When Yvette Buttery bought her Dunedin home in 2014, she assumed she couldn’t go wrong with brick.
“What I didn’t realise was that an old brick house can be very cold,” she says. “Sometimes, the temperature inside was only one or two degrees higher than outside. I had unintentionally bought a very cold home.”
Many New Zealanders have a similar story. Unfortunately, older homes in Aotearoa are notoriously cold and were built without wall insulation. A huge amount of heat generated inside a home can escape through walls and windows very quickly, wasting precious money and energy. As a result, many Kiwi families struggle through winter. Not only are they cold and uncomfortable, but their power bills are high too.
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As winter draws closer and the cost of living continues to rise, many New Zealanders are looking for ways to make their homes warmer, more energy efficient and therefore cheaper to heat.
Historically, retrofitting wall insulation was a time consuming, expensive and disruptive process There’s ripping down the existing walls (and disposing of them), cutting insulation to size, fitting it, plaster boarding, gib stopping, and painting. The result might be a warmer home, but it would take a lot of time, effort, money, and mess to get there.
When Phil Jackson moved to New Zealand from the UK 25 years ago, he immediately noticed how poorly insulated Kiwi homes were. Retrofit wall insulation systems were already a common option internationally, particularly in the UK, but the systems, products, and technology weren’t available in New Zealand at the time. Phil’s solution is? To create his own.
Using his extensive thermal engineering knowledge, Phil developed the Insulmax system which uses a dry mineral fibre that can be blown into the walls of almost any home, including brick. The greatest benefit? It can be applied without any wall removal or renovations generally within a day.
Also hailing from the UK, Yvette was aware of retrofit insulation but had never experienced it first-hand.
“I thought retrofit wall insulation would be a good option because I wouldn’t have to rip apart the walls,” she says. “Creating a warmer, healthier home but not having to do any work to fix it up afterwards was really important to me.”
Image / Supplied.
While double glazing is now standard in all new builds and renovations, Phil says it only adds about 4mm of glass and 6mm of air to windows, which adds up to a relatively small reduction in heat loss. Comparatively, Insulmax can add at least 100mm of insulation inside the walls which substantially and almost instantly reduces heat loss through walls by up to 85%.
Since getting Insulmax installed in 2017, Yvette says her home feels completely different.
“I was here while the Insulmax was being installed and it literally felt like having a blanket wrapped around the house,” she says. “It became very quiet, and just felt comfortable and warm.
“I have a thermometer in the bedroom which tells me both the inside and outside temperature. Previously, the temperature inside would have been pretty similar to the temperature outside. Now, when the temperature outside is at zero, the house is well into double figures – and that’s without heating. The change was immediate.”
Image / Supplied.
Since her Insulmax installation, Yvette no longer worries about keeping warm during winter. In fact, her biggest problem is figuring out what to wear.
“I used to know as soon as I woke up what I needed to wear because the temperature inside was almost identical to what it was outside,” she says. “Now, because my home is so warm, I have to look at the outside temperature on my thermometer or even step outside to know what to wear, otherwise there’s a strong likelihood I won’t be wearing enough clothes!”
The improvement in the warmth, comfort and overall health of her home has changed Yvette’s life so much, that she wishes more people knew how easy it was.
“There are so many people who could benefit from living in a warmer, more comfortable home,” she says. “Insulmax makes it so easy. It’s not particularly expensive, and the return far outweighs the investment. I recommend Insulmax to just about everyone I meet.”
Since it was launched in 2014, Insulmax has been installed in over 5000 homes nationwide. Insulmax individually assesses each house and installs the product for an optimal insulation solution, creating warmer healthier homes. Nationwide branches ensure the whole country is covered.
To find out more about Insulmax, visit www.insulmax.co.nz or call 0508 246 785.
