| Archive for countrytalkandtips.myfreeforum.org ........................ smallholding, crafts and country life ................................................... IN IRELAND ....................................................... |
| rool |
Loft InsulationI keep getting very tempted by either a wind turbine or a solar panel or two, however, I have come to the conclusion that there is no point spending all this money on getting cheaper energy when I can probably get a better return with better insulation in the short term.I have one of the old tradition cottages, with the 2 ft thick walls, and have built a 50 ft extension to the rear. The cottage itself is just our living room. Anyway, in the past the old bit has been the coldest room in the house. The builder who did our renovation (he would be done under the trade description act in the uk for calling himself that), just threw a single level of rockwool including the plastic wrapping in the loft but it made little difference. After a bit of research I decided to go for sheepswool insulation for this part of the house. Now considering the area only measures 22 x 15 feet it seemed a little pricey at €700 euro but what a difference it has made. We have a geothermal heat pump which provides background heat to radiators but in the previous winter we had to have an extra fire in the room pretty much every night. We have had it on this year but only during the really cold spells and the room doesn't resemble an ice box like it used to the following morning. I know have to take the plunge and redo the new bit of the house. |
||
| Camile |
Good morning ..
so the sheepwool insulation is good isn't it ? we are in the process of building an extension on our old cottage too .. and were looking into it ... can you tell us more about where you got it from and all ? also, did anyone ever heard of the Ecobead insulation ? is it any good ? Camile |
||
| rool |
Hi Camile.
Yes I would thoroughly recomend it. You can read about it on the supplier website www.sheepwoolinsualtion.ie. I thought that I would find it cheaper on a UK website but in fact they only purchase it from these guys anyway. One of the major benefits is that it doesn't lose it's insulation quality as it gets compressed or just gets flat from age, unlike fibre glass. It is also a joy to work with as it doesn't choke you or make you itch. I went to a seminar about the eco beads before christmas. it sounded good but our builder just put slabs of polystyrene in the cavity. Something else we are looking at is some beads you put into paint and it gives a layer of insulation on the internal wall. I keep promising I'll paint this weekend but I never seem to get round to it 
|
||
| rool |
that is of course www.sheepwoolinsulation.ie
sorry 
|
||
| keithrawlins |
we just got ten inches of insulation pput in the oof space appaintly 6 isnot enough these days,atleast it was free, paid for by the goverment as oh has mobillity poblems.we are now just waiting fo the funding fo the solar panels ,hopfuly before i retiar (im 32)? | ||
| wayland |
The bungalow that we have just moved into has cavity walls. There is no insulation in the three inch gap. At some point the walls were dry lined and two inches of insulation were put in between the plaster board and the wall. This leaves me with the vacant cavity to fill with something. Obviously this must be injected. Any advice on what would be the best stuff to use please?
Cheers. |
||
| rool |
Hi, long time since I have been on here. I went to a kind of energy efficiency forum last year which was basically lots of people trying to sell you stuff but one company that was there did something called eco beads which is injected into the cavity. You should be able to do a google search and find it. I thought it sounded quite good because if you had exisiting insulation that had sagged or, as in my case, have polystyrene insulation boards that have a certain amount of play in the cavity, this stuff just packs it all in tight. As for my insulation, I couldn't afford to do the rest of the house (50 ft x 25 ft) in the sheep wool stuff but recently took advantage of the bogof on eco wool at B&Q which cost me about €730 for the whole lot. 72 rolls. It's made from recycled plastic bottles and isn't at all dusty and itchy, |
||
| wayland |
That looks interesting Rool. I will have a look at it. thanks 
|
||
| blowin |
This may be a very stupid question but what would be wrong with using fleece just as it comes off the sheep ?
