44 Ways #23: Choose Appropriate Insulation

Hello! This is Episode 423. This is Way #23 of the 44 Ways to Create Your Sustainable Home series, and we’re continuing through Section Five: The Building Envelope.

Way #23 is: Choose Appropriate Insulation.

[For all resources mentioned in this podcast and a free, downloadable PDF transcript, head to www.undercoverarchitect.com/423]

The things we’ve been discussing in Section Five are all about improving the energy efficiency of your future home, whilst also supporting its durability, longevity, and the contribution it makes to your health and well-being in your home, through the choices in how you assess, test and specify your building envelope.

Over the past few episodes, we’ve covered airtightness, window selection, and how to choose the right building wrap for your climate. This episode is about insulation: the various types and what to know about how it works.

Insulation has been part of home construction for decades, and as energy efficiency benchmarks have become part of building and renovating, insulation has been adopted as a worthwhile investment to help reduce the cost of heating and cooling homes.

We’ve done a great job of improving the insulation in our homes over the years, understanding it improves our home’s thermal performance.

But how much insulation do you really need? And where, and what type?

In this episode, I share more with you as we go through why insulation matters, what to measure and consider, why adding more insulation may be counterproductive, and how to think about the roof, ceiling, walls and floor of your home for the best outcome.

As always, if you'd like to access a full transcript of this episode and links to any resources I mention, head to www.undercoverarchitect.com/423.

Now, let's dive in!

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST: