{"id":7483,"date":"2017-03-03T16:13:21","date_gmt":"2017-03-03T15:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=7483"},"modified":"2017-03-03T16:14:18","modified_gmt":"2017-03-03T15:14:18","slug":"one-thing-learnt-week-well-insulated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=7483","title":{"rendered":"One thing we have learnt this week – too well insulated?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"0008\"<\/a>Are homes getting too well insulated?\u00a0 I\u2019ve just heard an interesting report on the radio about this.\u00a0 There has been a step change in energy efficiency regulations in the UK over the last 10 years or so*.\u00a0 This is good and it could be argued that they don\u2019t go far enough.\u00a0 There are problems though which has been flagged by research at Loughborough University in their model house.\u00a0 This house is not passive but has lots of roof insulation and very efficient double glazing.\u00a0 The researchers think this house is too well insulated and is too hot for any inhabitants, especially an ageing population.\u00a0 There are also air quality issues in well insulated houses.\u00a0 Heat generated in kitchens and bathrooms is in theory dissipated by extractor fans but in practice these are very noisy and the inhabitants are reluctant to use them.\u00a0 (This is true we recently had a new fan put in the bathroom its extremely noisy and does not seem to do anything.)\u00a0 In cities people are also reluctant to use and open windows.\u00a0 One person contacted the programme to say that they lived in a flat with a huge wall of glass on the southside.\u00a0 This reached temperatures of 38 degrees and made them ill.\u00a0 In response to all this a representative from the building trade stated that they were aware of the problem and that they had spent \u00a3100,000 trying to sort out overheating due to a north facing glass wall and failing.<\/p>\n

One thing I would say about the research is that they used fans in the house to move the heat around to even out the temperatures (and bulbs to mimic body heat).\u00a0 This former point seems a bit unrealistic at the moment different parts of my house are at very different temperatures (without the heat on).\u00a0 Whilst the Zeroth law of thermodynamics says that heat should flow from a high to low temperature zone until it evens out in my experience this does not seem to happen.\u00a0 We just have to live with this.\u00a0\u00a0 Thus some areas might be cooler than others.<\/p>\n

The solutions are, dare I say it, technological.\u00a0 In principle a well insulated house should be warm in winter and cool in summer.\u00a0 The way to achieve this is by the right choice of building materials and energy efficiency measures.\u00a0 Glass areas like above should be formed of glass that absorbs minimal amounts of radiation in summer and maximum amounts in winter. Another solution that someone who contacted the programme said had worked for them was the use of heat recovery ventilation systems.\u00a0 These exchange stale air in the house with the outside. In summer these would act as a very low energy aircon.<\/p>\n

Overheating buildings that are too well insulated is a problem that is only going to get worse with climate change and builders need to think very carefully about the design of newbuild.<\/p>\n

Neil<\/p>\n

*Apparently local authorities in England also have the powers to increase energy efficiency by 20% for a development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are homes getting too well insulated?\u00a0 I\u2019ve just heard an interesting report on the radio about this.\u00a0 There has been a step change in energy efficiency regulations in the UK over the last 10 years or so*.\u00a0 This is good … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8,106,17,15,1],"tags":[66],"class_list":["post-7483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate-change","category-lifestyle","category-materials","category-one-thing-we-have-learnt-this-week","category-practical-low-carbon-living","category-uncategorized","tag-energy-efficiency-measures"],"yoast_head":"\nOne thing we have learnt this week - too well insulated? 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