Efficiency Matrix, who specialises in Auditing for building performance Residential & Commercial, and is the largest capable air tightness tester in Australia.
Building Pressurization
Air Leakage in the building envelope can contribute to significant energy Loss. Building pressurization/Blower Door testing helps Quantify and sometimes identify these issues in the building envelope.
The Downlight Swiss Cheese Effect
The Downlight Swiss Cheese Effect
How our Downlight Mitt product differs from others.
Common Inefficiencies of Downlights otherwise known as pot lights and recessed lighting
For a detailed explanation of this post click here to see the Electrical Solutions Magazine article.
Here is a brief explanation on how downlights make your ceiling into Swiss CHEESE, while also exposing your insulation to the risk of fire.
CHEESE
Convection Currents
When your lights are turned on, heat from your halogen lamp encourages air from your living area to shoot up into your roof area.
Heated Air pressure
During cold days, opening around your downlights and gaps in your insulation enable hot air to freely pass into your roof space from your living area. Hot air wants to go up.
Expansion of Heated Air
During hot days, the sun creates extremely hot air in your roof area (70˚+ C), this air expands and pushes down into your living area through ventilated downlight fittings. This effect is especially undesirable when you have LED recessed light fittings installed. LED lamps can be damaged by operating in temperatures of 70˚ Celcius.
Excessive Air Drop
During cold nights, downlight fittings enable cold air to freely drop into your house avoiding the R-value from insulation completely. Our house gets cooler quicker, with ventilated downlight fittings.
Spread of Draughts
During windy days, your roof can become quite windy, these draughts freely move into your living area with ventilated downlight fittings.
Exposure to Fire damage
Should insulation or debris get too close to a standard halogen dichroic Lamp (300˚ + Celcius) there is a very real risk of fire ignition.
The root cause of these inefficiencies is the way standard dichroic lamps operate.
- They produce light downwards and
- they try to force the majority of their heat and a good portion of the light backwards up into the roof.
“So effectively they create connectivity of your living area to your roof area.”
Thermal Imaging of Downlight Mitt fixing downlights.
Thermal Imaging of the Downlight Mitt fixing downlights. At a time when LED’s are becoming very popular, downlight covers are also becoming critical for recessed lighting energy efficiency in Australia due to the need to have insulation consistency in 6-star energy star rated homes. Efficiency Matrix provides Australians more reasons to move forward with a product to cover downlights.
In this thermal imaging, the Downlight Mitt is the cone-shaped product on the right. It completely stops the convection current effect and separates your roof from your living area with an R-value, unlike plastic downlight covers, which only prevents draughts.
The R-Value consistency of your insulation in your roof is equally as important as reducing the draught effect and convection current effect in your home. There is no need to settle for just a fire retardant product, demand the best, demand downlight insulation which also has a fire rating!
Images provided by Air Leakage Measurement Australia
HIA Build Green EXPO
Overwhelming interest in the Downlight Mitt and Loft Mitt
The show ran us off our feet. People love their downlights, they just need a solution for them… Many people were not aware how badly downlights contributed to inefficiencies in home insulation. The Downlight Mitt is a premium product as a downlight cover for insulation installations. At the show, people finally found a downlight cover that worked.
Build Green Expo
Efficiency Matrix, will be attending the HIA Build Green Expo!!! Home assessors out there are telling us downlights are no good, and they are spot on! But there is now no need to remove these energy inefficient fittings anymore. Rather than removing downlights or uninstalling and replacing with “fixed heat downlight fittings”, Efficiency Matrix has a product which provides thermal insulation in a downlight cover.
Exciting new green product launch by Efficiency Matrix to resolve downlight fires in your home.
The Downlight Mitt will be in centre stage for halogen downlights. Enjoy our NEW Demonstrations Videos now available online!
