This article helps you find the best insulation material for your eco renovation project by comparing materials on thermal ability, cost, eco-friendliness and breathability.
We’re going to look at the best insulation material:
We’ll start by looking at the basic questions of why you should insulate and how much insulation you need. If you want to jump to the answer to a specific question, just use to the index here at the top.
Why should I insulate and where?
Which form of insulation material is best to use where?
How much insulation do I need?
What is the best insulation for health and climate?
Which is the best insulation for cost by volume?
What is the best insulation material for thermal performance?
Summary
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First, let’s see where, on average, the most heat leaves the house, what the target insulation value should be and what measures are appropriate. This is found in Table 1.
Building feature | Heat loss (%) | Target U-value (EPC Band B) | Possible solutions | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Table 1: heat loss through building elements, target insulation levels and insulation solutions | ||||
Walls | 35 % | 0.15 | Cavity, internal or external wall insulation | |
Windows and doors | 15 % | 1.6 | Double/triple/secondary glazing / shutters and curtains | |
Roof | 25 % | 0.10 | Pitched, warm deck or cold deck roof insulation | |
Floor | 15 % | 0.15 | Floor insulation | |
Gaps, cracks, draughts | 10 % | N/A | Draughtproofing >> ventilation with heat recovery |
Material which is loose and which comes in rolls, like cellulose and glass wool, is used in lofts and flat areas predominantly. Batts and slabs can be used there but also used vertically on the inside or outside. Rockwool is commonly used on the outside, but so are woodfibre batts. Generally a render over the top of the insulation material protects it from the weather.
The preferred render from an environmental point of view is lime, since it is breathable, and my personal favourite system for this is called Steico Protect, which is easy for any plasterer to apply and is available, like many of my favourite products from Ecomerchant, a trading style of Burdens Ltd.
The short answer to this is: the more the better. The level of insulation is ideally determined by the U-value of the overall building element when the work is completed.That’s how the Building Regs and Energy Performance Certificates quantify it.
The precise amount depends upon not just the insulation you use, but other materials present in the wall, floor, ceiling, door etc, such as timber, brickwork, concrete, metal and plastic.
It also depends on how much space you have, and your budget.
So this is where we need to get a bit technical, and look at the relationship between the thermal conductivity of any material (the k-value) and its heat transfer (the U-value) properties.
Thermal conductivity, k (also known as psi or Λ), tells us how well a material conducts heat. It is:
k = Q/T times 1/A times x/T
or, the quantity of heat, Q, transmitted over time t through thickness x, in a direction perpendicular to a surface of area A, due to a temperature difference T. The units used are W/mK, or watts per square metre Kelvin.
Each insulation material is ranked in Table 5 below by its K-value. To find out the U-value of your actual installation you have to multiply it by the depth of insulation you can or want to fit in.
The U-value is the ratio of the temperature difference across an insulant and the heat flow per unit area through it. The lower the number the better the insulant. To compare two insulants with different thickness and thermal conductivity, it is necessary to calculate the U-value for each.
U-value is described in watts per square metre Kelvin [ W/(m2K) ], or the amount of energy lost in watts per square metre of material for a given temperature difference of 1°C or 1°K from one side of the material to the other.
Another way of understanding it is to see it as thermal conductivity divided by the depth of insulation, or U = k/d where k is the thermal conductivity of a material, d the material’s depth.
Doubling the thickness of an insulating layer doubles its thermal resistance.
Building Regulations provide minimum standards of thermal insulation, typically expressed as a U-value for a given building element like a wall.
This is found by adding the k-values for the different materials times the depth and area used for each within the element. In each case, measurements are taken on-site and then reference is made to information tables for the purpose of the calculation.
As a guide, Table 2 shows the depth of insulation required to reach a U-value of 0.15W/m2K for some common or sustainable materials.
If space is limited and the depth of insulation is a consideration for you, you can use this table as a guide. In general, expanded polyurethane, XPS and some other materials derived from fossil fuels take up less space.
Material | Depth |
---|---|
Table 2: depth of insulation required to reach a U-value of 0.15W/m2K | |
Expanded polyurethane | 130 mm |
Unfaced polyurethane | 160 mm |
Rockwool (60 – 100kg/m3) | 195 mm |
Glassfibre slab | 205 mm |
Expanded polystyrene | 215 mm |
Mineral wool | 225 mm |
Flax | 230 mm |
Expanded Corkboard (110kg/m3) | 240 mm |
Glass fibre quilt | 240 mm |
Cork slab (160kg/m3) | 250 mm |
Woodwool board | 250 mm |
Cellular sheet glass | 280 mm |
Foam glass (140kg/m3) | 305 mm |
Cork slab (140kg/m3) | 325 mm |
Foam glass (130kg/m3) | 330 mm |
Just because it’s saving energy doesn’t make it necessarily sustainable! Chiefly this article is considering the climate impact of different materials.
Some, however, also have health aspects. In general, materials which give off gases that harm the ozone layer are now not available but it’s just as well to check; polyurethane foams and sprays for instance may contain HCFCs.
