral wool type insulation battens or rigid insulation boards such as PIR (polyisocyanurate) or PUR (polyurethane). On the whole, these materials offer superior insulation performance to natural alternatives (such as wool or paper). However, there remain questions about whether the embodied carbon and embodied energy of these materials is outweighed by the carbon savings of using them.
Alternative materials are now getting more attention, as it is becoming widely realised that these options are:
- Less carbon-intensive
- Of comparable, or acceptably lower thermal performance
- More environment and installer friendly
- Recyclable, or bio-degradable.
Solutions such as sheep’s wool, hemp fibre and aerogel are all part of the new mix of materials that are being proposed to address the building heat loss issue.
While there is no single answer to this question, we can provide green insulation advice, information and guidance as part of our thermal survey service. Through doing this, we can help navigate this complicated subject.
"There are many technologies that can reduce energy use in buildings. …opportunities exist, such as fast-growing biomass sources such as hemp, straw or flax as insulation in renovation processes." IPCC (2022) Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change, Contribution of Working Group III, https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3
Embodied Carbon
It’s important that we are aware of the embodied energy and embodied carbon in the choice of insulating materials. Fundamentally, potential home improvements may just result in shifting our personal carbon-footprint ‘down the line’ to manufacturers and distributors. This can occur through the choice of carbon-intensive man-made products. Or it’s maybe that the cost of the improvement, both in CO₂ and £, are unlikely to offset the savings. Bearing this in mind, we can help provide guidance on more sustainable and effective eco-friendly insulation options if that is a concern.
Embodied Energy
Embodied energy is a calculation of all the energy that is used to produce a material or product, including mining, manufacture and transport. This is important, as when we are considering a materials carbon footprint, we need also to consider the energy embodiment. Put simply, this is the energy required to realise that material from its raw form, into the material that insulates your property from the cold.
“Our homes lose heat the fastest – 3C in five hours compared to [1.2C in] Sweden. We are bottom of the league when it comes to heat pump installation, 21 out of 21, installing just 30,000 heat pumps to France’s 500,000.
“As a result, 80% of our domestic heating is gas, compared to 50% in the rest of Europe. For myself, the case is so obvious, so overwhelming, that retrofit isn’t and could never be termed, to borrow a phrase from the Prime Minister, ‘expensive insulation’.
“It is the easiest and most effective opportunity we have to reduce our demand for expensive fossil fuels, enhancing our energy security, and saving householders money on their bills, and saving society the wider costs of poor and draughty homes.”
Chris Skidmore MP, Chair, Net Zero Review (Sep 2023) ‘National retrofit mission’ urged to better insulate Britain’s leaky homes, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/chris-skidmore-britain-europe-friends-of-the-earth-government-b2420183.html
Leading Experts in Thermal Surveys & Green Insulation Advice
Helping to improve the world we all live in, one home at a time.
