If you’re lucky enough to live in a properly insulated home, then you will already be benefiting from a sizable reduction in your power bills. Thermal insulation is highly effective in reducing the transfer of heat, and will help save energy through the year.
Save Energy – Warmer in Summer and Cooler in Winter
During summer, it will stop warm air from coming into your home as well as keeping cool air inside and in winter, will stop cold air coming into your home as well as keeping the warm air inside. In extreme climates, such as the Australian summer, one of the simplest ways to save energy, is to adjust the settings on your home air-conditioner. The greater the difference between the outside temperature and the temperature you set on your air-conditioner – the harder the air-conditioning unit will need to work to maintain your preferred indoor temperature. While 22 degrees might seem like a perfect, year round temperature, being a bit flexible can save energy all year round. Try setting it to 25 degrees in summer and 20 degrees in winter.
Another way to save energy is to plant shady trees on the sides of the house which are most exposed to the hot afternoon sun. This will keep the bricks or other external cladding cooler, which will in turn reduce the work load of the air-conditioner.
Increase Business Profit Margins – Save Energy
It’s not only home owners who are focussed on reducing their electricity consumption. Businesses also have a lot to win or lose, and by reducing their energy needs, can increase the profit on the bottom line. The NSW Government has even been offering basic training courses in energy management, which covers topics such as understand the basic concepts and principles of energy, understand energy use and baseline performance. Students are taught to identify energy standards and management systems, and how to analyse and understand energy bills and contract negotiation. The course also has a focus on understand the drivers for energy management and efficiency, developing and implementing plans for energy management, and identifying opportunities for funding support. Energy efficiency is a core part of the design building process, and insulation manufacturers have gone to great lengths to identify themselves as a clean and green companies, contributing their fair share to minimise their environmental footprint.
Factories and Industrial Workshops
Factories and workshops are often under insulated, and this can have negative flow-on effects. These buildings are often constructed of metal and concrete, which are exceptionally poor insulators. Factory owners will often take advantage of transparent skylights as a cost effective alternative to indoor lighting. The downside however is that the work environment can easily become overheated in hot sunny weather, which can in turn affect employees concentration, productivity and even moral. While a commercial grade ‘whirly bird’ can be a great first step, properly installed thermal insulation is considered to the single most long term and cost-effective method of maintaining more acceptable temperatures inside the factory or workshop work area.