A new study reveals that approximately 80% of homes are under-insulated in Canada, which means that unless you live in a home that has recently been built, or have recently added insulation to your attic or walls, you may want to check your insulation levels.
What does having adequate insulation in your home or building mean to you? There are fifteen reasons.
- Insulation helps keep conditioned air inside, so your heater and air conditioner work less to keep you warm or cool. This in turn saves energy—and therefore money—without needing to change your behaviour. It’s a passive way of saving energy and money, which means that once installed, it works without having to think about it.
- Insulation helps control sound from travelling from the outside in, or from between rooms. If you live in a noisy neighbourhood, or have multiple people living in your home, this can be an important feature for your peace of mind.
- Insulation improves your indoor climate, which has benefits to your health and quality of life (IEA/Copenhagen).
- Insulation can improve your morbidity levels with fewer visits to the hospital due to asthma attacks and fewer emergency room visits (Harvard Studies).
- Insulation can reduce the number of premature deaths (Harvard Studies).
- Insulation helps protect consumers and ratepayers from rapid, significant energy price increases (NRCan).
- Insulation can increase a home’s value due to energy efficiency (Co-star report, etc.).
- Insulation helps the economy through energy savings. Energy savings means you have more money to spend on your vacation, on other renovations, or on anything else you want to buy (IMT report). This in turn improves Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP) (IEA/NRCan).
- Insulation helps support the insulation industry, which includes businesses that employ Canadians across the country (IEA/NRCan).
- Insulation can balance trade. The more we save, the more we can export (IEA/NRCan).
- Insulation impacts public budgets. Savings translates to increased spending on other expenditures (IEA/Copenhagen).
- Insulation impacts energy prices (IEA).
- Insulation can make the prices of products and services competitive (NRCan). A business’ energy savings can translate to reduced prices for consumers, higher profits for shareholders, or more money back into the company to increase production.
- Insulation helps increase productivity. When a building’s acoustical performance is high, work performance is improved (Copenhagen).
- Insulation decreases air pollution (IEA/Copenhagen Economics). With energy saved, fewer greenhouse gases (GHGs) are being emitted.
