Why  Insulate

Why your home needs insulation

Good quality, well-installed insulation helps keep the heat in your home during winter and out during the summer. It makes your home easier and cheaper to heat, more comfortable and a healthier place to live. It saves money and our country’s precious energy resources.

A well-insulated home will provide year-round comfort. In winter, it’s like a blanket keeping your home warm. In summer, like a chilly bin, insulation keeps your home cool. It also helps to reduce noise and condensation, reducing mould and mildew growth.

For healthy living The World Health Organisation recommends indoor temperatures sit between 18-24°C. Cold, damp living conditions affect your family’s health and worsen the symptoms of asthma, bronchitis and other breathing disorders

50 to 70% of the energy used in an average home is for heating and cooling. To keep your home warm in winter without soaring power bills you need to limit heat loss. Insulation significantly improves the thermal efficiency of your home. Properly installed insulation is an investment – it pays for itself quickly in energy savings while making your home healthier, warmer and more comfortable.

If you’re retrofitting insulation into an existing home, the investment can be paid back in a few years and adds to the capital value of your property. If you’re building a new home the best way you can protect its future is to ensure it’s insulated with the highest grade product you can afford.

Home Insulation NZ

Creating an energy efficient home

Inadequate insulation and air leakage are the leading causes of energy waste in most New Zealand homes. Heat naturally flows from a warm space to a cooler space. An estimated 60% of New Zealand homes have inadequate ceiling, wall and underfloor insulation. There is little to no point in these homes having expensive heating systems installed; a damp and draughty space would merely be filled with expensive heat that simply leaks away.

The ceiling, underfloor, walls and window areas form the thermal envelope in your home: the barrier between heated and unheated spaces. It is the invisible wrap which protects the inside of the home from the outside climate. The better insulated your thermal envelope is, the warmer your home will be.

To perform as it should, the right kind of insulation needs to be correctly installed. Fibreglass batts, blankets, loose fill, polyester and polystyrene insulation all work by limiting air movement.
Gaps, folds, tucks, compression of insulation material and spaces must be avoided. Poor installation affects the R value of the insulation which means it will not perform to Building Code requirements.

Always use a trained installer to fit or upgrade your insulation. Even small installation faults can affect performance.

How much do you need?

R-Values for best results

R value or thermal resistance measure the effectiveness. Heat flows from a warmer to a cooler place but insulation reduces this heat flow. The higher the R value, the more it slows down the transfer of heat and the greater the insulating effectiveness. The R-value depends on the type of insulting material, its thickness and its density. Generally, the R value gets higher as the product gets thicker. For example an R3.0 product has greater thickness than a R1.0 product of the same type. Thicker is better.

However, the overall R-value of a wall or ceiling will be somewhat different from the R-value of the insulation itself. Why? Because insulation placed between joists, rafters, and studs does not slow the heat flow through those actual joists or studs themselves. In attics, it is crucial that the tops of the joists are covered. Wherever possible an insulation blanket should be used.

Insulation Experts Auckland

Insulation Types

When choosing installation you should consider the various forms available, their R-values, and the thickness needed. Where you intend to insulate in your home will be determine the forms of insulation required. For example, you can add batt or roll insulation over loose-fill insulation, or vice-versa.

Do You Need More?

The lack of insulation in New Zealand homes is a major energy and health issue. It only became mandatory in 1978. Present Building Code regulations mean that all new homes and additions to existing homes must now be insulated to a minimum standard.

However, homes built before this time often have little or no insulation. Industry experts estimate nearly 50% of all our homes in New Zealand have substandard ceiling or underfloor insulation.

Some products also degrade over time, so even if your house has been insulated in the past, it may need to be upgraded.

It is also estimated that proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act mean some 180,000 rental properties will require insulating before 2019. The new law will require that all landlords state in tenancy agreements the level of ceiling, underfloor and wall insulation in their properties, requiring the retrofitting of ceiling and underfloor insulation in the many New Zealand rental homes which aren’t adequately insulated already.

The Experts

Ensure your home is well insulated. For a free no-obligation quote contact Rodney Insulation. They can carry out an assessment of your property and provide you with an independent, informed report of your property’s insulation levels. Rodney Insulation are trusted installers with over 25 years’ experience insulating homes and businesses throughout Rodney, the North Shore and Kaipara areas.

Sleep easier in a warmer, more comfortable, more efficient, healthier home.
Call Sonny and his team –
the insulation experts 0800 857 232