What's the point of insulating your house ?

Question

Of course, I know the answer, from an environmental point of view, is to conserve energy. What I don't understand is how this is accomplished.

Is the idea that, by insulating your house, you lose less heat, therefore your house is warmer, therefore you can turn the heating down, remain warm and use less gas ?

Or, is the idea to minimise the amount of warm air escaping our houses because this is contributing to global warming ?

I've always assumed the former but it occurs to me that all the insulation in the world is useless unless we turn down the thermostat - you still end up using the same amount of energy. I wonder therefore how many well-insulated homes still have the heating too high and are therefore using too much energy ?

I'm sure this is just my lack of understanding so, please, someone set me straight.

Cheers

Answer 1

When you have poor insulation your heater has to work harder to keep your house warm. We once lived in a house with poor insulation and the central heat never cut off because all the heat escaped. We paid for it too with humongous heating bills.

Answer 2

Haven't bulit a dog house but very familiar with what's needed: Keep the bottom several inches off the ground for insulation. Make sure there's a lip in front of the bottom of the door opening & an overhang on top. Try to place it up against your house. Ideally, it would be 3 sided with the house being the 4th side. Also, never use blankets inside as they get wet & gross & freeze. Straw is the best bedding to use in both warm & cold weather.

Answer 3

It's to keep your house warmer by trapping the hot air inside. The idea behind it is so that you don't need to keep your heating on for as long as you normally would, therefore you use less gas or oil. Which then in turn helps the environment. you can tell a poorly insulated house on a winters day when it has been snowing. All the snow will have melted of the roof due to all the hot air escaping.

Answer 4

Yes, the idea is to keep heat either in or out therefore lowering your bills. We are in the process of having a new home built and are putting in extra insulation between the floors of our family room and the master bedroom which is right above it. This will help with noise reduction when someone is below watching television. They put higher ratings of insulation between the walls of apartment buildings to help with noise levels. In order to actually have the insulation do its job with keeping in hot air in the winter and cooler air in the summer, not only is insulation a factor but so are your windows. If they need to be covered up or have low e glass to help prevent losses.

Answer 5

The function of the thermostat, is to keep the temperature at a set amount. If your home is not insulated, the thermostat comes on more often, because heat has escaped! If you insulate, and keep more heat in longer, then the thermostat does not turn the furnace on as often, there by saving energy.

Answer 6

It's the flue gases such as carbon dioxide that lead to the greenhouse effect that cause global warming, not the heat that escapes. The point of letting less heat escape is to consume less fuel to stay at a comfortable temperature in our homes. Also turning down the thermostat a couple of degrees helps a lot. The added bonus to you is that your bills will be much smaler.

Answer 7

They are not bad answers, I liked Rebecca S, however Ice got it incorrect.
Greenhouse gases are caused by the boiler (furnace) firing-up more frequently than if premises are insulated hence damaging the environment, and your "pocket"
Its insulation that retains heat in a space, hypothetically if premises were unbelievably insulated, then the heat would remain, and the boiler would never fire up again !!!!!!!!
Footnote, It works in reverse

Answer 8

Plain & simple keeps heat from escaping therefore you save on your heating bills by being able to turn your heating down
And as a bonus no more cold spots
I had mine done and it's made a big difference

Answer 9

insulating your house stops all the heat escaping through the walls and ceiling. insulation works by trapping the air in it and not letting it get trough

Answer 10

To keep your house warm! You don't want to pay more because your heater has to work more do you? Insulation keeps the warm in and cold out.