By Siân Bedford

The Aim The aim is to investigate different ways in which we can insulate our homes, and to find out which way is the most effective and which way is the cheapest

In March my set visited British Gas, we began to find out less costly and more environmentally friendly ways to insulate our homes. I also looked at a text book “Exploring Science 8” and found out how much money you lose without an insulated house. As well I looked on the internet to discover more interesting forms of insulation from; and search engines like living library and google. This is where I found out that people insulate their homes with turf and sheep’s wool.

I predict that turf will be the best insulator because it is thick and full of air pockets which would fill with the hot air and prevent the heat from escaping. It would also be environmentally friendly and create habitats for animals, the down side is you would have to mow your roof.

To start of with I would heat up some water in the kettle, Then I would insulate the beaker with the material I was testing. I would attach a thermometer to a clamp stand (to hold the thermometer straight and so I don’t burn myself whilst taking the temperature). Next, I would pour the water into the insulated beaker. Finally, I would start the stop-clock and record the temperature every minute for 30 minutes. I repeated each experiment 3 times to get an accurate result for; turf, loft insulation and tin-foil. I also completed a control i.e. no insulation to compare the results with.

The results show that all of the insulated beakers worked better than no insulation at all, the best was the loft insulation, then the turf and then the tin-foil. This did not match my prediction as I predicted that turf would have been the best insulator, I now know that the thick, fluffy texture of the loft insulation has more air pockets which the heat got trapped in, causing the water in the beaker to stay warmer for longer.

I do not believe I have enough evidence for a firm conclusion; as I did not use a lid the heat escaped via the top of the beaker, also I used different thicknesses of the different materials to insulate the beakers, as I repeated each test 3 times I used different amounts of material here too, also I do no think I used the same width of insulation around the beaker, and there is no guarantee that all of the beakers had the same amount and temperature of water, there is also a problem in starting the stop-clocks at the right time. Taking all of these points into account I believe that I would have to resolve the problems and repeat all of the tests to make sure there is an accurate conclusion.

If I had more time and money was not an object I would select 3 identical houses insulated with different materials and then detect; how much money the heating bills are, how much money and time it costs to maintain the houses over a long period of time, at least a year so all of the seasons are included.