Insulating material receives EST support

[David OLIVIER]

Does anybody know why the Energy Saving Trust appears to lend its support to products like this which are so thin that they give a solid wall a new U-value of ~ 1.6 W/m2K (still worse than most walls built in modern times)? Does this contribute usefully to the need to reduce UK CO2 emissions 80% or more?

According to the seller's website it is both EST-approved and -recommended.

http://www.mgcltd.co.uk/Products/Thermal_and_Acoustic_Insulation/SEMPATAP_THERMAL/

D.

[Nick Grant]

Interesting how the thermal images show a lage impact on hedge and window temperatures!

[Dave Howorth]

The more thermographs I see, the less I trust them. Is there some standard that should be followed when they are published or included in reports?

For example, I'd like to see a photograph taken at the same time (ideally through the same lens, or at least one in the same camera) and I'd like to see some kind of temperature scale, or whatever is appropriate. Not to mention the date and time. For example, the lower after thermograph appears to have been taken in summer, whilst the photograph and before thermograph weren't (the tree).

Cheers, Dave

PS I guess it was possible the windows were changed at the same time the wall was insulated. Perhaps the hedge was painted with low emissivity paint? Can't be somebody fiddling with the images, surely??!!

[Mark Siddall]

It's interesting that the temperature scale is missing and that there is no indication about the time of day/year that the photo's were taken.

Mark

[Nick Grant]

One of my favourite images was a thermographic image of a proposed office! (Photoshop)

A very powerful tool but so often misunderstood. The seductive pretty images are part of the problem, rather like 3d energy models they give an illusion of a reality when the underlying numbers are not shown (in this case internal and external temperatures and surface temperatures.

Dave, one problem with visible light pic being taken at the same time for outdoor shots is that the thermal image should be done at night to avoid even weak sun changing the surface temperatures.

And yes lack of temp scale renders the images even ore useless as the colours are arbitrary unless set to the same range in the image processing software.

That's the sum of my knowledge, enough to know that there is an awful lot more to know.