To: John Kennedy ABCB Australian Building Codes Board
Stephen Berry AGO Australian
Greenhouse Office
Tony Isaacs SEAV Sustainable
Energy Authority Victoria
From: Adrienne Gray,
concerned home owner in Melbourne
Recently, I have been researching about the effectiveness of insulation products that are currently available for use in the home. My husband and I live in a very old weatherboard house which has a tin roof and when we moved in some 20 years ago, we purchased Pink Batts with the highest R rating we could afford and laid them in the roof space. Up until the past few years these appeared to have helped us to keep the house a little cooler during the summer and a little warmer in the winter months. However, in recent summers we have found that the house is much hotter during days of strong sunshine and we have also found that the house has not cooled down much during the nights following such hot days. Consequently we have had to use our airconditioner far more often and we have been increasingly concerned at our increased energy use and also the cost involved in trying to keep cool.
It is certainly clear that our weather patterns are changing our winters are getting milder and our summers are getting much hotter. I have been aware recently that electricity supplies have struggled to meet the huge demand for electricity in summer due to the increased use of airconditioners and coolers. It seems to me that this demand is likely to continue to increase and I wonder how we will manage in the future to meet our energy needs. I dont necessarily think that building more power stations is the only solution. It seems to me that by insulating our homes more effectively we could reduce our electricity demands. Consequently I have been trying to investigate insulation products and having a scientific background have looked for relevant scientific data to support the effectiveness of the available products and to help me in this process. I must admit that I have found the exercise very confusing.
Searching the Internet, obtaining brochures, contacting the Building Development Display Centre in Melbourne, etc. has provided me some information about fibreglass and aluminium foil insulation materials, but it appears to me that it is impossible to properly compare their efficiency from the information I have obtained. It appears to me that there needs to be some proper scientific assessment of the thermal performance of all available types of insulation material in the high temperatures we experience in the Australian climate. The climatic conditions here are quite different to those in the northern hemisphere.
From the information I have read, it would seem that the correct use of aluminium foil insulation could in fact stop much of the radiated heat in my roof reaching the inside of my home, keeping it cooler on the hot summer days we experience. In our home, I am beginning to wonder if under the high radiant heat loads experienced in recent summers, the fibreglass batts have heated up during the day, storing much energy in the form of heat, (and obviously preventing some temperature increase in our home during the day), and during the night they are in fact acting as a hot blanket, stopping our house from cooling down effectively. But I am not sure, appropriate data is not available.
I do believe that we all have a responsibility to make a
positive contribution in reducing our energy consumption and I am certainly
anxious to do so, but I would like to be able to make a more informed decision
about the insulation I choose to purchase. I cannot understand why federal and state
energy agencies have not realised the potential of the use of aluminium foil
insulation in buildings in Australia and have not provided funding for the
scientific investigations needed to identify the differences in performance
between fibreglass and aluminium foil insulation products. Surely it is better for government agencies
to have this information available so that they can encourage the community to
reduce their reliance on using electricity and keep themselves cooler by
insulating their homes more effectively rather than switching on their
airconditioners. Is it not wiser to work
to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions ? Please do what you can to support my call
for testing of all available insulation materials so that consumers are
provided with the necessary data to make informed decisions when purchase insulation
for their homes.
I would welcome your comments.
Adrienne M Gray
3 Campbell St
East Ringwood
03 9893 1625