Keeping The Heat In

When we first moved into our house I installed loft insulation and replaced the old incandescent bulbs with low-energy ones. At least I did this as far as I could. There was quite a bit of loft space that was inaccessible, including a large section that is over the main living room, and I was unable to change the light bulbs in the back bedroom as they were on a dimmer switch so I was stuck with the incandescents.

Earlier this year we had a call from a firm that was fitting loft insulation in difficult to reach areas. Specifically, they were looking at fitting it behind the sloping roof in what they described as “room-in-roof” insulation. This was on one of those government energy efficiency schemes that is paid for by power generators who are still operating coal fired plants so it didn’t cost us anything. It’s also a really fiddly job that involves opening access hatches and having the fitter being a lithe individual with the body fat ratio of a whippet.

The insulation fitters did what they said they would, in that they inserted Kingspan type insulation in the sloping roof sections, but inexplicably they left the large expanse of roof above the living room without any insulation at all. Apparently this was not on their list of things to do. Fortunately, they had done the really fiddly bit for me by creating the access hatches so this week I added a few layers of glass fibre insulation myself. However, I am hardly lithe and whilst I may be a fair bit lighter than when I last installed insulation, I don’t exactly have a particularly whippet like torso. Anyway, I persevered - i.e. squeezed myself through the access hatches and cursed relentlessly whilst pot-holing my way around the minimal loft space. Since I am unlikely to go back in there I really ladled the stuff on there – up to 600mm in places. I think it is safe to say that it is well and truly insulated now.

Fixing the lights was, by comparison, a doddle. What actually prompted me to fix this was that one of the incandescent bulbs blew and the only replacement I could get was a halogen light that, for reasons best known to itself, would only produce a tiny amount of light without going into a strobing effect. The fix for this is to replace the lightbulbs with dimmable LED lights and to swap the old dimmer switch for a trailing edge one. This is actually remarkably easy as both switch and light are a straight swap. The new dimmer has electronics in it which control the dimming effect and also means there is a slight delay which somewhat negates the “instant light” feature of the LED bulbs but does mean that the light fades in with a remarkably pleasing effect. I was also able to do this without crawling around a limited space swearing.

This should, theoretically save me a few pounds from my energy bill but the real benefit is that I should have a warmer house and more effective lighting. As autumn is now in full-swing it is not a moment too early.