Alu insulation. . .

country home

the thin foil bubble wrap as i can only describe it as. . . aluthermo i think its called. . . . .

has anyone used this in there attic and are you happy with it?
or better still, has anyone looked into it. . . . i currently am,

all info would be great

Thanks,
Country

Poor Uncle Tom

What are the uvalue stats of what you are looking at?

country home

.175

aluthermo quattro

Naux

I've seen a sample of the product and it strikes me that it could be useful for insulating tricky areas (eg) around steelwork on corner windows or around the back of window cills etc.

I think its about 135 euro plus VAT per roll so it would be costly to insulate big areas with it.

Naux

country home

well

at about €460 per roll and the roll is 1.2 X 25 which gives a 30m sqd spread. .
works out about €15 a sq meter

if u also stuck in rafterloc you would achieve a very low U value

Naux

country home wrote: »

well

at about €460 per roll and the roll is 1.2 X 25 which gives a 30m sqd spread. .
works out about €15 a sq meter

if u also stuck in rafterloc you would achieve a very low U value

Obviously a bigger roll than the one I saw!!!

Mellor

there is a history of these type of products making false claims and obscuring the facts with irrelevant claims.

From reading their site. I can see the following claims;

1. Almost impenitrable to infra-red radiation.
2. Thermal resistance of .175 (R=5.7)
3. Dry air-later prevents condensation

Now, all these claims have a basis in truth. But, they don't explain them. In my opinion, on purpose to mislead a layperson. Taking the three "facts above";

1. It is likely a barrier against IR radiation, like a space blanket. But houses loss heat through convection and conduction. Almost none through radiation. Heat is still lost through the foil via conduction.
2. .175 is a good thermal resistance. However, the units for thermal resistance include metres, which means it is directly related to the thickness of the material. At 10mm thick, the total resistance is the same as about 20mm of fibreglass
3. This one is very misleading. It refers to dry air inside the foil, which prevents condensation occuring inside the foil. It has no affect on condensation happening on either side of the foil or in the strucure.

From first impressions, I wouldn't go near it. There is a place for this type on insulation, but its not for use in buildings.

Poor Uncle Tom

I'd use it to wrap breakables in when moving house, it I ran out of bubble wrap.

soldsold

Poor Uncle Tom wrote: »

I'd use it to wrap breakables in when moving house, it I ran out of bubble wrap.

Finally a use for this stuff!!!

I wouldnt touch it with a bargepole myself

justflow1983

Its kind of funny, I was reading a paper last night from 1949 describing aluminium sheets (in this case actual sheet metal) as a method of insulation. While this is slightly different, insulating based on IR resistance didn't stick around then and probably is just as ineffective now.

sydthebeat

country home wrote: »

the thin foil bubble wrap as i can only describe it as. . . aluthermo i think its called. . . . .

has anyone used this in there attic and are you happy with it?
or better still, has anyone looked into it. . . . i currently am,

all info would be great

Thanks,
Country

its quite simple.

no BBA, IAB or european equivilent certification means that it must be ignored from the point of view of checking compliance with building regulations (part L) and / or assessing building energy rating (BER).

are you going to fork out that much money on something that cannot be included in build reg compliance, while at the same time having to include all other insulations that are required to meet the regs?

sinnerboy

What troubles me from a consumer perspective is that you see it pimped vigorously in the big retail hardware chains .

What troubled me more down the years was the number of soft headed builders I have had to tell to cop on . Many tears before bedtime - but it has never been used on any project I was involved with .

This is a report on the close cousin of Mr Bubble Wrap - i.e. Mr Multi Foil , about which exaggerated claims have been made . This is the reality .

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/uploads/br/multi-foil-insulation_july2005.pdf

sydthebeat

sinnerboy wrote: »

What troubles me from a consumer perspective is that you see it pimped vigorously in the big retail hardware chains .

What troubled me more down the years was the number of soft headed builders I have had to tell to cop on . Many tears before bedtime - but it has never been used on any project I was involved with .

This is a report on the close cousin of Mr Bubble Wrap - i.e. Mr Multi Foil , about which exaggerated claims have been made . This is the reality .

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/uploads/br/multi-foil-insulation_july2005.pdf

and just to reinforce.... heres the conclusion:

"For these constructions incorporating a multi-foil insulation, the in-situ U-value measurements reported in this paper are in good agreement with the NPL guarded hot-box measurements for the same product (thermal resistance of 1.71 m²K/W), and are not consistent with a thermal resistance of 5.0 m²K/W. For multi-foil insulation, the consistency here of the thermal performance measured in-situ with that measured in a hot-box suggests that either method provides a suitable means of establishing the thermal performance of such products to the accuracy delivered by the respective methods."