Increasing Properties’ Thermal Insulation

by T4B
Ing. Patrick Spiteri Staines, Director at T4B
The EU Green Deal was initiated with the scope of creating a more environmentally friendly and sustainable economy for all Europeans. In a way this is a reaction to popular demand and also to obvious evidence around us of Global Warming as a result of excessive CO2 in the atmosphere. This imbalance caused by humans is upsetting the equilibrium of the planet and we have only ourselves to blame. The EU green Deal is about correcting this and setting us on the path to environmental and economic sustainability by 2050.
Buildings account for 40% of all energy consumed and anything to reduce this will effect positively our CO2 emissions and ultimately benefit us and the planet. New Buildings in Malta must abide by the 2006 minimum regulations for thermal envelope of buildings; these buildings should be more energy efficient by being better thermally insulated - something that should benefit not only the planet but even the homeowner as energy costs would be lower, and comfort levels higher.
The existing building stock needs to be addressed simultaneously. Without this we cannot hope to achieve EU targets in 2030 and 2050. Deep energy retrofits of existing building are necessary. Public properties as well as private ones need to be tackled and this is a challenge. Authorities should lead by example and for private owned buildings it will be necessary to have aid from the Authorities to do this in a rapid way. Deep Energy retrofits or renovations of existing buildings are more complex, and each building may require its own bespoke solution. Nevertheless, the building envelope needs to be tackled by increasing its thermal insulation properties, reducing and controlling thermal losses while tackling the building services and making them more energy efficient by retrofit solutions or replacing them completely with energy efficient options. Adding where possible renewable energy sources.

The outcome will benefit the homeowner and the country also. These actions need to be seen not only to increase comfort levels and reduce building operational costs but also as our duty to help push our economies towards a more environmentally sustainable and circular economy. The future that we want for our children needs to be started now and by us. We all have a vested interest in this in order to leave this country better than we found it.