Insulating the loft - part two

Due to the existence of the cupolas and the already floored areas, let alone the cold water tanks and the hard to reach eaves, there did not seem to be much point in building a layer deeper than 270mm. Who knows whether, given this situation, it was worth even doing what I did, but Homebase were selling SPACE insulation Blanket and Loft Roll at 2 for 1, so the total bill for the insulation only came to £49.33: although it took a fair few days to complete.

Time to tackle the loft

When we bought the house the loft had fibreglass blanket laid between the joists to an average depth of 170mm. Newspapers stuffed into odd corners appear to date this deed to the late 1970’s. When we came we floored about a third of the loft so we could use it for storage. This of course is now covered in a ton of stuff not easily moved. I reckoned that there were about 32 square metres which I could cover with either 100 or 150mm wide insulation, laid over or between the joists, to achieve a minimum of 270mm overall.

Can I generate my own power - or heat?

Rang the Energy Saving Advice Centre in Edinburgh to register my interest in installing Solar Water-Heating Panels on my roof and ask for someone to come and tell me if it was feasible and worthwhile.

The newly insulated cupola

Here is the cupola from above.

Time to tackle the cupola

It’s lovely to have the light coming down the centre of the house but the cold draught that comes with it can almost slice your neck off. It measures 1.7m by 1.9m and would take a scaffold to reach it so fitting a Perspex sheet over it from beneath (as done to the one in the bathroom) was out of the question. I suppose getting new double-glazing units for each of the eight triangular panes might be the ideal solution but you can get around it in the loft space and covering it from above with plastic seemed worth trying initially. After testing samples of bubble wrap and sheet plastic I concluded that light grade small (4.2mm) bubble wrap was least intrusive, excluded least light, and should surely offer good insulating properties. Macfarlane Packaging offered the best prices on rolls of the right spec of the right width (1200 mm), even though it meant buying 100m in length (£43.68 including delivery). After a couple of shots at cutting and joining for the triangular sections the cupola now has a tailored ‘hat’, clipped to the edge of the glass panes, with the separate vent at the top of the cupola also insulated with two bubble-wrap covers. All covers easily removable if required, for instance for ventilation in summer.

Energy Monitor Trial

Borrowed one of the 12 ENVI Real Time Energy Monitors (www.currentcost.com) from Edinburgh City Libraries. To find their stock of monitors on the online catalogue put 'Energy Monitor' into the Keyword field on the search page. Fascinated to see my electricity use spelt out on a screen in front of me. I duly logged for a week (maximum loan period) the major ups and downs. Most of us probably know that kettles and irons and tumble driers consume humungous amounts of electricity, but I didn’t find it made much difference knowing what this was costing me in pounds per day as few people run a kettle or a kettle or an iron for this long. So it was the daily totals that were of most interest and particularly the point when you think nothing is on in the house but the screen still says you are using 245W. I was alone in the house that week and my average per day was 11.5 kWh. I handed the ENVI back in to the Library a little reluctantly but not bursting to have my own.