Practical and affordable ways to insulate a home and reduce heating bills.
Kevin O'Rourke of the Institute of Industrial Research and Standards conducts an energy assessment on a typical modern semi detached house
No lagging jacket on the hot water tank, insufficient insulation of walls and ceilings, single glazed windows and an ineffective heating system are just some of the ways heat is lost in this home.
A similar house in Lucan, County Dublin a has a back boiler system which uses heat from an open fire in the living room to provide hot water and heats radiators throughout the building. This house was well-insulated from the start and has an energy bill of half the national average.
Insulating your attic will also result in cheaper energy bills, as
A quarter of all the heat loss in an ordinary house is through the ceiling and attic.
This can be done by rolling out fibre glass between the joists and is a task that homeowners can carry out themselves.
This episode of 'Ireland’s Eye’ was broadcast on 12 November 1980. The reporter is Áine O’Connor.
'Ireland's Eye' was a Tuesday-to-Friday series with human-interest stories and features from locations throughout Ireland. First broadcast on 7 October 1980, the programme ran until August 1983.