Materials which contain glue might contain formaldehyde which can off-gas and cause indoor air pollution with attendant potential health problems.
The net climatic effect of building insulation is the sum of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the energy used in manufacturing (its embodied energy) plus the leakage into the atmosphere during use of any (halocarbon: significant, or pentane, less so) expanding agents that have a greenhouse effect, minus the emissions saved due to energy saved as a result of the insulation (which is zero if renewable energy is used for heating/cooling that would not have been used elsewhere).
Although insulation saves carbon emissions in the future, those emissions associated with its manufacture are already present in the atmosphere and causing harm.
Given that there is an overriding need to fight climate change urgently by immediately slowing down the release of global warming gases, shouldn’t we try to avoid using these insulation materials, and instead use materials which lock up carbon in the fabric of the building?
Table 3 lists materials in order of descending climate friendliness on this basis. The most friendly ones are made from cellulose and other natural materials, since they have captured carbon from the atmosphere while they were growing.
You are sequestering atmospheric carbon in the structure of your building for decades as a result of using them. Consequently, the top scoring materials have negative carbon emissions associated with them.
Although sometimes they are more expensive, this is not always the case, as Table 4 shows, depending on where you source them.
Using them creates a market for this type of carbon storage and discourages the market for more polluting fossil-based insulants.
In general, these materials also enhance the breathability of your structure and hence its ability to withstand fluctuations in internal humidity which can cause damp and mould.
Determined by the embodied carbon (kgCO2e) emitted during manufacture, minus any sequestered carbon per cubic metre of material. All of the materials at the top with a negative figure are made from natural materials which have absorbed carbon from the atmosphere while they were growing | |
---|---|
Material | Embodied carbon (kgCO2e) |
Table 3: Most climate-friendly insulation materials – best first. | |
Cork slab (300kg/m3) | -155 |
Cork slab (160kg/m3) | -70 |
Cork board | -65 |
Woodwool board | -35 |
Flax | -5 |
Recycled loose cellulose | -1.9 |
Glassfibre quilt | 3 |
Rockwool | 7 |
Glassfibre slab | 8 |
Expanded Corkboard | 9 |
Rockwool (60kg/m3) | 13 |
Expanded polystyrene | 15 |
Rockwool (100kg/m3) | 20 |
Cellular sheet glass | 28 |
Foam glass (140kg/m3) | 30 |
Foam glass (130kg/m3) | 31 |
Mineral wool | 38 |
Expanded polyurethane | 160 |
Unfaced polyurethane | 175 |
For the purpose of writing this article I did a quick market survey, attempting to calculate for common materials the equivalent price per cubic metre. The results are in Table 4 below.
It’s nice to know that the most environmentally sound is by far the cheapest, Warmcel, and I can’t understand why everybody doesn’t use it in their lofts. It’s so easy to buy and apply.
It’s nice to know that woodwool and sheep’s wool are relatively cheap as are Rockwool and other mineral wool.
Material/product | Price £ |
---|---|
Table 4: Approx. cost per cubic metre from cheapest upwards. | |
Recycled loose cellulose (Warmcel) | 11.67 |
Expanded Polystyrene Board (Jabfloor 70) | 13.56 |
Woodwool (NOVOLIT) | 33.33 |
Black Mountain sheep’s wool | 46.66 |
Rockwool quilt | 53.81 |
Mineral wool slabs | 56.91 |
Woodwool (HERAKLITH) | 59.33 |
EPS Jablite Polystyrene Sheet | 75.52 |
Expanded Corkboard | 160 |
Hemp Steico Canaflex | 81.28 |
Woodfibre batts (Steico Flex) | 106.89 |
PIR (Celotex XR4000) | 117.93 |
Woodfibre batts (NaturePro) | 127.74 |
PUR (Kingspan Thermawall TW50) | 151.54 |
Woodfibre Board (Steico Therm) | 176.66 |
Hemp batts (Black Mt) | 317.98 |
Woodwool KOMBIVOL | 330 |
Finally, Table 5 below summarises the properties of different insulation materials.
There are categorised by their source with the organic, natural, more sustainable ones first, followed by other relatively environmentally-friendly ones made from natural materials, and lastly the category of materials derived from fossil fuels.
In each case the ones with the lowest k-value, i.e. the most insulating, are listed first.
The bottom line then is:
Your effort will be repaid in a warmer, cheaper-to-run home, and you will have that warm feeling that comes from doing your bit to help protect the climate.
© David Thorpe, Manager of Green Deal Advice and author of Sustainable Home Refurbishment: The Earthscan Expert Guide to Retrofitting Homes for Efficiency
You can find out more about external and internal wall insulation at green open house events in September. Speak to real homeowners as they share their personal experience of refurbishing their homes as part of SuperHome Open Days. SuperHomes are older homes refurbished by their owners for greater comfort, lower bills and far fewer carbon emissions – at least 60% less! Entry is free. Book now.
Also see:
Boarding a loft over insulation
Cavity wall insulation work
Cork insulation
Insulate a floor
Insulating a solid wall