Blog Archives

cavity wall insulation - why sheet & board insulation isn't always a good idea

29/4/2014

Badly fitted board & sheet insulation in this cavity is little better than having nothing in your cavity

While out on a site visit recently I saw this cavity wall with board insulation in situ. Having my Iphone with me I snapped this and it illustrates a point we make a lot to our customers. Now here at Fusion we loathe negative marketing i.e. slagging off the competitions product or agents to sell your own. Equally when an observation is valid and when a product brand isn't named then we feel it's fair comment to point out some of the inadequacies in generic systems , in this case board or sheet insulation. Board or sheet insulation in theory are great performers , but out on site unless your quality control is very vigilant you'll end up with what we see above i.e. badly fitting boards with 'open' joints. The end result is greatly reduced thermal performance. You think you have insulation protecting you but if there are too many gaps in the insulation then frankly you will suffer. Sprayfoam offers an alternative in that when we inject a cavity with liquid foam it expands and fills the cavity with solid foam. What's more our latest German foam is water repellent giving you additional peace of mind. Have a look at our videos on sprayfoam and you'll soon understand the potential of this exciting system

Anthony

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Fusion Insulation co-sponsors of the tipperary Vintage & Custom Rally in aid of the south tipp' hopsice

27/4/2014

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Sunday April 20th was a special day in the calendar of the Tipperary Vintage and Custom Rally club. This very popular perennial event is organised in support of the South Tipp Hospice & other charities in the region. Fusion Insulation was on hand to offer their support to this most worthy cause and a fascinating and sun drenched day was had by all. The show which is held at Limerick Junction Race Course looked spectacular in the April sunshine and there was all sorts of activities and shows being hosted in tandem with the main vintage rally event. What caught my eye were some of the vintage and classic sports cars . Pictured above in 'white' is a very eye-catching and desirable coupe , a Volvo S1800 , proof that Volvo's weren't always boring. This variant of Volvo called the P1800 was subsequently made famous by a white 1962 Volvo P1800 (with licence plate ST1) driven by Simon Templar, played by Roger Moore, was featured in the TV series The Saint beginning in 1962 and played a prominent role throughout the entire run of the show. Roger Moore was so smitten with the Volvo that he bought one for his own personal use.

Anthony

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RENEWABLEs and sustainable energy in new building -The regulatory FRamework - part L Technical Guidance Document - Conservation of Fuel and Energy

12/4/2014

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Air Tightness or Air Permeability ( air leakage ) is important in terms of achieving overall energy performance in your new home

The 'rubber hits the road' as far as conservation of fuel and energy in Irish homes is concerned with a document known as a technical guidance document. In this case it derives its powers from S.I. No. 259 of 2011 or for short "Part L" TGD, as it's known in the trade. Part L in turn superseded the previous Part L (SI No 497 of 1997). It's a bit confusing I agree. To cut to the chase, this latest Part L, TGD (technical guidance document) sets out various targets that should be aspired to particularly in relation to new dwellings. The standards are quite detailed and Part L looks at a number of parameters or performance attributes that should be met in order for the designer, developer and in turn the building owner to be compliant with current legislation.

These are:

a)Primary Energy Consumption and related Carbon Dioxide emissions

b)That a reasonable proportion of the total energy consumption of the dwelling is met by renewable energy sources

c)Limiting heat loss and increasing heat gain, through the building envelope

d)Installing energy efficient space and water heating combined with effective controls for same

e)If oil and gas boiler are installed in the dwelling, that they shall be at least 90% efficient

f)Provide the dwelling owner with enough information about the building mechanical and electrical so that he or she can operate the building in the most energy efficient manner possible.

So all of this looks fairly straightforward, just use a very good insulation, hit the U value targets, make my building as airtight as possible and bung in a 90% efficient boiler and I'm sorted? Easy?
Alas no!
As they say in Hollywood "It's complicated". The devil is in the detail and what's increasingly becoming clear is that in order to hit mathematical performance targets, the inclusion of a renewable technology in your home is effectively mandatory and no one is suggesting that any of this technology is cheap . Here's how the math work in practice (please brace yourself now for an acronym fest).
There are two figures that come centre stage in these calculations. The first is the EPC or "Energy Performance Coefficient" and this is calculated when the the calculated primary energy consumption of the proposed dwelling is divided by a factor known as "the reference dwelling" (see appendix C of Part L TGD) . The second figure needed is the CPC or to give it its full title "the carbon performance coefficient". Again this figure is calculated against a known reference called the "reference dwelling". Once these two figures are calculated it allows a third figure then be generated from the relationship between the previous two. This final figure is known as the "MPEPC" aka the "Maximum Permitted Energy Performance Coefficient". Currently this figure or ideal is 0.46.

In future blogs I'll be taking a look at the various renewable technologies on the market

Anthony

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revamped Site Launch

10/4/2014

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Incredibly difficult roof angles challenge many insulation systems. Fusion Sprayfoam takes these type roofs in its stride

Welcome to our new straight out of the wrapper website for Fusion Insulation. I hope you find the new site easier to navigate and you find it faster to get the information you're looking for. Our old site served us well, for many years but it's like a lot of things in life, technology moves on, and the old clunky 'back end' CMS on the website was begenning to creak and groan.

As far as the service and products we offer, the good news is, nothing has changed there. We're still as convinced today in 2014 as we were when our company was formed many years ago that sprayfoam is a fantastic insulation and air membrane system. Sprayfoam still is the number 1 solution if you want to retain heat yet keep out the drafts and I'm saying that for all sprayfoam even the foam we dont spray!

Anthony

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cavity wall insulation - why sheet & board insulation isn't always a good idea

Fusion Insulation co-sponsors of the tipperary Vintage & Custom Rally in aid of the south tipp' hopsice

RENEWABLEs and sustainable energy in new building -The regulatory FRamework - part L Technical Guidance Document - Conservation of Fuel and Energy

revamped Site Launch

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