The Insulation Of Death Or The Breath Of Life….

The government has introduced its great plan to insulate even more our New Zealand Homes. From 1979 it was made mandatory for all New Zealand Homes to have insulation put into the ceiling and walls when built. The material used for the insulation is not only carcinogenic but is also creating an environment that’s just simply going to make you sick and cost you more money.
Why?
What is insulation? Insulation is something to try and stop heat loss in the home so that the home will become more energy efficient and warmer for us to live in by using conventional heat sources to heat the home.
There is one big flaw in this argument!
By what I call cocooning the home with insulation you are trapping all the moisture we create into the home. This moisture comes from just the everyday activities we do. 1 litre a day is produced per person just from breathing. You have 3 – 6 litres of moisture entering your home just from the bathroom and kitchen. The laundry can produce 1 litre per load and if you dry the cloths in front of your heat source you’re not only producing up to 3 litres more moisture into the home but you are also killing the heat source from travelling and heating the house and us up.
So you can see that there is a significant amount of moisture produced into our homes every day. Insulating our houses is just going to trap this inside. But isn’t insulating good? Yes it is. But you need to ventilate the now trapped air otherwise you’re going to have some major major problems. Thanks Government for not telling me this.
If you don’t ventilate your home properly when its cocooned you’re going to have major issues including condensation which leads to wood rot which leads to black mold, you will have a haven for dust mites which leads to asthma reactions and skin allergies and has been linked to cot death. Without ventilating your stale air is going to be moisture laden and that excess moisture is going to become trapped and be soaked up by your walls, your furniture, your curtains, your clothes, your carpet…. agh now you know why your carpet feels damp and cold…. If you ventilate your house will be drier and all these points mentioned above will go and you will prolong the life of your home and also the health of you and your children.
This is why you NEED to ventilate first.
The purpose of home ventilation is to maintain a healthy living environment by supplying fresh air to your home while at the same time removing stale and polluted air. Home ventilation also helps to maintain proper humidity levels of 30 to 50 percent which will stop most condensation problems, rot and those bloody dust mites and their related problems with asthma. THIS IS WHY 1 in 4 CHILDREN IN NEW ZEALAND GET ASTHMA!
Without ventilating the air in your home is used many times over, often with fresh air entering only when we open doors or windows. As we strive to build homes more and more energy efficient, we create an environment prone to indoor air quality problems, thereby, reducing the homes ability to breathe and natural air changes do not occur.
With a well insulated home you would think it will be more energy efficient don’t you. Well you’re WRONG!
As I hopefully have shown you the air in your house when you insulate becomes trapped and the moisture cannot escape. This means there is more moisture in your home. Now think of your cup of coffee. It goes cold pretty fast if you don’t drink it. This is whets happening in your home with the moisture. As you try and heat the damp house up all your doing is heating up the moisture particles that are saturated in your home. And as you fire heaps and heaps of kilowatts of power at them they are just cooling down just as fast. So you’re fighting a battle to keep the moisture in your home warm but it’s a battle that you will never win! Now can you understand why your power bill was over 500 bucks last month! WOW.
Moisture is a hog for energy. It grabs it and won’t let it go. It will consume the energy so dam fast that it will need more and more just to make itself feel good. But that’s energy that you and the rest of your house aren’t getting. What a waste of money. Power isn’t cheap and if you’re just going to be spending the money on making the moisture in your home warmer and not you then I think a reality check is in need.
If your house was dry and you will only get it dry by ventilating then you’re going to spend much less on the heating of your home because it will take less to warm up, the same amount of energy used to heat one small room will heat a much larger are and the heat will last a lot longer because there is less moisture in the house to keep cooling down and be reheated.
Without ventilating we are also polluting ourselves. No wonder cancer is on the up. The reason is a build up of pollutants in our homes. The build-up of indoor pollution in

today’s homes is a direct result of our efforts to conserve energy. With insufficient home ventilation, pollutants can build up and become very concentrated. These pollutants come from
many sources and some, such as mold, are more problematic when combined with high humidity levels, which is another problem associated with inadequate home ventilation.
When humidity is too high, mold, mildew and rot can become serious problems. A mold outbreak can cause thousands of dollars worth of damage to your home and in some cases can make a home uninhabitable. Your House becomes a sponge.
Another problem with high humidity is dust mites. Every home has dust mites and they thrive in humid conditions. This is a concern for people who suffer from dust mite allergies.
Low humidity, on the other hand, can cause nose and throat irritation, dry skin, wood can shrink and crack and hardwood flooring can shrink and become noisy when walked on. Static electricity is a symptom of low humidity.
Home ventilation is one of the most important things you can manage, in order to maintain a healthy environment for you and your loved ones.
Heat Recovery Ventilators, Air Exchangers, Kitchen and Bathroom Exhaust Fans, Attic Ventilation Fans, Dryer Vents and attic and crawl space vents are all important components of proper home ventilation.
Pet Dander, Pollen, Lead, Dust Mites, Mold Spores, Tobacco Smoke, Household Chemicals, Pesticides, Cleaning Supplies, Paints and Solvents are only some of the common pollutants that can build up without adequate home ventilation.
Carbon Monoxide, Carbon Dioxide and Soot from fuel burning appliances and heating systems can also become a problem without proper home ventilation.
Proper home ventilation can help reduce allergy and asthma symptoms and help ease other respiratory ailments that burden millions of people.
I think you owe it to yourself to actually be smart and start making your home healthy. If you so increase its value and the value of your life while you live in it. Home Ventilation Systems are not that expensive but without it the expense of unneeded bills will pile up. It’s your choice. But remember the government is slow. Good on them for trying but they need to wake up and see there is more to the health of its people than insulation.