Sirs, Surely the most important aspect of maintaining a comfortable temperature in the home is that of insulation. Your correspondent in the March/April issue provides us with an adequate choice of heating our houses, but little is said of the importance of actually containing that heat once we have been rationed with it.

It is safe to say that in the average New Zealand home heat generated by electric current, coal, gas or oil is dissipated and lost all too quickly because no provision has been made for insulation in ceilings and walls. Although attention to this important fact has repeatedly been made by our leading scientific workers, the point is all too often lost in original design.

In winter the temperature of un-insulated ceilings and walls may be as much as eight to ten degrees below the temperature of the air in the room, giving the sensation of cold draughts due to radiation of heat from the body. In summer un-insulated ceilings and walls rapidly heat up and radiate unwanted heat in the room. Modern research has shown that the greatest comfort is obtained when the temperature of ceilings and walls is within one or two degrees of the air temperature in the room. This condition can only be obtained by the use of insulating materials.

Such insulation is available on the New Zeland market today, taking the form of Rock Wool Fibre either granulated (for insulation in walls) or in handy sized Batts for fitting between ceiling joists. The material I speak of has a low thermal conductivity at a mean temperature of 100 degrees F. of .3 BTUs/per hour/square foot/1″ thickness/1 degree F., and should further information be required by your readers on insulating materials I shall be most happy to supply it.

(We hope to publish an article by Mr Grenney on insulation in the next issue.—Ed.)