I saw a clip on BBC news the other day and the guy was living in a Victorian house in Birmingham and had insulated the property a d didn't have any heating bills. The insulation I think was from a material similar to news paper shredded up. I'm looking to covert the garage into a Playroom later this year, what's the best quality insulation I can use? The house is 1980's brick and block. The current garage is part of the house and not a separate building.
best insulation to use?
- Thread starter dbaplaya
- Start date
To insulate a victorian house to that standards requires a serious overhaul, to actually get rid of heating bills you are looking at externally insulated rendar.
The recycled newspaper insulation won't do that, unless it is something like 300mm thick, so its probably bollux he has no heating, as I can't imagine he has that.
Your best bet is rigid foam insulation.
The recycled newspaper insulation won't do that, unless it is something like 300mm thick, so its probably bollux he has no heating, as I can't imagine he has that.
Your best bet is rigid foam insulation.
This would have cost an absolute fortune!
•Ceiling insulation to front room
•Rendered 280mm Neopor external wall insulation (rear of existing house & extension)
•Underfloor insulation in extension – 250mm Rockwool
•Internal wall insulation is cellulose Warmcel 350mm to 500mm (in the existing house)
•Front room, first floor, brought ceiling down by 450mm beneath existing timbers and filled with Warmcell
•Low energy lights throughout
•Whole house MVHR. System is 93% efficient. (Used in winter and spring/autumn evenings, but turned off in the summer when ventilating naturally)
•Reclaimed materials used (reclaimed wood, reclaimed door handles)
•Using renewable energy from Green Energy UK
•Roof insulated to a U value of 0.08
•30sqm Solar PV panels providing 5.04kWp
•8.8sqm of evacuated tubes for hot water heating providing 5150 kWh/year
•Triple glazing with low E glass (double argon filled) includes rooflights
•Rainwater harvesting (tank in the basement)
•Wood stove with additional coil into 1000 litre thermal store
•No central heating required
•Zero carbon” to Code for Sustainable Homes level 6
•Winner of the 2010 RIBA Architecture Award
I'm trying to renovate my Victorian Semi to a good standard and am adding 50mm of insulation board to the inside of most external walls but I won't get near this level of efficency!
•Ceiling insulation to front room
•Rendered 280mm Neopor external wall insulation (rear of existing house & extension)
•Underfloor insulation in extension – 250mm Rockwool
•Internal wall insulation is cellulose Warmcel 350mm to 500mm (in the existing house)
•Front room, first floor, brought ceiling down by 450mm beneath existing timbers and filled with Warmcell
•Low energy lights throughout
•Whole house MVHR. System is 93% efficient. (Used in winter and spring/autumn evenings, but turned off in the summer when ventilating naturally)
•Reclaimed materials used (reclaimed wood, reclaimed door handles)
•Using renewable energy from Green Energy UK
•Roof insulated to a U value of 0.08
•30sqm Solar PV panels providing 5.04kWp
•8.8sqm of evacuated tubes for hot water heating providing 5150 kWh/year
•Triple glazing with low E glass (double argon filled) includes rooflights
•Rainwater harvesting (tank in the basement)
•Wood stove with additional coil into 1000 litre thermal store
•No central heating required
•Zero carbon” to Code for Sustainable Homes level 6
•Winner of the 2010 RIBA Architecture Award
I'm trying to renovate my Victorian Semi to a good standard and am adding 50mm of insulation board to the inside of most external walls but I won't get near this level of efficency!
That lot certainly would! Makes you wonder how long it would have taken to pay for itself. They always say energy costs will rise in the future - but enough to make all that cost-effective??? Depends how long you plan living.
Theoretically it might pay for itself in 20 or 30 or 40 years-time, but the panels and equipment would have packed-up long before!
He has no central heating, this is not the same as no heating or heating bills.
He has a wood stove, and MVHR, both are heating sources (as well as the solar heating), and his heating bill will still mostly be cheap because solar is subsidsed by the rest of us.
Without that subsididy I bet his electricity bill would be more than mine.
I'm guessing 60k?
It's why I say most victorian houses should just be bulldozed, far to impracticle to bring them upto standards.
But we live in a world where a few thousand pounds worth of material is valued in the hundreds of thousands.
Anyway, back to the OP's question.
Forget this story, it isnt relevent to you (unless you have money to burn), insluation backed plasterboard, lots and lots of mineral wool in the roof, you only need to get flash when you want to do lot's with less room, or use super green materials.
He has a wood stove, and MVHR, both are heating sources (as well as the solar heating), and his heating bill will still mostly be cheap because solar is subsidsed by the rest of us.
Without that subsididy I bet his electricity bill would be more than mine.
I'm guessing 60k?
It's why I say most victorian houses should just be bulldozed, far to impracticle to bring them upto standards.
But we live in a world where a few thousand pounds worth of material is valued in the hundreds of thousands.
Anyway, back to the OP's question.
Forget this story, it isnt relevent to you (unless you have money to burn), insluation backed plasterboard, lots and lots of mineral wool in the roof, you only need to get flash when you want to do lot's with less room, or use super green materials.
Nonsense; there's more to life than just reducing energy bills.
The properties can be prone to cold bridging and so condensation and mould.
They are often poorly sound insulated (nice solid walls, but joists often run through them).
They are often small and cramped and poorly laid out.
They are hugely energy inneficient.
Bulldoze them, and dance on the ashes.
They did that between the 1950s and '70s and replaced them with (then) state-of-the-art modern homes, and what a disaster that was.
No reason to think that all the external insulation and other green cRap will be any better in 20 years time
Our understanding today is much better, it is our builders that are still carp.
Our understanding of housing standards in the 1950s - '70s was regarded at the time as 'much better'.
Just been reading a fantastic study done at the university of Nottingham which kind of relates to this post.
They actually built a "1930s house" using construction methods of the day, and over a three year period, tested how efficient the house was as they upgraded it, eventually to "modern standards" of insulation.
They packed the house with sensors and tested how airtight and energy efficient they could actually make the house. They tested what order upgrades should be made in and how effective those upgrades where.
It's quite fascinating..
I won't bother giving a summary as you can read it here:
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/microsites/enterprise/calebre/project-calebre-summary.pdf
It does not go into too much technical detail, but is a nice overview of the project. I am sure they have got a lot more data out of it though, but they do not seem to have published any more yet.
They actually built a "1930s house" using construction methods of the day, and over a three year period, tested how efficient the house was as they upgraded it, eventually to "modern standards" of insulation.
They packed the house with sensors and tested how airtight and energy efficient they could actually make the house. They tested what order upgrades should be made in and how effective those upgrades where.
It's quite fascinating..
I won't bother giving a summary as you can read it here:
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/microsites/enterprise/calebre/project-calebre-summary.pdf
It does not go into too much technical detail, but is a nice overview of the project. I am sure they have got a lot more data out of it though, but they do not seem to have published any more yet.
The issue of houses built then is that we were mucking about with various new building technologies before we really understood them, or their durability, partially driven by a massive demand (and provision) or new housing.
Yesterday is not today, we understand the technologies much better, and we have more requirements for quality checking and certification than we did then.
There will always be crap houses built to crap standards, with poor durability, that I will agree to. But the fault of that is a public willing to buy defective poorly built properties, that they poorly research, for hundreds of thousands of pounds, when they would out of hand reject a car for 1/10th of the amount with minor defects.
DIYnot Local
Staff member
If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.
Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.
Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local
