Insulation in your home provides resistance to heat flow and lowers your heating and cooling costs. Properly insulating your home not only reduces heating and cooling costs, but also improves comfort.

Different types of insulation

The day is coming to an end, you turn off the computer, put on your coat and want to get home and relax with the family. To achieve this level of comfort you need, among other things, that the temperature of your home is pleasant, and that this does not mean an increase in your energy bill.

The lack of insulation in the building can ruin your search for home comfort. Before this there are two possible alternatives to solve this deficiency, install an external thermal insulation or install an internal thermal insulation. When in doubt to opt for one of the two options you have a series of variants that you should take into account.

In the case of an external thermal insulation you will have to take into account that in the case of living in a community of neighbors, you will need the approval of all the owners of the rest of the houses of the building to undertake the installation of thermal insulation. On the other hand, on the positive side of this option is the fact that its installation does not disturb the life of the residents of the building.

In some cases with the external thermal insulation the image of the building is altered. In addition to taking advantage of the benefits of new insulating materials that protect from cold and heat and favor the building’s energy efficiency, they can change the aesthetics of the home, updating the façade.

If on the other hand we choose to isolate the internal walls of our homes we will avoid having to have the approval of the rest of the building owners. On the other hand this type of thermal insulation has two major drawbacks.

The first one is that when installed inside the house, the useful surface will be altered and reduced in size, depending on the insulating material used. And the second of them, is that when the work is done inside the house, the routine of the occupants of it, will have to be modified, and the inconveniences will be increased.

Materials to insulate walls

The most commonly used thermal insulation materials tend to include rigid foam boards, mineral wool or any of the natural materials, such as sheep wool, wood fibers or cork

In many cases, its installation is based on the artificial creation of a double wall based on planks, linked together with metal guides. Once that artificial wall is established, the gap created with the thermal insulation material that is decided will be filled.

This type of thermal insulation that affects the insulator of the internal walls is cheaper than the insulation of the external wall; in cases 50% less is reached. In addition, this type of thermal insulation has a better return on investment which means that, overcome the disadvantages, it is worth the expense in the thermal insulation of the house.

Along with the benefits obtained from the thermal insulation of walls related to the comfort of the interior of the home, we must also take into account the reduction that our energy bill will suffer once installed thermal insulation for walls.

According to studies carried out on the energy efficiency of buildings, the areas of the houses where the energy escapes when the thermal insulation is not correct are:

• Exterior walls 30%
• Roof 35%
• Air renewal 10%
• Windows 13%
• Soils 7%

Thermal bridges 5%