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C20 - Sunday News, November 30, 1980

Study to confirm benefits of insulation

Higher levels of home
insulation pay for themselves
in lower fuel bills and do not
cause’ air-tightness or
humidity problems, ac-
cording to a study commis-
sioned by the Housing and
Urban Development
Association of Canada
(HUDAC).

The study also reports that
in general, living habits and
furnace efficiency also play
an important, although
secondary, role in reducing
home energy bills.

The report, entitled “The
Effect of High Levels of
Insulation on the Heating
Fuel Consumption of
Canadian Houses,” is based
on monitorings of 67 houses
in Winnipeg, Ottawa and
Toronto. It was conducted

3095 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver

during moderate to severe
winters in homes where
insulation levels ranged from
moderate to very high.

“DOES REDUCE BILLS”

“The key finding,” says
Hugh Molland, chairman of
HUDAC’s technical com-
mittee, “is that extra insula-
tion does reduce fuel bills,
and that the savings are com-
mensurate with the extra
cost of the insulation.”

“This
direction

confirms’ the
toward higher
levels of imsulation that
many builders and home-
owners have taken recently.
And it should serve to en-
courage other builders and
homeowners to do likewise.”

The research, conducted

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by Scanada Consultants,
Ltd., compared the thermal
performance of 21 pairs of
houses. The additional 25
houses were monitored to
broaden the sample for
greater statistical soundness.

The homes in each pair
were similar in floor area,
volume, window area and
orientation. They differed
only in the levels of insula-
tion. Levels in the less-highly
insulated homes ranged from
R-11 to R-13 in the side walls
and R-12 to R-41 in the roof.
In the highly insulated
homes, they ranged from R-
12 to R-20 in the side walls
and R-32 to R-41 in the roof.

Engineers visited each
home to test such items as
furnace efficiency, air tight-

ness, room temperatures,
humidities and the amount
of insulation. After calcula-
ting the fuel energy into the
furnace and the heat loss
coefficients, they deter-
mined the insulation per-
formance.

“The report shows that
fuel bills were dependent on
insulation levels, despite dif-
ferences in the homes’
furnace efficiencies or the
homeowners’ living habits,”
says Ron A. Galbraith, of
Fiberglas Canada Inc., a
manufacturer of glass fibre
insulation.

FIELD, LAB SIMILARITY

“Furthermore,” Galbraith
adds, “the results achieved
in the field tests are similar
to those expected from

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laboratory tests. The
correlation factor is 0.88.
This means that insulation
works as well in houses as it
does in the laboratory.”

While confirming the
savings of extra insulation,
the report dispels the fear
that it may cause increased
air tightness, entailing
problems with humidity,
odor and condensation. The
Study states, “high insulation
levels in new homes (e.g. R-
20 and higher), as compared
to moderate levels (e.g. R-
12), do not change overall
air leakage characteristics or
relative humidity and do not
cause problems.”

The report adds, however,
that high levels of insulation
alone do not yield more uni-
form temperatures or better

“comfort” than moderate
(1975 standard) levels.

LIVING HABITS CAN
EXTEND SAVINGS

The effect that energy-
wasteful living habits have
on fuel consumption and in
the insulation savings is also
discussed in the report.

“Living habits and furnace
efficiencies can have an
elfect on fuel consumption,”
Molland says. “In general,
however, these factors
cannot provide fuel savings
comparable to insulation.
Only one living habit —
lower room temperature —

can achieve significant
savings. But lowering
temperatures is hardly a
desirable alternative in
colder cities, such as
Winnipeg.”

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