Posted January 29, 2020
For maximum thermal efficiencies, energy savings and positive health benefits, insulating your home goes far beyond your ceiling and walls. Heat also escapes through the windows and up to 15% through the floor. 15% doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you consider how everything in your home is connected, you actually lose far more than that 15% worth of heat and lost comfort.
Due to many years worth of advertising campaigns and time in business, a lot of the big insulation companies have been relying on their old school products to try and keep their customers happy. Products like polyester, wool, glass wool and a range of other materials have long held the mindspace of Kiwi homeowners.
But with technology advances and improvements to building practices, companies like MAXRaft are showing builders and homeowners new ways to properly and effectively insulate houses from the ground up using Expanded Polystyrene with concrete. Benefits of this approach can be taken a step further with underfloor heating which works perfectly with MAXRaft.
Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) is a leading product choice in the industry for energy efficient homes. With an eye on sustainability and better production processes, all waste produced in the MAXRaft® production process is recycled and eventually turned into new EPS insulation.
A home’s concrete slab is the first line of defence when building an energy efficient home. But outside cold can easily travel through a traditional foundation, causing thermal bridging and creating uncomfortable cold spots within your home.
When your foundation is insulated, you create a thermal break between the foundation and the ground around it. This reduces the transfer of energy from the home into the land surrounding the home. If a thermal break isn’t created, you could lose the same amount of heat as you would if you left a window open in winter.
If unaddressed, this can quickly translate to very high energy costs. By building the home on an insulated MAXRaft® slab instead, homeowners can choose from a wider range of flooring options based on their personal needs, while also making their homes more energy efficient, and healthier to live in.
Here’s what one building company owner said about MAXRaft:
We choose MAXRaft® in our designs because of the benefit it brings to the building performance and occupants. From the day you move in you're saving money on your heating bills and you're living in a warm, healthy environment. A recent example of the cost savings was in our new show home in Wellington where the heating bill was only $88 for the month of August!"
TS, Building company owner, Wellington
Create a healthier home
A lot of respiratory and other health issues are caused by the cold and damp environments that we live in. 1 in 7 children have asthma and 1 in 6 people (over 700,000 Kiwis) have a respiratory disease, which costs the country over $6b every year.
There has been much study on the triggers for asthma sufferers and it has been proven that a properly insulated, warm, dry home greatly improves the symptoms. Reducing the heat loss from your home ensures it is warmer, drier & healthier which reduces your exposure to cold and moisture.
MAXRaft® is New Zealand’s only fully insulated foundation offering superior performance when it comes to thermal bridging, resulting in consistent temperatures throughout your home with reduced cold spots to optimise energy efficiency.
When building a new home, it’s critical to get the slab that home will sit on right first time Installing MAXRaft® ’s insulated slab costs only approximately 10% more than a traditional slab, and will easily pay for itself in reduced energy costs. At the same time, homeowners get to enjoy a more comfortable, healthier living space, while enjoying a wider range of aesthetic choices when it comes to choosing the type of flooring that’s right for you.
Save money on power bills with world-leading insulation from MAXRaft. It’s New Zealand’s only fully insulated foundation.
