It is a brutal reality of life that in the past one or two years energy prices have increased, and heating up our houses in the winter looks to be getting more dear every year. If you’re like most people you depend on either oil, natural gas or electricity in order to heat your house during those cold winter months.
With world crude oil prices up from $40 a barrel in 2009 to their current cost of $97 per barrel, and natural gas cost having risen to the same extent from 2009 to the present time, with the decline in purchasing power of the US Greenback (the currency which all of these commodities are traded in), the tightening up of world supplies and also , the unrest in the world’s biggest oil-producing area, the Middle East, it seems that we’re not going to see any easing in the price we pay to heat our homes soon .
So we need make each penny that we spend on energy go as far as is possible . This is best done by insulating our homes to make it hold in that precious heat for as long as we possibly can .
Some older houses are not built to have the inside or the wall cavities retrofitted with insulation materials, so external wall insulation is the only option. External insulation may also be fitted to homes and other buildings which have good internal insulation, as an additional method of conserving energy.
External insulation is generally constructed of a rigid layered composite board which is fitted neat to the existing exterior wall and has a pleasant exterior layer finish to match your chosen look. The energy savings can be expected to range from 20% to 50% reductions in heating bills . While not inexpensive, the up-front cost of fitting external wall insulation to your house can frequently be offset with green govt. motivations in the shape of grants, which are aimed at cutting carbon emissions and reducing our dependence on importing foreign oil, coal and natural gas.
Liam Keenan writes about home improvements, external insulation and internal insulation methods, passive homes and eco living.