If one planned to do this presumably you could dip them close to shearing time to kill off parasites , and ask the shearer to set aside any really dirty horrible bits . Would getting it dry be much more difficult than making hay ? Just hang it in a barn ? Does it deteriorate quickly and/or go smelly unless it is properly treated ? Would a bit of smell even be noticed from a draughty attic ? Building regs maybe ? It doesn't burn , does it ? I am sure I was told that a fleece is only worth a few cents so the cost would be , what ? , a couple of euro per square yard ? That would be worth a bit of hassle ( most of which has to be gone through anyway ) . I have a feeling that I must be overlooking something very obvious . |
||
| JayBee |
Not quite. There is a material called "shoddy" that is made form old shredded wool cloth. A friend in Kerry built a wooden cabin for himself and insulated it with shoddy as it was much cheaper than rock wool. He's now building another place for himself with straw bales for insulation. |
||
| Torc |
Hi Blowin.
Did you ever find the answer to your question? Anyone out there ever use fleece as insulation? I'm inclined to think that wool would last indefinitely if it was kept dry and fleas etc only inhabit it when it is on a living animal - fleas don't live in old jumpers, or do they? Regards, |
||
| blowin |
Hi Torc ,
No , I didn't get anything more specific than Jaybee's comment . I did google "shoddy" tho' and it seems to be what you get in the process of recycling woolen fabrics back into yarn . It is the shredded up rags . In the context of this discussion the significant point may be that the raw fleece has been heavily processed before it becomes used as shoddy insulation . FWIW I asked a local farmer why fleece wasn't used as insulation in the old cottages . His view was that you could never get the bugs out of it . Seems to me , tho , that the stuff in these modern sheep dips will kill practically anything so that shouldn't be a problem these days . Fire Regs / Buildings Insurance implications , maybe ? AFAIK fleece is about as fire-resistant as a natural fibre can get so I wouldn't have any concern about that . I'm glad you re-raised the topic . It has reminded me to have a more serious chat with the farmer . I think the key thing will be whether they can be dipped very near to sheering time , to avoid reinfestation . Are sheep normally pregnant at sheering time ? That could be a complication . I'll use it in the barn conversion unless I discover a serious drawback . |
||
| Torc |
Hi Blowin,
It is definitely worth getting to the bottom of this thing. Maybe in the old days, it was too valuable a resource to be used in house insulation and there never was a tradition of insulation when cottages were made of mud and the roof of thatch. They must have been like an oven inside. I imagine any treatment could be done to the fleece after it is removed from the sheep. I have discovered that borax is the stuff to use for this but don't know anything about the stuff. Parasites only live where there is a food supply - such as on a living animal. Farmers around here are practically giving the fleece away and wool insulation costs €14.90 per square meter. I've been inquiring at the RiverCottage website and will pass on any info I get. Please keep me posted on how you get on yourself. Best regards, Torc |
||
| Torc |
PS To save you looking it up. Here is a bit on borax from Wikipaedia:
"Borax has a wide variety of uses. It is a component of many detergents, cosmetics, and enamel glazes. It is also used to make buffer solutions in biochemistry, as a fire retardant, as an anti-fungal compound for fiberglass, as an insecticide, as a flux in metallurgy, and as a precursor for other boron compounds." Sounds like the right stuff all right |
||
| blowin |
I haven't come across Borax for years ( 30 !! ) but used to mix it with Salt Petre then sprinkle it onto eg rabbit skins to preserve them . From memory it worked pretty well -- they went like cardboard and stayed that way forever .
It came as a powder so I guess the drawbacks would be dust falling out of the fleece and/or it would absorb moisture . We can't even keep salt dry in this house so that is an issue but I am sure there will be a suitable liquid insect & fungicide . Maybe that green wood-preserver would do ? It is expensive but presumably it would protect both the fleece and surrounding joists at the same time ? How heavy is a natural fleece compared to the processed insulation , I wonder ? Could that be a consideration ? |
||
| wayland |
God this place gets cold. I should have read the signs when I brought the place. Radiators every where, far more than you would expect and all heated by a solid fuel open fire with a back boiler  expensive to run of course. So a new boiler < cant decide what sort>. I have decided to fill the cavity with Eco beads. Apparently these beads stick together and so has no problems with settlement. Sheep's wool in the loft should much improve things. Our forty sq mtrs extension is well under way and according to build regs we must use "Kingspan" cavity boards at about three times the cost of polystyrene
Cheers |
||