Do Not Over Stuff Your Walls With Insulation

Wall insulation is an important part of any home’s energy efficiency, as it helps to keep heat and cool air from escaping the walls and into the attic or outside. While adding extra wall insulation may seem like a good option, overstuffing can leave your home with problems such as:

Reduced Energy Efficiency:

Wall insulation is designed to block heat transfer through the walls, which helps you save money on energy bills by decreasing the amount of electricity that you need to heat or cool your home. 

This is likely common knowledge, and begs the question: “won’t twice as much insulation be twice as effective?” The short answer is no, more doesn’t always mean better.

Bulk insulation works by creating tiny air pockets within its loft that effectively break the path of heat that is trying to enter or exit the home. If you compress your insulation into a space smaller than its full loft or thickness, you will force out these pockets of air and the insulation will become drastically less effective in blocking out the transfer of heat. In Order to be as thermally efficient as possible insulation loves to be at its full possible thickness. 

Increased Risk of timber Rot and Mould:

Overstuffing your walls can cause water vapour to become trapped inside the walls, creating an environment where mould and fungus can thrive since they love dark, moist environments. In addition, rot can develop in the timber structure quickly if the moisture is not able to cycle out of the cavity. This is even a concern for insulation that are completely hydrophobic like polyester or foam based insulations. 

Buckling or Breaking your internal wall lining 

As was mentioned above, insulation loves to exist at its full thickness. So much so that if you compress insulation into a cavity that is smaller than its ideal thickness the insulation will be constantly trying to expand out again. For many insulations the force of this expansion across the full surface area of a wall is enough to make the plaster of that wall buckle and warp and in some cases, crack or break off completely.

In Summary

Compressing insulation into a cavity is ill advised. The insulation will not be performing to its full rating and can create undue stress to the structure and hygiene of your home. This is not to say that two layers of insulation will not be twice as effective, but you absolutely need twice the amount of space to fit them. 

People Also Ask:

What’s Next?

We hope this article has helped you learn how to use simple ways to save on your utility bill. This in turn will help you on your energy and thermal efficiency retrofit journey to make your home more comfortable all year round, and reduce your costs and carbon emissions.   

Next, explore How to Retrofit Wall insulation in an Existing home.

If you found this article helpful, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel. You’ll find many more helpful “How To” videos there. You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay in the loop.

For more great information on how to make your home more energy and thermally efficient subscribe NOW to ecoBites. ecoBites are free bite size chunks of the latest energy efficiency information making it quick and easy for you to absorb.