According to recent research, 73% of global consumers have considered changing their consumption habits to reduce their impact on the environment. Those same consumers work, live and play in the buildings around us. So it’s no surprise the use of natural building materials is becoming more popular.
Natural sustainable building products have been around for many years and are well established. Limited awareness and understanding have hampered growth until recently, but that’s now changing.
What’s behind the change?
End users are now looking for materials that are healthy for themselves, their homes and the planet. That’s where products like Thermafleece British sheep’s wool insulation come into their own. Thermafleece is made using British wool and it’s the only large-scale natural fibre insulation made in Britain.
What makes British wool so good for insulation?
Thermafleece uses the wool from sheep that are bred on the hills, fells and mountains of Britain. The sheep need to be hardy to thrive in this difficult environment, meaning they need coarse, bulky wool fleeces. Their wool isn’t suitable for clothing because it’s too coarse. It’s also too dark to dye so it can’t be used in carpets either. However, it’s ideal for insulation, providing durability and warmth to your home in the harshest of weather.
Where does the wool come from?
Thermafleece originates from the Cumbrian Lake District. The wool destined for Thermafleece is washed and cleaned in Yorkshire. It then travels 5 miles down the road where it is turned into insulation.
Yorkshire is the home of the wool industry, so it’s the obvious place to make Thermafleece. Insulation is a very bulky material so the closer it’s manufactured to its final destination, the lower the impact of getting it to your site. That’s why local manufacturing is so important. This all helps make Thermafleece healthy for the planet.
What can sheep’s wool do?
Sheep’s wool is one of nature’s most technical and versatile fibres. The fibres themselves contain air and the thousands of fine scales on each strand create a very high surface area. This helps trap even more air. Combined, these factors make Thermafleece very effective at preventing heat loss. In fact, insulating your loft with Thermafleece CosyWool is the equivalent of having a 75 Tog duvet in your attic.
Thermafleece doesn’t just prevent heat loss though. It’s great for absorbing sound; is highly breathable, improves indoor air quality and is itch-free making it safe to handle. All of which makes it healthy for you and healthy for your home.
Sheep’s wool is truly breathable. This allows it to adjust its moisture content in balance with the humidity of the surrounding air. Breathability helps create a more stable humidity balance. This is important because keeping humidity levels below the point where decay, woodworm or dust mites thrive, protects the building fabric and indoor air quality.
Thermafleece contributes to good indoor air quality in other ways. It emits extremely low Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). VOCs can be very bad for your health, causing allergic reactions and triggering conditions such as asthma amongst other things. That’s why it is important to use products containing extremely low VOCs, but wool does even more. It is also capable of absorbing and neutralising dangerous indoor air pollutants such as formaldehyde.
Acoustic properties of natural fibre insulation are often overlooked because of their irregular surface, shape and density. Fibres such as sheep’s wool are very effective at disrupting sound. That’s one of the reasons why Thermafleece can provide acoustic performance comparable to the best mineral fibre products.
How is it fire safe?
How materials react to fire is an increasingly important consideration. Sheep’s wool has a high ignition temperature and reacts to fire by charring. To improve these natural characteristics, the wool in Thermafleece is also treated with a low level of borax to ensure our insulation is fire safe. All Thermafleece products pass British Standard tests for smoulder resistance and flammability.
Thermafleece is available in a variety of shapes, sizes and densities to match all suitable end uses. It’s important that end users can easily buy Thermafleece whatever their needs. That’s why we are delighted to have cmostores.com as a leading distributor for our full range of products.
It’s easy to see how sheep’s wool insulation is gaining in popularity. There’s a surprising variety of people and a range of buildings now appreciating the benefits of Thermafleece. What’s more, for insulation that does so much for your health, home and the planet, Thermafleece is surprisingly good value for money. No wonder natural fibres were the fastest growing type of insulation in 2019.
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