ENERGY SAVING FORUM › Forums › INSULATION & THERMAL RETROFITTING › What’s the most effective insulation upgrade for an older home? › Reply To: What’s the most effective insulation upgrade for an older home?
Hi,
In my case, the biggest difference came from insulating the attic and sealing up various drafts. The house is from the 1970s, and before that you could really feel the cold coming from the ceiling, plus there were drafts around the windows and the attic hatch. After adding insulation to the attic floor, the energy bills went down a bit, but the biggest improvement was overall comfort — the house stopped losing heat so quickly in the evenings.
Later on, I also insulated the walls, but honestly the effect wasn’t as dramatic compared to the cost. The walls did stop feeling freezing cold in winter though. A friend of mine went with internal wall insulation and later had problems with moisture in the corners, so it’s definitely important to pay attention to proper installation and ventilation.
From my experience:
* start with the roof/attic,
* then deal with drafts and air leaks,
* and only after that move on to the bigger and more expensive things like wall insulation.
If you can, get a thermal imaging inspection or an energy audit done as well — a lot of the time it turns out the heat is escaping from completely different places than you expected.
