Reduce (heating) costs. Improve living comfort, protect the climate.
Particularly during the cold season, people need a warm and cosy home. One outdated method involves burning fossil fuels or wood to heat the home to a temperature of between 19°C and 22°C. Others use (expensive) electricity for direct electric heating (electric underfloor heating, night storage heaters, electric radiant heaters, so-called ‘infrared heaters’). These methods are very costly and also environmentally unfriendly, as a great deal of CO₂ is released during electricity generation.
A more forward-looking approach, however, is to fit the surrounding building elements (walls, ceiling/roof, cellar ceiling) with thermal insulation. This has properties comparable to those of a woollen jumper or a down jacket: it slows down the transfer of heat through the insulated structure. Highly effective thermal insulation is one of the most important components of a so-called ‘passive house’. These require virtually no heat generation at all. In passive energy houses, a room temperature that meets all requirements is achieved solely through internal and solar heat gains (cooking, lighting, people and solar radiation).
A well-insulated house is the best prerequisite for the optimal operation of a heat pump. The better it is insulated, the lower the electricity consumption of these units. Well-insulated buildings are ‘low-temperature-ready’.
The best and most environmentally friendly building is one in which all the surrounding components are very well insulated (this naturally includes highly insulating windows). If this cannot be achieved (for cost or other reasons), insulation should still be fitted. And this should be done “bit by bit”. For example, it makes sense to insulate ONE roller shutter box, but it makes even more sense to insulate ALL of them. After that, you could, for example, insulate the upper floor slab (if present), then the cellar ceiling, then have core insulation fitted to double-shell masonry, thereby moving step by step closer to the characteristics of a ‘passive house’.
Good thermal insulation provides:
- a high level of living comfort,
- lower heating costs,
... and, thanks to the lower energy consumption, you also get personal climate protection as a bonus. Free of charge!
There is no requirement to insulate ALL building components at once. Unless, of course, the building needs to be completely renovated anyway.