Heat flows naturally from a warmer to a cooler space. In winter, the heat moves directly from all heated living spaces to the outdoors and to adjacent unheated attics, garages, and basements – wherever there is a difference in temperature. During the summer, heat moves from outdoors to the house interior.

To maintain comfort, the heat lost in winter must be replaced by your heating system and the heat gained in summer must be removed by a ventilation system or air conditioner. Insulating your ceilings, walls, and floors help you to maintain a more desirable even temperature all year round.

HERE’S HOW HOME INSULATION WORKS IN SIMPLE TERMS
Warm air rises and escapes first from your ceilings. If your ceiling is insulated the warm air will hit the ceiling and move downwards looking for the path of least resistance, or the next easiest place to escape.

If your walls aren’t insulated, the warm air will escape through your walls next as most homes have much more wall space than windows and while walls may look solid, without proper insulation their thermal effectiveness is minimal. Plasterboard or Gib board have an insulation value anywhere from 4 – 8 times less than a thermal curtain, however the plasterboard is normally covering 75% of the exterior of your home.

If your windows aren’t thermally protected, the warm air will escape next through them. If the ceilings, walls and windows are insulated, only then does the underfloor become a significant area for heat loss, underfloor vapour barriers and insulation are generally installed to stop cold and damp rising into the house.

Once your home insulation is completed, heat pumps and other heating sources are great, In a well insulated home they will run more efficiently, meaning lower energy bills each month.

Poorly insulated homes are usually cold & damp with occupants crowded over a heater in one area to keep warm. When you insulate your house properly, it will be a warmer, dryer, healthier and more energy efficient home. Heating and cooling account for 30-40%, of the energy used in the average home. Inadequate home insulation and air leakage are leading causes of energy waste in most homes.

Once the energy savings have paid for the installation cost, energy conserved is money saved – and saving energy will be even more important as energy costs continue to increase. Insulating your home with quality home insulation products is one of the best investments you can make.

UNDERSTANDING YOUR HOME INSULATION LEVELS & HOW TO CHECK
Unless your home was specially constructed to be energy efficient, you can probably reduce your energy bills by evaluating your home insulation and adding more insulation where needed. If you are asking yourself, why should i insulate my home, it’s because many older homes have less insulation than homes built today, even adding home insulation to a newer home can pay for itself within a few years.

To determine whether you should add insulation, you first need to find out how much insulation you already have in your home and where it is. A qualified home energy assessor will include an insulation check as a routine part of a whole house energy assessment. Generally, an energy assessment will also help identify areas of your home that are in need of air sealing. Before you insulate, you should make sure that your home is properly air sealed.

If you don’t want an energy assessment, you need to find out the following for yourself. If you live in a newer house, you can probably get this information from the builder. If you live in an older house, you’ll have to inspect the insulation.

Where your home is, isn’t, and/or should be insulated.
What type of insulation you have.
The R-value and the thickness or depth of the insulation you have.

CHECKING & EVALUATING YOUR HOME INSULATION
Check the home insulation on your ceiling, walls, and floors adjacent to an unheated space, like a garage or basement. The structural elements are usually exposed in these areas, which makes it easy to see what type of insulation you have and to measure its depth or thickness (cm).

Turn off the power to the outlet.

Remove the outlet cover and shine a flashlight into the crack around the outlet box. You should be able to see if there is insulation in the wall and possibly how thick it is. Inspect the exterior walls by using an electrical outlet: Pull out a small amount of insulation if needed to help determine the type of insulation. Check outlets on all floors as well as old and new parts of your house. Just because you find insulation in one wall doesn’t mean that it’s everywhere in the house.

Inspect and measure the thickness (cm) of any insulation in unfinished basement ceilings and walls, or above crawlspaces. If the crawlspace isn’t ventilated, it may have insulation in the perimeter wall. If your house is relatively new, it may have insulation outside the basement or foundation walls. If so, the insulation in these spaces won’t be visible. The builder or the original homeowner might be able to tell you if exterior insulation was used.

Once you’ve determined the type of home insulation you have in these areas and its thickness (cm), evaluating your home insulation is easy. See the EECA Insulation fact sheet to determine the R-values of insulation previously installed in your home.