Improving the thermal insulation of your home

What conventional insulation does well

Conventional insulation deals effectively with convection and conduction thanks to its thickness, which resists heat transfer.

Where it does less well

It is far less effective against infrared radiation, the same radiation responsible for the heat you feel behind a car windscreen in summer.

An analogy with photography

Take landscape photography as an illustration.

The zoom lens and the thickness of the insulation

A zoom lens lets you take a good picture, much as the thickness of conventional insulation lets it resist heat transfer.

Filters, or what a reflective product adds

A polarising filter lifts the contrast between colours and improves the result further. A reflective product plays the same part: it cuts heat transfer by radiation, which the lens alone cannot do.

What reflective products bring

Reflective products improve the performance of other insulation by cutting heat transfer through radiation. They also contribute to airtightness and watertightness, which reduces heat loss and improves comfort indoors.

Combined with others, or on their own

In practice, reflective thin insulation is often used alongside other insulation materials to reach the best overall result. It can also be used on its own where conventional insulation is impossible because of the space available.

Choosing between thick conventional and thin reflective

The choice between thick conventional insulation and reflective thin insulation depends on your own situation and on the constraints you are working with.