Upgrading Your Insulation For A More Sustainable Home
Insulation works as a barrier to protect from the weather outside and keep the desired temperature inside your home. Living in Victoria, Australia we experience cold winters and hot summers so insulation is a key component to the energy efficiency of our home.
We’ll share some things we’ve learned along the way and answer some frequently asked questions when it comes to insulating your home. Before we get stuck into it, here's a quick explanation of how insulation works. Basically, insulation works as a barrier to protect your house from the weather outside and keeps your desired temperature inside the home. Living in Victoria, we experience cold winters and hot summers so having good insulation is a key component for an energy-efficient home.
A well-insulated home will help cut down on electricity costs and also ensure that other green sources of energy, like solar panels, appliances, and double-glazed, thermally broken windows have the very best chance of performing their best and you don’t waste energy.
When we started working on the energy rating with our builder Sherriff Constructions we reached out to Pricewise Insulation which is a company that services Victoria and New South Wales. We sent through our house plans and energy rating requirements, and they advised that we should also add insulation into all of our internal walls now while we have the chance. We learned that most new builds don’t require insulation in the internal walls of the house.
Upgrading the internal wall insulation is a really quick and cost-effective way to increase the energy efficiency of your home.
We decided to go with Knauf Earthwool, for the internal and exterior walls we chose R2.5 Earthwool Sounds Shield and for the ceiling we chose R6 Earthwool Ceiling. R-value is a measure of the thermal resistance in an insulation batt, so the higher the R-value the greater the insulating capabilities.
Knauf Earthwool is a leader in the industry when it comes to hitting sustainability targets and is a great choice for anyone wanting an environmentally friendly product. Knauf Earthwool is highly compressed during packaging which saves on transport costs and packaging waste. It is predominantly made up of recycled glass, has no nasty chemicals added, is naturally brown in colour and is fire-resistant.
We decided to install the internal wall insulation ourselves to save costs and left the ceiling and exterior walls to the experts. We wore long sleeves, long pants, gloves and safety glasses expecting it to be really itchy and tough to work with, however we found that the insulation was really soft and wasn’t as itchy as we expected. To install you simply hold the batts up against the studes and cut with a knife. It’s important to cut the batt slightly wider than the width of the studs, so that it fits snugly in place and won't sag over time.
We worked our way around the house and as we added the insulation we could feel the house getting warmer and the acoustics changing. It’s really satisfying knowing the hard work and investment we’ve put in now will benefit us long into the future by reducing our overall energy usage and increasing our energy savings.
Pricewise Insulation is kindly offering mates rates to you all
Discount Code - al+imo-save50 - $50 off Knauf Earthwool orders over $750
Discount Code - al+imo-save100 - $100 off Knauf Earthwool orders over $1,500
G’day, we’re Al + Imo
We’re a husband and wife duo, building our dream life one DIY project at a time.
We firmly believe what you learn should be shared which is why we created our Journal. A place where you can learn new skills and be inspired.
The Good Day House is a modern, all-electric, 7.5-star, energy-efficient family home situated in the beautiful seaside town of Torquay, about 5 minutes from Iconic Bells Beach.
For more house build, design and DIY content make sure to hit subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Featured Products
