Maximize Insulation and Reduce Your Carbon Footprint – If you are environmentally conscious, you would be trying to reduce the consumption of energy to heat your home or business location and reduce your carbon footprint. One of the ways to do this is by making sure the loft and the walls of your dwelling or workplace are well insulated. Your insulation contractors should be able to give you a good estimate for an ideal insulation job to minimize this footprint.
Heat Leakage through the roof
A large amount of heat loss happens through the roof. It is estimated that up to a quarter of the heat loss happens through the roof. So, loft insulation must be a major item in your insulation list. This is a direct addition to the carbon footprint in terms of the lost fuel energy. Insulation contractors who are effective will focus on how best to reduce this loss and add to your savings in the power bill. From their viewpoint, this kind of insulation needs to be easy to install. The thickness of insulation that needs to be used for the loft should be at least 8 inches in thickness. Any competent contractor will be able to get the insulation installed when you are doing a new construction, or room additions or kitchen remodeling.
Insulating the walls
Compared to the 25% heat loss through un-insulated roof, walls tend to lose up to 35% of the heat produced inside the building. The insulation contractors you hire should be knowledgeable in installing cavity walls for its effectiveness. Cavity walls are a simple and effective way of reducing your energy bills. The saving made through good wall insulation can cover your investment in insulation in about five years. Many government grants are available that help reduce the carbon footprint. If you can access such a program, you recouping the costs can be even earlier. Be aware that new construction may not be eligible for such grants, subsidies or loans.
Gauging the feasibility
First thing to check would be whether insulations can actually be installed easily. For cavity walls, what’s needed is setting up two walls separated by 12 inches of air gap. The contractor you employ should be able to tell you if the insulation material has a low carbon footprint. He will be able to devise, a minimum transportation cost method to get the material to the construction site, which will further minimize the carbon footprint.