West Wales Life&Style Winter 2020

Homes
West Wales Life&Style
West Wales Life&Style
Homes
Nature’s choice:
Stay warm with wool
after recognising the environmental
credentials of wool and the support
the move would offer farmers.
Wyn Evans, NFU Cymru
livestock board chair, said: “Wool
is a great product and ticks all the
environmental boxes. It is also
supporting Wales and our farmers.”
Of course, sheep’s wool is also
completely natural.
It is also cheap and fairly easy
to work with, in that it can be
purchased in rolls which can then be
cut to measure, shaped to fit around
immovable objects such as water
tanks, joists, chimney breasts, etc.
The main issue with wool
insulation is that it compresses if
you put any weight on it, which
lowers its insulating efficiency so it
is important not to place pressure
on the wool It is also incredibly
important to remember when
working in any loft that you must
never place your feet between the
joists, otherwise you will more than
likely come through the ceiling.
Wooden boards can then be laid
over all the insulation if you need to
make the loft usable for things like
storage.
Having a carpet of insulation in
your roof will significantly reduce
heat loss out of your home and
remains the go-to method of saving
energy.
It is also important to remember
that when laying any form of loft
insulation between joists, the loft
space itself will be very cold in the
winter. This means that anything
you really value should be kept in
the home itself, not in the loft.
In addition, anything left above
the level of the insulation – such as
pipework and the cold water tank
– will also need to be insulated to
avoid them freezing up in a very
cold loft during the depths of winter.
With winter well and truly here, it’s time to insulate our
homes...and Wales has plenty of the perfect material
FIND US ON:
As we head into the depths
of winter, we should all be
trying to find better ways
to insulate our homes in order to
retain heat, save money and – in
turn – reduce our impact on the
environment.
Insulating your loft is one of the
best ways to improve the EPC rating
of your home. If you currently have
25mm or less of insulation in your
loft then adding extra insulation will
produce massive savings on your
energy bill.
Without proper loft insulation,
much of the warmth produced
by your heating system escapes
through the roof of your property
- as much as 25% of heat in an
uninsulated house is lost through
the roof. Loft insulation acts as a
barrier, slowing the movement of
heat during the winter and keeping
the property cool in summer.
The purpose of insulation is to
create a barrier that slows the
movement of heat either in or out
of the property. In most homes this
is done by laying insulation directly
above the ceiling of the uppermost
rooms in the house between the
joists in the floor of the loft.
There are various materials to
choose from, each with their own
advantages and disadvantages, but
more and more people are turning
to natural sheep wool as the perfect
insulation material.
Using sheep’s wool can be much
easier than DIY insulating with
other materials, such as glass wool,
rock or mineral wool, because it is
not an irritant and can therefore
be handled without the need for
protective clothing and glasses.
Sheep wool insulation also comes
with the added benefits.
Unlike other traditional insulation
materials, sheep’s wool is able to
absorb moisture. This can be crucial
because when warm air rises from
the heated rooms below it condenses
into water droplets when it comes
into contact with cold insulation
materials. Sheep’s wool however,
unlike other wool products, can
absorb some of this moisture and
protect the rafter timbers from rot
without affecting its own insulating
properties.
In addition, using sheep’s wool
insulation is a way of helping to
support Welsh farmers, many of
whom are struggling due to the
impact of the Covid-19 on their
usual wool sales. Farming union
NFU Cymru has warned that the
pandemic has contributed to a
“disastrous” fall in demand for the
fleeces of mountain sheep with the
closure of large hotels and cruise
liners - which routinely invest in
new carpets – seriously hurting
Welsh wool producers.
The Welsh Government has
already announced that it now
intends to use Welsh wool wherever
possible to insulate its buildings
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