What is Thermal Insulation?

It’s a question often asked. But what is Thermal insulation? Essentially, it’s a method of reducing and eliminating heat loss within a home or commercial premises.  Reducing your bills is most certainly a challenging issue with the current cost of living crisis in the UK, so installing a range of thermal insulation solutions will prevent or reduce heat loss. 

Heat radiates from all areas of your building or house – it radiates from your walls, your roof, floors and windows, so the aim is to reduce it leaving so you are not spending unnecessary amounts on controlling the heat with central heating. It’s not actually all about heat loss, by having a building properly insulated will also keep your property cool in the summer. 

Thermal insulation is a relatively simple solution that seeks to prevent too much heat loss and too much heat gain. Some of the most common areas to insulate include lofts, cavity walls, external walls, and floors.

Noise reduction is also an essential element of Insulation; it’s not just always heat. Some types of insulation also have the ability to block out unwanted noise from your surrounding areas due to their ability to absorb sound waves. It can be used in walls, roofs, or floors to provide better soundproofing keeping the noise in or out. 

What are the main types of Thermal Insulation? 

There’s a whole range of thermal insulation on offer. Below we have detailed the range of thermal insulation products we sell at Thermal Insulation Online. 

Mineral Wool 

Mineral wool is the most common form of insulation in the UK. It’s easy to fit as it can be installed almost anywhere, such as between roof or floor joints, internal walls or ceilings plus it has excellent thermal insulation properties. It’s manufactured from a mix of raw materials such as recycled glass or rock that are then combined and heated to extreme temperatures until molten. Mineral wool insulation is also referred to as rock wool insulation, stone wool or fibreglass insulation. 

Mineral wool is super strong, because of the way its manufacturing process. Rock Mineral Wool has slightly shorter fibre strands compared to Glass Mineral Wool, giving Rock Mineral Wool superior strength and making it ideal for use in roof insulation, due to its strength when having to walk on it during installation. Not to forget it is the best at absorbing noise due to its open fibre matrix that absorbs sound waves. Rockwool or mineral wool insulation has a R-value of 3.0 to 3.3 per inch of thickness. 

Ductwork Insulation Slabs 

Ductwork Insulation is a high-performance duct thermal insulation designed for use for HVAC & building service installations. Ideal for use to  insulate ductwork and associated equipment outdoors such as rectangular, circular and flat oval ductwork systems.

Kingspan Therma is a perfect example of Ductwork Insulation. Also referred to as  Polyisocyanurate board (PIR), it’s one of the most efficient insulation materials commonly used in construction. It’s manufactured by combining a mix of chemicals and a layering process, until it dries and bonds. Once at the stated thickness, the foam is cooked under pressure and then cut to the required size.  It has a R-value of 3.00m2 .K/W. 

Foil Faced Insulation Wraps 

Designed to give acoustic and thermal protection to ductwork, foil-faced insulation wraps are the best type of insulation for retaining heat. Reflecting radiant energy that translates into heat, it reduces heat loss in winter and heat gain in the summer.

It also has an excellent condensation/vapour barrier. It is ideal for a range of HVAC & ductwork systems; it works in that it prevents moisture from moving from one area to another due to the varying temperatures. 

With a class O fire performance, these foil-faced insulation rolls are manufactured from mineral glass fibres with a reinforced aluminium foil.

We’ve got an extensive range of thermal insulation for your Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems from Rock Mineral Wool, Duct Slabs & Foil Faced Insulation Shop the entire range.

We also offer a range of bespoke sizes and specifications for our HVAC Ductwork Insulation, email sales@thermalinsulationonline.co.uk with your requirements or call 07798 810996.