Insulation for old houses

Maidenstone · Insulation for old houses

I went to a REAP seminar on "Hard to Heat Homes" on Wednesday, which was all about insulating old buildings and keeping the heat in. Moses Jenkins, the Senior Technical Officer with Historic Scotland gave a very interesting talk with lots of food for thought. Then someone from the Energy Saving Scotland Advice Centre talked about micro-renewables and grants. Very interesting.

Thanks Rod for a very useful seminar, and also a lovely lunch! And all free!

Ratchet

Hi,

Sounds a great & useful seminar, did you bring any top tips away with you? I'd (& probably others) be really interested to see if any of the solutions are appicable to our own homes.

Who organised the seminar? Also do you know if the seminar will be run again; would you recommend others to attend?

Thanks

Ratchet

Maidenstone

The important thing is ventilation - this takes moisture and foul air out of the building. If you seal it up and use inappropriate impermeable membranes within any insulation you can end up with rot, mould, insect damage etc. If you put on external insulation it MUST have moisture permeability, i.e. be lime based or you will trap moisture in the wall itself.
One of the first things to do is stop draughts in doors and windows - a lot of heat can be lost by draughts. Use shutters, blinds or thick curtains and close them when the sun goes.
Cavity wall insulation is easy to instal, but not if you have granite walls where there should be an air gap inside to dry any moisture. (That's the problem with our house.) The best way of insulating here is to remove the plasterboard and replace with other which has a natural insulation material (eg. hemp or wool) fixed to the back, so that there is still an air gap behind that.
Insulate concrete floors, cork is very good for this.
25% of heat is lost through the roof, 35% walls, 20% windows, 10% floor, 10% doors.

If you contact REAP they will be able to tell you if there is another seminar planned for the future.

REAP have a service where they can check your house by thermal imaging (once your heating is on and there is a 10 degree difference between indoor and outdoor temperatures) - this shows up red where heat is escaping, through orange, yellow and green to blue (where no heat is escaping) - and this is a great way to show where your problems are. This costs £60 + travel expenses, which seems very reasonable when you consider it will help you target the worst places in your house for heat loss. It also shows up dampness, and even if there is a mouse behind the skirting board (by its body temperature)!!!

Rod - I hope I've got all the above right - just shows I was paying attention!!

Maidenstone

And yes, I would certainly recommend others to attend if there is another seminar!

wildgarlic

Moray seems to be streets and houses ahead of the rest of Aberdeenshire - just an observation that I made when we first moved here in 2005 and I found a post on a forum somewhere about the Moray handbook that Rod was involved in... don't suppose he'll remember now but I emailed him to ask for a copy back then. It is a really useful book and would be great if the same thing could be done for Aberdeenshire, or for the north east.

Maidenstone

Perhaps this is something Aberdeenshire Environmental Forum could do. There is a 'house' group within the forum which is running a bit slow at the moment.

I wonder if Rod still has copies of the handbook? Then AEF could start getting the ball rolling.

wildgarlic

I've got a copy if not

Maidenstone

Thanks WG! Rod is a neep isn't he? (not being rude!!) Hope he sees all this and posts a reply - hint hint!! But I'd like to borrow the handbook and have a look. I must come to a meeting soon!

Ratchet

Hi All,

The handbook is available as a pdf.

http://www.reapscotland.org.uk/reports/Handbook.pdf

I've not read it yet, but have posted it while I remember.

Yours

R

Ratchet

Hi again,

Just remembered there's another organistation similar to REAP called Changeworks which provides advice/info based in Edinburgh. So yet again another area ahead of Aberdeenshire. I've posted a link to one of their publications/research projects.

http://www.changeworks.org.uk/uploads/83096-EnergyHeritage_online1.pdf

Happy reading

R