Thursday, March 10, 2011

Insulation at Fordhall - a first!


This week has seen insulation enter our old drafty farm building. Already, even without windows, it feels warmer than our thin steel portacabin!

Trying to be as environmentally friendly as possible, we are using a natural welsh sheeps wool in the roof instead of normal glass fibre insulation.
Consequently, the builders have enjoyed installing the insulation; with no need for masks and no itchy skin at the end of the day - even those who suffer with asthma have been fine.

There are many other benefits of using sheeps wool insulation. Being hygroscopic, it can absorb and desorb water vapour without detrimental effect to its thermal efficiency. It is therefore ideal for use in roofs, and timber-framed walls designed to avoid a damaging build up of moisture by allowing water vapour to migrate through the structure. Wool also generates heat when it absorbs moisture from the air. This helps prevent interstitial condensation in construction cavities by maintaining the temperature above the dew point in damp conditions.
Furthermore, wool insulation is truly environmentally friendly. Production takes a fraction of the energy required to produce glass fibre insulation. And the life expectancy of such insulation is more than 50 years and it is recyclable.

Plus if you want to roll around in it - you can!

Charlotte

Fordhalls new facilities have been generously part funded by Advantage West Midlands


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love the news about wool insulation. We have that (much smaller scale obviously!) in the Shed at Sockburn Hall. It's been fantastic! Enjoy!

portable cabin guy said...

I recently built a traditional log cabin and used sheep's wool for chinking. Excellent.