The last winter we experienced was the harshest I can remember. I must say before I go any further that I never felt the cold as most people do. Being an avid outdoor type all my life - all year round even through the winter months included. I rarely used the central heating in my home until a few years ago, and even then it would only be for an hour or so just to heat the house. Family and friends had remarked that my home was cold but I never took any notice of them until last Christmas, when I had a visitor from Vietnam who said the place was freezing even though I had the heat on full blast.

I decided it was time to enquire about insulation, so I called a company called Premier Insulations in Birr (where else?) Co Offaly. Within a week, a rep arrived to go through the ins and outs of insulation and shotly after that the work began.

I have cavity walls back and front and these were drilled with small holes and then filled with foam spray insulation stopping the cold getting in and more importantly the heat getting out. This job took about two hours to do, then three to five days for the foam to dry and a further two weeks for the walls to dry completely. The attic was also insulated with blown Rockwool fiberglass, when the two chaps came to insulate the attic they put a big hose type tube in through the bedroom window and they had a machine in the lorry with which they blew in the Rockwool resulting in an even layer of insulation of sixteen inches which now looks like a mattress in the attic.

One thing I noticed immediately was the house was indeed much warmer and now when I do put on the heating it is only for an half an hour or so as the house retains the heat much better. I suppose the only thing I do regret is that I did not know about this years ago when my parents were still alive. Especially my Da, I can now recall being here just after Christmas one year watching The Weakest Link in the bitter cold. I had the heat on but now I realize it was all going out through the walls.

One thing for sure is that the heating bills will not be as high as they were in the past and over a period it will pay for itself.
There are government grants available for house insulation – you can find out more at the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland wep pages at: www.seai.ie