The heating efficiency of a 1870s three floor semi-detached house in south east London is set to be dramatically improved as a result of the introduction of Spacetherm WL insulation.
The challenge of dealing with heating inefficiencies, major heat loss and high heating costs are a common problem with many Victorian buildings and solid wall dwellings.
Property owner Sean Crawford has lived in the property on Kelmore Grove, London SE22 for 15 years and has already made significant investments to improve the energy efficiency of his home and reduce heating costs.
Improvements to date include a new condensing boiler, 4-zone heating, draught-proofing, floor insulation, underfloor heating, loft and bay window insulation, solar PV panels, double glazing and many more. However, even with all of this work, when the heating is not on, the living room is still cold, with much of the heat loss down to the solid wall construction.
Sean explains, “Our living room is long and has solid external walls at the front and side. Living in a Victorian house we have a lot of original cornicing in the living room that with standard internal insulation would be ruined. Also, most insulation types would lead to a significant loss of internal space. External wall insulation could be done at the side return, but this still fails to address the front of the property, which would have the frontage ruined if you decided to apply it.
Over the years I’ve reviewed what is available and disregarded it as a possible solution/ improvement. I’ve even tried other thermal wall lining products, but unfortunately, I have to say they don’t work very well. It was only recently that I came across Spacetherm WL from the A. Proctor Group.
The reasons that I chose to use Spacetherm WL are, that it is super thin and highly insulating. I won’t have to remove marble fireplaces, reinstate radiators, and window surrounds. The product is very easy to install, which means I can fit it myself as a DIY project, unlike external wall insulation, and importantly I can fit one room at a time, which works well as I have four other rooms to insulate which all have external solid walls.
Spacetherm WL is a high-performance laminate specifically designed to be fixed to the internal surfaces of existing solid walls without the need for mechanical fixings. Spacetherm WL consists of Spacetherm aerogel insulation blanket bonded to 3mm Magnesium Board (MgO), for use in applications where improved thermal performance is required with limited space.
At just 13mm thick, the use of Spacetherm WL has virtually no negative impact on floor space, making it ideal for refurbishment projects where space is at a premium.
Typically, a solid wall will have a U value of around 2.1 W/m2K. Following the application of Spacetherm WL, this can be reduced to around 0.8 W/m2K, dependent on the wall structure.
