Preventing energy losses with thermal insulation

Build­ing own­ers who want to put a stop to energy losses should invest in the thermal insu­la­tion of their houses. Through cracks, leaks and holes in the facade, roof or cel­lar, heat is eas­ily lost in the cold sea­son and escapes unused through the gaps and up the chim­ney. For new build­ings, the Ger­man Energy Sav­ing Ordin­ance (EnEV) there­fore stip­u­lates good thermal insu­la­tion. It not only reduces energy costs, but also increases indoor com­fort as long as a few import­ant points are observed.

Tip 1: The right time for retrofitting

Thermal insu­la­tion not only pre­vents the heat from escap­ing to the out­side in winter. In sum­mer, it also keeps the heat out. As a basic rule, heat is always drawn to the cold. With a thermally insu­lated house, you will bene­fit in winter as well as in sum­mer. But own­ers of exist­ing build­ings are often reluct­ant to ret­ro­fit thermal insu­la­tion because of the asso­ci­ated costs. In the long run, how­ever, the invest­ment will def­in­itely pay off. Our tip: Install thermal insu­la­tion in the course of a major renov­a­tion pro­ject. Don’t for­get: Even a thin insu­la­tion lay­er behind the radi­at­ors already reduces the heat loss via the out­er wall.

Tip 2: Regular ventilation and intelligent heating

Many people fear that liv­ing in a tightly insu­lated house will be like liv­ing in a “plastic bag”. But this fear is unfoun­ded. The exchange of air simply has to be con­trolled by open­ing the win­dows and air­ing the house reg­u­larly. Togeth­er with the right heat­ing habits, pos­sibly sup­por­ted by an intel­li­gent heat­ing con­trol sys­tem, a healthy room cli­mate with a suf­fi­cient amount of fresh air can be ensured and the heat­ing costs kept low and man­age­able. These are also import­ant con­di­tions for keep­ing humid­ity in the build­ing at a min­im­um level. Oth­er­wise, mold growth will be pro­moted.