House Improvements...Insulate or replace windows???

Curly_Wurly

Hi there,

Just wondering if any of you people in the know could offer some advice. I live in a detached bungalow and want to carry out some insulation upgrading in the next few weeks. The house was built in 2001 and despite our efforts to fully insulate the roof, it is still very cold in winter. Doesn't keep in any heat when the heating is on either. We are looking into insulating/dry lining the interior walls with the thermal insulation boards that you stick onto the walls inside the house. Also discussed is the idea of pumping the exterior walls (we recently found out our bay windows have no cavity insulation) which we will probably do now that the government are giving a few quid towards this too.

We need to replace our front door aswell (munster joinery door - not good!) and are getting a triple glazed pvc door but is all this work enough to keep the house warm? My husband has suggested replacing our double glazed windows (also munster joinery!) with triple glazed but as it's a 2000 sq foot house and over 20 windows, this would be too much €€€€€ from the savings fund.

So what would you do? Replace all windows or pump the exterior walls and dry line the interior ones with the thermal plasterboards...

Any help would be great, thanx!
Curly_Wurly

Smcgie

Forget the idea of triple glazed windows. Pumping the cavity or internally insulating the house has far greater rewards. If you were to do both you would be entitled to €2900 back in grants, whereas an upgrade from double to tripe glaze has nowhere near the impact and no grant.

For more info visit www.sei.ie/hes

Jimbo

Agree with Smcgie.

It's difficult enough to justify triple glazing on a new house.
The gains from changing from double to triple glazed in an existing house wouldn't be very sustantial considering the cost.

Put your money into insulation and possibly upgrading your boiler/boiler control system.
Also try to rectify any druaghts in the house.

If you are going to spend alot of money on this, it would be advisable to employ an energy consultant who could advise you how to best spend your money.

busman

Jimbo wrote: »

Agree with Smcgie.

It's difficult enough to justify triple glazing on a new house.
The gains from changing from double to triple glazed in an existing house wouldn't be very sustantial considering the cost.

Put your money into insulation and possibly upgrading your boiler/boiler control system.
Also try to rectify any druaghts in the house.

If you are going to spend alot of money on this, it would be advisable to employ an energy consultant who could advise you how to best spend your money.

I was wondering if there is any reports/spreadsheets for the cost/benefit analysis of improving u-values for different building elements?

In my case I was wondering if it made economical sense to replace my standard 4/16/4 double glazed units with better performing units, say soft coat/argon filled?

Is it as simple as pluging the info into the DEAP software and see what difference it makes?

Smcgie

busman wrote: »

I was wondering if there is any reports/spreadsheets for the cost/benefit analysis of improving u-values for different building elements?

In my case I was wondering if it made economical sense to replace my standard 4/16/4 double glazed units with better performing units, say soft coat/argon filled?

Is it as simple as pluging the info into the DEAP software and see what difference it makes?

I don't have any such spreadsheets but I would imagine playing around with the DEAP software is the way to determine the difference in products/Uvalues

MicktheMan

Curly_Wurly wrote: »

Hi there,

Just wondering if any of you people in the know could offer some advice. I live in a detached bungalow and want to carry out some insulation upgrading in the next few weeks. The house was built in 2001 and despite our efforts to fully insulate the roof, it is still very cold in winter. Doesn't keep in any heat when the heating is on either. We are looking into insulating/dry lining the interior walls with the thermal insulation boards that you stick onto the walls inside the house. Also discussed is the idea of pumping the exterior walls (we recently found out our bay windows have no cavity insulation) which we will probably do now that the government are giving a few quid towards this too.

We need to replace our front door aswell (munster joinery door - not good!) and are getting a triple glazed pvc door but is all this work enough to keep the house warm? My husband has suggested replacing our double glazed windows (also munster joinery!) with triple glazed but as it's a 2000 sq foot house and over 20 windows, this would be too much €€€€€ from the savings fund.

So what would you do? Replace all windows or pump the exterior walls and dry line the interior ones with the thermal plasterboards...

Any help would be great, thanx!
Curly_Wurly

What you are asking is like how long is a piece of string. Let me ask you a few questions.
How is the house currently heated (fuel, emitter type, control)?
On average, how much fuel do you use per year? (eg 2000 lit oil)
How airtight is the house? Has it been measured?
Do you have recessed lights?
What orientation is your glazing and what percentage per orientation?

All this and then some need to be taken into account in order to be able to give good advice but in principle good insulation detail only works when the house is airtight (no draughts). If the house is airtight, then how will it be ventilated. All are related and there is little point in concentrating on one while ignoring the others.
IMO if you are going to upgrade your house from an energy point of view, ask yourself this: What will it cost you to heat the house in 5 to 10 years time when oil is $300 /barrel.

BTW, I do not agree with internal insulation, grant or no grant. The risk of interstital condensation is just too high.