Ane of the questions we get asked a lot is:

what's the best insulation material to utilize in my a-frame domicile?

In this commodity, I'grand going to answer this question one time and for all.

I'grand likewise going to give you lot one practical tip on saving time and money on the insulation works for your edifice.

Showtime of all, A-frame houses are not different from any other house.
So what works for a regular domicile volition work for an A-frame as well, and vice versa.

Second (and more important), when I hear this question I am a scrap concerned about the intention behind the question itself.

I explicate…

The existent question when information technology comes to energy losses

You have to proceed in mind that what makes a "good home" is not only energy efficiency... a expert dwelling is also a healthy environment where to live, comfy, and durable.

If all these benchmarks accomplished, you also go energy efficiency.
In other words,

energy efficiency is only a byproduct of a good build

.

If you are looking for "the best insulation material" with the intent of making your house more free energy-efficient, you have information technology wrong.

...or better, you are looking at just one of the many pieces of the puzzle, and spending all your coin on that piece won't help you lot to become the results you want.

So, hither it is on a bumper sticker:

Spending all your money on insulation won't make your firm super energy-efficient.

Why?

Considering the heat doesn't just get out from the building vanquish (walls, roof, foundation).

As a matter of fact, the biggest cause of heat loss in a edifice are:

  • the ventilation organisation;
  • the windows;
  • the other building components (roof, walls, foundation).

And so, my warm recommendation here (pun intended) is to spend time looking at the ventilation system and at the windows earlier you look at the insulation material.

Energy losses from the ventilation system

To keep a healthy environment in the house, yous should ventilate quite frequently.

Ventilate ways taking new fresh air from the outside while pushing out from the business firm the aforementioned amount of exhausted air.

Now, if you await at the amount of air in play here, the Passivhaus standard (which is 1 of the virtually strict and efficient construction standards nosotros have) sets that a healthy ventilation period should be of at to the lowest degree 20m3/60 minutes/person.

If we have this every bit a reference and nosotros look at a 100m2 house with four occupants, we see that the air would change betwixt 6 and 7 times in a day.

In other words,

you lot would exist throwing out the entire volume of the house in warm air 6-7 times per day

.

...at this point I accept to remind you that you paid to warm upward that air!

Practice yous see the trouble here?

This is why, since the 80s, we take ventilation units with heat recovery.

In these machines, the heat is extracted from the humid warm air going out and transferred to the dry and cold air coming from the outside.

Although I'm not a believer in anything with declared efficiency above ninety%, these machines exercise a pretty impressive job at saving free energy.

 Unless yous have gratuitous wood to burn (like me), here is the suggestion for you lot:

a ventilation unit with heat recovery should definitely exist on the list of priorities for your new domicile.

Energy losses from windows

People like glazed surfaces.
If you look at photos of houses on Instagram you'll see huge windows and glass facades.

They wait stunning, yes… only they are free energy suckers!

At present, while it is truthful that you can compensate the energy losses in the window with more insulation cloth on the ret of the house, this possibility is non endless.

So my suggestion here is:

apply the all-time windows you can afford and proceed the size down to a good-looking & functional minimum.

Not only this saves you coin on the windows but information technology will as well salve you coin on the insulation since you don't have to overcompensate the massive rut loss from the gigantic glass facade.

The 5 factors for choosing insulation

Now nosotros finally come to talk about the insulation cloth in the roof, walls, and foundation.

In the structure of Avrame kit homes, we can accommodate up to 300mm of insulation fabric.

When using polyurethane as insulation fabric, this is enough to build an R70+ structure. In metric system that would be U-value < 0.10 W/(m2K).

But polyurethane is just one of the options and, if you don't need that high degree of insulation, yous can cull to use other materials.

The selection of the insulation comes down to v factors:

  1. Health
    Anybody wants to live in a healthy surroundings.
    The all-time style to get this kind of result is to apply construction materials that are natural.

    However, with time, organic materials tin spoil and begin to rot. This would cause the formation of toxic compounds and information technology would harm your health.

    To avoid this, it is advisable to use not-organic (and not-toxic) materials in the inner layer of insulations (last 45mm, on the indoor side of the vapor barrier). There are special wools developed for this utilize.

    Some other solution is to use building paper (or other specific membranes) underneath the finishing layer, to go on the particles of insulation cloth from inbound the living space.

  2. Eco-friendliness
    Some people are really concerned nearly the environment and and then they want to utilise natural insulation materials.
    Examples: are brute wool, harbinger bails, hemp, cellulose…

    At present, while this is bully, you lot must know that the insulation holding of those materials is by and large manner lower than standard glass wool or rock wool. Their price is as well considerably college.

    So you'd be spending more money to become less free energy efficiency, and you'd gain in eco-friendliness (but exist careful… you lot'll yet end up needing more than energy to heat!).

  3. Operation (thermal transmittance)
    Whatever solution you choose, the insulation has to foreclose heat loss.

    The more than performing insulation material is polyurethane.

    Polyurethane performs most 30% better than the nearly performing construction wools.

    This is a listing of insulation materials ranked by performance:
    - Polyurethane;
    - Glass wools, stone wools, polystyrene (EPS);
    - Eco-friendly materials (sometimes much lower energy performance).

  4. Price
    Cost is something many are concerned about.
    Insulation materials ranked past cost would exist something like this:
    - Polystyrene (EPS);
    - Glass wools and stone wools;
    - Polyurethane;
    - Eco-friendly materials.
  5. Ease of installation
    This is one affair that near everyone overlooks!
    Here are a couple of examples:

    A) While EPS is the cheapest of all, to install information technology y'all need spray foam and you lot are going to need a lot of it!
    And then, in the end, using EPS is non that cheap afterward all.

    B) Wooden-based eco-friendly materials are difficult to cut compared to traditional wool insulation. This results in enormous installation costs, on elevation of the already expensive textile.

A applied tip

The practical tip to save time and money when it comes to insulation materials (and building in general, really) is this:

the cost of the materials is meaningless!

Y'all always shall account for the material installed where you lot need it… and installed correctly.

Before edifice, make sure you budget your construction in the right way (check the Budgeting Guide for that).

Customize your choice

In the end, the option is up to you: what'due south your priority?

Practise you want to create a good for you indoor environment?
Do you lot want to be eco-friendly?
Do you lot want to lower your bills?
Do you desire to minimize the cost of structure?

I would advise you have time to look into all the options available and and so make your decision, because also you can combine insulation materials to go the all-time of ii different types.

For instance:

  • you lot could apply 250mm of polyurethane on the exterior part of the construction AND use eco-friendly wool (gratis of toxic particles) on the inner 45mm (on the indoor side of the vapor bulwark);
  • yous could utilise cellulose or wool flakes in the floor slab… these types of insulation are perfect for apartment surfaces ( cause it is horizontal and it won't settle, not so good for walls because they tend to settle) AND regular glass wool in the rest of the business firm.

The possibilities are many and it all depends on what options are available in your surface area and at which toll.

To keep in listen...

The insulation is not provided with the firm kit, at to the lowest degree not with Avrame house kits.

At this point yous should understand why:

  1. insulation is such a personal choice, depending on your preferences and on what yous tin can truly beget;
  2. it would exist pointless to spend a great deal of money on shipping something y'all have available in your local store.

We believe that reducing the volume of shipping is a good thing for your pocket and for the environs… plus, it gives y'all the opportunity to spend some of your money in your local shops, doing your part to support the local economy.

For all the rest, there is Avrame.
Nosotros are here to support your self-building journey every stride of the way, starting from the very beginning with our Quickstart Guide.