02-03-2021, 04:36 AM
Hard floorings are excellent for the summer heat as they keep your home cool, but once the sunlight and temperatures drop during the winter, the comfort and warmth of a carpet is hard to beat. Most importantly, with cold temperatures set to continue in the UK's foreseeable future, we are all looking for some creative ways to keep our costs low.
What does this mean for you?
At the beginning of the day, when you roll out of your bed and step down on a hard surface floor, you will suddenly realise the most obvious benefit of having carpet during winter. However, another significant advantage is a little more subtle; it can help increase insulation.
So in this article, we will take a quick look at how carpet can both preserve your home's warmth and lower your energy bill.
So let's get into it!
Why Is Carpet Warm?
A suitable and well-fitted carpet can make a clear contribution to preserving heat in a room, which is one of the many ways to contribute to energy efficiency at home.
In particular, the difference in heat retention contributed by carpeting can be critical during transition seasons. It allows people to turn on their heating system later and switch it off earlier than those with hard floorings.
As if it's not enough:
It has been estimated that a carpet can retain up to a month's worth of heating costs, which accounts for a 4 to 6 percent savings on overall heating bills. It might not sound like much, but small perimeters like this can make a huge difference when you try to decrease heating bills and retain as much warmth as possible in your house.
Works As A Home Insulator
Carpet is an excellent insulating material. The thicker the carpet, the more insulation you get. Quality carpeting is made up of fibres that have a little heat conduction rate. Moreover, each carpet is made up of millions of individual fibres which trap air, thus adding to its insulating ability.
And of course, just like a blanket, carpets also work as a physical barrier between your home's heat and the sub-floor below. As previously mentioned, homes with carpeted floors see at least a 10 percent heat retention during chilly months - and that is a massive help in keeping money in your pocket!
So while it won't create any warmth itself, it will help to retain heat. Even most people are shocked to discover that un-insulated floors can account for up to 20 percent of heat loss in a house.
Understanding The R-Value
R-value is a term used to define the carpet's thermal resistance rating or the insulating value in plain and simple words. Most of the time, it is printed on the label of the product in the store. But if it is not printed on the label, you can figure it out on your own. You can simply calculate the R-value by dividing the material's thickness (in metres) by its thermal conductivity (K value).
A house's R-value is a measure of its energy efficiency and insulation. The quicker your home heats or cools and the longer it maintains that temperature, the higher its R-value will be. However, it is easy to criticise a less R-value on poor insulation, leaky doors and narrow windows. But the truth is that we rarely look to the flooring as the problem or solution.
R-value can vary significantly among different flooring types. It is no surprise that hard surface flooring tends to have less R-value, although some options (such as carpets) still offer more insulation than others.
How Carpet Padding Improves R-Value?
Although the carpet is not a good insulator, it's combination with the padding creates a strong barrier against heat and cool air loss during the seasons. Carpet padding provides many advantages, including an even higher R-value than carpet achieves alone. In the end, the actual increase in R-value depends on the type of padding selected.
Why?
Not surprisingly, thicker carpet means more thermal resistance, thereby enhancing energy savings even more.
For one, they tend to offer comfort that can't be matched. And as it associates to a home's heating, memory foam padding is most compatible with radiant heat systems. However, both polyurethane and rubber tend to hinder the heat flow, leading to more energy loss along the way.
R-Value of Rugs
Area rugs are incredible for both comfort and style; however, they can also add to a room's R-value. Although it takes a little creative placement, the difference is especially notable with hard surface flooring.
However, in order to improve the carpet's comfort and insulation even further, consider using carpet padding with higher R-value. Following are some of the carpet padding for you to consider:
Urethane Padding
Urethane padding has the highest R-value of all carpet padding! Depending upon the thickness of the pad, its R-value rating is anywhere from 1.05 to 2.15.
Urethane padding is low in density which makes it a lightweight padding choice. But as it is not a dense product, it is not suitable for high traffic areas. It is an excellent option for bedrooms, but you might want to keep it out of the living room or hallway.
Rubber Padding
Rubber padding has the lowest R-value of all padding choices. It ranges between .31 and 1.61. It is pretty dense and is a great option for high traffic areas such as the hallway.
Fibre Padding
Fibre padding has an R-value rating anywhere from .97 to 1.94 - not too much higher than the rubber padding. It is constructed of plant fibres or hair and also has high density making it another good option for high traffic areas. Being in the middle with its R-value, fibre padding provides a pretty good warming and cooling property along with decent carpet support.
When you add the R-value of the carpet and the padding together, you will get the total R-value and insulation value added to your home.
Some padding and carpet combinations can even hold an R-value of over 2.0. Thus, depending upon the season, carpet and padding combined can create a strong barrier against heat and cool air loss.
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