Reduce Your Utility Bills With Proper House InsulationThe concept of house insulation is particularly popular in America, for the simple reason that the country experiences extremes of temperature leading to very hot and very cool climatic conditions. House insulation helps to maintain a uniform temperature throughout the house, thus creating a comfortable environment in the house. The best feature of house insulation is the fact that it makes the surroundings, including the walls, ceiling and floor, cool in the summer seasons and warm during the winters. Moreover, proper insulation helps conserve the energy resources, while poor insulation and leakage of air can cause a lot of energy waste in most homes. However, the conservation of energy is a sum total of various factors. It is determined by the construction of the house, the local climate, the living habits of the family and most importantly on the efficiency of the heating and cooling systems as well as the fuel used by these systems. Generally, during the winters, heat flows from the warmer surroundings inside the house to the cooler area outside, which in turn, makes your house cool. Similarly, in summers heat from the outdoors moves inside the cooler indoors and makes your home even warmer. To avoid these extreme conditions, we tend to use the heaters and air conditioners inside our houses which use a lot of energy. In order to save energy, it is vital to insulate the ceilings, walls and floors of our houses, so that the heat flow faces an effective resistance and less cooling or heating is required. The insulation usually works by limiting air movements and there are various insulating materials that can serve the purpose. The traditional insulating materials include the cellulose, the fibreglass and the mineral wool. The recent insulating materials include some efficient synthetics that act as rigid insulators. These synthetics are available as extruded polystyrene foam, expanded polystyrene foam, polyisocyanurate foam and polyurethane foam. These materials are mostly used as blankets in the form of bats or roll, as loose-filled or spray applied materials or directly as rigid foam insulators. However, the most commonly used thermal insulation in home construction is the fibreglass bat insulation. For, low slope roofing system though, the most cost-effective choice is the tapered expanded polystyrene insulation. It is important to avoid poor drainage on commercial roofs that can be more destructive than the wind and other elements of nature. Tapered insulation provides the perfect positive slope for drainage and at the same time retains the structural and economic advantage of a flat roof deck. While insulating the house, it is also important to check the ducts of the heaters and the air-conditioners that are often ignored. If there are any air-leaks in the ductwork of these systems, it needs to be repaired immediately with mechanical fasteners. The remaining leaks should then be sealed with water-soluble mastic and embedded fibreglass mesh. It is also advisable to add some insulation to areas such as attic, which already has an existing insulation, to save greater amounts of energy. |