Want to know more about home insulation?

Getting it right in your home insulation means knowing the difference between products, and how to understand their performance.

James Cornell from Life Panels shares more about home insulation, how to identify what will work, plus how wood fibre home insulation works.

This is Part 3 of my conversation with James. [Listen to PART 1 and PART 2 here]

Hello! This is Episode 236, and this is Part 3 of my conversation with James Cornell from Life Panels.

If you haven’t listened to Part 1 yet, be sure to head back to Episode 234, where you’ll hear James discuss thermal performance and understanding the airtightness and breathability of your home. 

And if you haven’t listened to Part 2, where we discussed moisture control, thermal mass and other means of overheating control, check out Episode 235. 

In this episode, James wraps up his conversation with me by discussing insulation for acoustic and fire protection. We also talk about R-Values, and you’ll learn more about the specifics of the Wood Fibre products that Life Panels supplies.

Now, let’s dive in!

This is Part 3 of my conversation with James, and we’ve covered a lot of ground already when it comes to understanding the performance of your building fabric, or building envelope, or the floors, walls and roof of your home.

Whether you’re renovating or building new, and whether you plan to do Passive House or not, you will be spending money on materials that your home will be constructed from.

Many do this believing there’s only one way to put these materials together. However, hopefully as you’ve been hearing from James, it’s worthwhile understanding how to create the right solution for your climate and location, so you get a result that protects your home, improves its thermal comfort, and ensures your home stays dry and durable over the long term.

In this last of this 3 part series, I talk with James about insulation. If it’s something you’re investing in, it’s worth understanding the different jobs it can do, and how you can maximise the benefit of your investment in it.

We also talk about Life Panels products, and their rigid panel and bulk infill insulation. James shares more details about how to specify these for your home, how they’re made and their sustainable performance overall.

And that’s it for Part 3 of my conversation with James, and the last in this 3 part series on building a better and healthier home. 

I hope you found that helpful. 

These three episodes … well, they are a BIG conversation about a lot of things you need to consider when specifying the materials your home’s floors, walls and roof are constructed from. 

I hope it’s provided a great resource for you to listen, and relisten to, so that you can be informed when making the best choice for your future home. If you’re investing in products and materials, it’s worth doing your research, getting the best your budget can afford, and not just going with the norm because you’re told to. 

Understanding the role these materials and products play in the overall performance and durability of your home can help ensure you’re getting the healthiest and highest performing home, and will prevent you from spending money on products that simply won’t deliver a great outcome for you. 

You’ll now be able to have great conversations with those you’re working with. 

And I’m hoping, really high level conversations that will flush out those in the industry who simply want to stick with what’s not working, but has been the standard for such a long time. 

Like I said, there are still builders who don’t even put sarking on a home, and there are also those using sarking, not understanding that its trapping moisture in the timber frame of a home, where it rots away at the structure of the home, and causes health issues for the occupants.

Now you know how to avoid that. So have those important conversations with your team.

Over the 3 episodes, we discuss these topics related to building healthier homes:

Thermal Performance

• Low thermal bridging (The ideal solution to create low thermal bridging is to fit insulation in a continuous wrap around the building).
• Air tightness (Crucial for reducing air leakage and aiding thermal performance by limiting the fluctuations between hot and cold).

Moisture Control

• Moisture control (Direct / Indirect / Atmospheric – Understanding how moisture behaves is crucial to a healthy building. The building fabric has to allow moisture to flow in and out. Materials that trap or hold moisture cause many problems).
• Breathability (4 lane highway effect – essential when improving thermal performance)
• Relative humidity (Aiming for a balanced and optimum internal relative humidity is key to good air quality and comfortable living. Correct ventilation is a key consideration).

Overheating Control

• Thermal mass (In order to work properly, materials must have very low thermal conductivity and high heat storage capabilities. Materials like concrete are inferior when compared to wood fibre).
• Decrement delay (Slowing down how long it takes for the sun’s heat to pass through a roof or a wall. Reduce heat gain in summer and keep low level heat in during winter).

All about Life Panels wood fibre products:

• Different product types
• How they perform
• What they’re made from
• Installation
• Thicknesses
• Requirements for installation

RESOURCES:

LIFE PANELS

Website (Home page includes cost comparison with conventional building materials) >>> https://lifepanels.com/

Building Physics PDF Guide >>> https://lifepanels.com/pages/home-insulation-building-physics

Instagram >>> https://www.instagram.com/lifepanels/

60mm Wood Fibre Insulation Rigid Board >>> https://lifepanels.com/pages/combi-panels (and video https://youtu.be/QCj1peae3_w)

Wood Fibre Bulk Insulation >>> https://lifepanels.com/pages/bulk-infill (and video https://youtu.be/8G7yvyx2cuQ)

Life Panels download PDF Factsheets

• Life Panels Case Study (Byron Home 2021) 
• Heat Test (comparison)
• The Multifunctional Roles of Thermal Mass
• Performance Evaluation (Comparison with other insulation products)

Access the support and guidance you need to be confident and empowered when renovating and building your family home inside my flagship online program >>> HOME METHOD

Learn more about how to get started with your home design with the Happy Home Design mini-course >>> HAPPY HOME DESIGN
Access my free online workshop “Your Project Plan” >>> FREE WORKSHOP