The more insulation you have, the more savings on heating?

Lately I have the feeling that everyone is becoming obsessed with having “a lot of privacy” at home, apartment, villa, etc. It seems that it has become fashionable to put more and more isolation, with the idea that if we put a lot it would not be necessary to put the heating, with the significant saving of money that this would entail.

Let’s see: the insulation of a house or building is like the shelter we wear. It isolates us from the cold, that is, it keeps the heat in the body; if it is very cold we can put on a lot of clothes, or thicker clothes, but nobody can think of putting 3 coats on top of each other, because we could not even move. Does anyone think that with 3 coats on top we would not be cold anymore ?; If so, why don’t we do it?

Well, it must be because everything has its limit, and everything is fine in its right measure, but without going over, because if we spend we are throwing money in coats, or in insulators.

In the case of the insulation that we put in houses and buildings, it is necessary and mandatory to place a good layer of insulation, in addition to windows and doors with sufficient insulation and double glazing (which lose more heat than the walls), even on the floor and on the roof, let’s not forget that heat is also lost there. But putting much more insulation, even if it isolates more, there will come a time when it is useless, because we will be spending money, getting very little more heat, because the heat is lost, more slowly the more insulation, but it is lost. All this we will have documented, if our house is new, with the certificate of energy efficiency. 

What if we ventilate the heat goes away?

But above all we must bear in mind that we cannot have hot air inside the house all winter, even if we had perfect isolation, but we have the need (and obligation by regulation) to renew that air, because it is vitiated; Yes, it is mandatory to ventilate to extract stale air, as required by the building’s technical code.

So if we have to ventilate, that is, replace the indoor air in our homes, we will have to take out our hot air, how much money it costs us to heat, for another that comes from the street, cold in winter, and that we have to heat up again; So what’s the use of isolation?

Well, insulation is necessary, because it saves us money, keeping the heat we produce with our heaters for a long time each day, but putting too much insulation is nonsense, because the air we want to keep warm, we will have to renew (ventilate) , and heat again, so there is a minimum heating expense that we will not be able to avoid.

And if someone is thinking that they do not plan to open a window in winter, so as not to lose a penny of heating, tell me how they are doing with those black spots of mold that are coming out of the walls, especially in the corners, due to the condensations that occur due to the excess of steam in the air, for not opening the windows, that without entering the smell that may be there after a few months without… opening the windows… asthma problems, allergies, to to tell…

conclusion

Insulation is important in our home, in addition to mandatory, it saves money, but to some extent; An increase in isolation is good within limits, after which, it already begins to be an important money expense for a small improvement, and if we continue to increase in isolation, it will be useless.

What is the good amount of insulation that we are worth having?

Well, I think that the insulation required by the technical code, whose requirements increased considerably with respect to the previous regulations, is enough to have a good energy saving; More is nonsense. Let us think that the government, which makes the regulations, is also interested in saving on heating as much as ourselves, not because our money worries us, but because spending money on oil or gas is a problem for this country, which has to Import everything from abroad.