The Purpose and Advantages of Thermal Insulation

Just as you wear a coat to keep the warmth from escaping your body, thermal insulation keeps warm air inside your home. Similarly, it can keep the hot air from penetrating your home during the summer months. In either case, you can save money by reducing energy costs when your home or place of business has sufficient thermal insulation.

Heat is energy and as such is transferred in three different ways: conduction, convection and radiation.
Heat energy that passes through material from molecule to molecule in a liquid, gas or solid is referred to as conduction. Different materials are good for conducting heat. For example, some metal materials make good heat conductors such as gold and copper. However, wood isn’t a good conductor.

Gases and liquids are poor conductors of heat, but are good for convection heating. Convection ovens work by transferring heat energy to the air inside the oven. That heat cooks whatever is inside the oven. However, the oven exterior has thermal insulation material inside an aluminum or metal cabinet. This keeps all that heat energy from escaping.

Another form of heat energy transfer is radiation. This energy is projected from a hot element, such as the sun, and travels freely through the atmosphere. The radiant heat is absorbed by whatever surface it encounters. The darker the substance, the more radiant heat is absorbed. That is why stepping barefoot on black asphalt is much more damaging than stepping on a cement sidewalk. When you slip on rubber sandals or a pair of shoes you introduce a protective barrier, or thermal insulation, between your skin and the hot ground.

The main advantages of using thermal insulation in the ceiling and wall structures of a building are to:

1: Prevent the transmission of heat from exterior building walls which capture the heat energy from the sun.
2: Prevent the escape of hot or cool air from the interior rooms to the outside.
3: To get the most efficiency out of a heating and cooling system because less heat escapes or enters a building.
4: How to check if Your Home is Adequately Insulated

You can check your own attic insulation, but checking what is inside the walls is another matter. Climb up into your attic area with a strong flashlight. Look across the span of the attic area and note where the thermal insulation is between the joists. If you can see the sides of the joists you probably need to add insulation. In many cases, you can contact your local heating and cooling company and ask if they offer free energy audits. This provides a good review of the thermal insulation quality throughout your home.