insulation
the real thing... insulating Victorian buildings the Ar'Chic way (event post)
Following on from July's very popular session by local Peckham residents on insulating Victorian buildings, Peckham Power are delighted that architect David Hingamp of Ar'Chic will be giving an energy tour of his Victorian house for the August "real thing..." session, focusing particularly on the insulation improvements he made.
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Insulating our Victorian living room (blog post)
A quick health warning: the blog below makes it sound like it's a huge amount of effort to insulate a Victorian property. And it was a huge amount of work to do our living room! But I'd say that 90% of the work we had to do was correcting mistakes made by previous owners / the original builders. If we had started with a healthy Victorian house then it would have taken a fraction of the time. OK. Are you sitting comfortably? Let's start the story...
We have a draughty, poorly insulated Victorian end-of-terrace house. Back in January 2009, the weather was freezing and work was quiet so I decided to take the plunge and insulate our living room.
Here's what the living room looked like before I got stuck in:
Not only did I want to reduce our gas consumption but the room was also decidedly uncomfortable on cold winter days: even if we left the heating on all day, the living room would still be uncomfortably chilly.
The original plan: On the floor, I planned to pull up the floor boards, install chicken wire under the joists, lay glass fibre insulation between the joists and re-lay the floor boards. On the external walls, I intended to glue 60mm Kingspan K17 insulated dry lining board directly to the walls. Before starting the project, I expected it to take a month (i.e. January 2009). At the time of writing (July 2010) the project still isn't finished, largely because the room provided plenty of surprises once we started revealing the underlying structure.
And here's what it looks like after 18 months of work!
Originally submitted by Jack on Tue, 13/07/2010 - 1:12pm.
Last update on Fri, 23/07/2010 - 12:20pm.
The Real Thing: Insulating Victorian Homes (event post)
Learn about how to insulate our old, solid-walled Victorian homes from those who have actually done it. The event will be hosted at Jack Kelly's house in Peckham. At the time of writing, Jack is currently insulating the living room. You can read all about Jack's insulation project on his blog entry (with lots of photos). With luck the insulation will be finished by the 15th July and we can take a look at the room and look at photos of the work.Read the rest of this post
Originally submitted by Jack on Tue, 08/06/2010 - 12:55pm.
Last update on Thu, 15/07/2010 - 12:16pm.
Proposal that Peckham Power should do IR Thermography (forum post)
The Energy Efficiency group had our second meeting on Thursday 12.03.09. At that meeting, Hal-Luke made a persuasive argument that Peckham Power should get involved in the business of Infrared Thermography. What is Infrared Thermography? It's the use of a camera which can see infrared radiation and hence can quickly determine where heat is leaking from a property. Here is a photo from WikiPedia showing a normal house in the background and a Passivhaus in the foreground:
Hal-Luke's idea is that Peckham Power should ask Southwark Council for the funds to buy an IR camera so that Southwark can commission Peckham Power to undertake IR surveys of social housing stock. The performance of housing stock which has been insulated (e.g. with cavity wall insulation or with solid-wall insulation) can be checked with the IR images and if the insulation proves to be faulty then claims can be made against the guarantees supplied with the installation. There is evidence that many insulation installations do not perform as well as they are supposed to (e.g. large gaps in cavity fills). With luck, the IR images will help to ensure that all the insulation installed in the borough performs well, hence reducing energy consumption and improving comfort for occupiers.
Is IR Thermography a suitable project for Peckham Power to take on? Are there lower hanging fruit (e.g. draft-proofing) that we should address first? Is IR Thermography sufficiently community orientated for Peckham Power? Voice your opinion in this forum thread!
Read the rest of this postUnderfloor insulation in a victorian suspended floor (forum post)
Hi everyone
A couple of months ago I finally put some kingspan isulation under my drafty wooden front room floor, and it's been a great improvement, and reassuringly visitors notice too. ;-)
I keep a blog for my own records (recommended, actually), but wrote this one up if anyone else is interested:
http://1882house.blogspot.com/2009/01/blog-post.html
Read the rest of this postOriginally submitted by Simon on Mon, 09/03/2009 - 11:08pm.
Last update on Tue, 10/03/2009 - 8:27am.
Options for solid wall insulation? (forum post)
Hi,
I wondered if I could pick your brains for a moment on solid wall insulation… It would be good to have a ball park figure for internal and / or external measures. Energy Saving Trust estimate £42 per m2 for internal, but I think they are looking at the cheapest end of the market. We’d probably want something higher spec.
Thanks,
Jessica
I start work on insulating my floor this week (forum post)
Dear Peckham Power folks,
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Snow on Roofs (blog post)
Some photos of roofs taken in early Feb 2009 illustrating that some roofs are clearly not as well insulated as others! Our aim is to make sure as many roofs are well insulated as possible. Many thanks to Carl for taking the photos.
Questions about insulation and draft proofing (forum post)
OK. Here's something worth exploring. If you have a solid wall house and have minimised draughts as much as possible, installed double (or secondary glazing), radiator panels and keep the doors to rooms closed...how much heat can you retain in the house? What would change if you used insulating paint? Oh and have you sealed your floorboards...and if you do all this, how does the house breathe? And of course - a relative concept - how cold is cold?Read the rest of this post
What insulation measures for solid walled houses? (forum post)
I’d be interested to know what kind of insulation measures you are looking at for solid walled houses. There are a range of products on the market, of different levels of effectiveness and cost. Unfortunately, treating this type of wall is much more difficult than injecting insulation into an un-insulated cavity wall. Interior insulation is going to require re-decoration and likely loss of internal area; exterior insulation is highly costly, requires scaffolding and isn’t suitable in conservation areas for example.Read the rest of this post
