| Abstract |
Given Ireland’s sustainability goals for 2030 and the housing crisis plaguing Ireland, this project intended to investigate alternative materials to see if they could be viable as insulation for housing. Five materials commonly sent to landfills as waste were tested: paper, blankets, towels, cushions and moss. We investigated to see how efficient each material is as an insulator. This is measured as the U-value, with a lower value indicating a lower rate of heat transmittance. The hypothesis was that a blanket would be the most effective alternative insulation material due to it commonly being used to insulate ourselves.
We designed a hot box, which simulates a room, to calculate the U-value. With the insulator in the centre, the hot box was cooled to a stable temperature to represent the outdoor temperature. The cool chamber remained at this temperature. A heat source was placed into the hot chamber and left until the chamber reached a stable temperature. This gave us our temperature difference. We measured the wattage of the heat source(⌀) and the area of the component (A). We used the formula: U-value = ⌀/A(T outdoor - T indoor) to calculate the U-value of each material.
Our research found our hypothesis was incorrect as the cushion displayed the lowest U-value. The cushion had a comparable U-value to current industry insulators. Our data suggests that ‘waste’ items, such as a cushion, are viable materials to use in housing. This would allow construction of more houses, reduce waste being sent to landfills and create more sustainable houses.
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