Since I wrote about some of the problems that the Free Insulation Scheme that the Australia Government has been having they have cancelled the plan and are now footing the tax payers with a $50 million clean up bill.

According to an article in the Australian the scheme has been linked to 105 house fires and four deaths. There were apparently 1.1 million homes insulated under the scheme, and as many as 240,000 roofs are feared to have safety or quality problems.

There are about 50,000 homes that have had foil insulation installed. Improperly installed foil insulation has been linked to all four deaths, and most of the house fires from what I have read. The homes that have had the foil insulation installed have the option of having the insulation removed, or getting an electrical safety switch installed.

Despite stuffing the first insulation scheme up the government is now looking at trying to run another scheme. Home owners who have to get their insulation removed because it wasn’t right the first time, and people who didn’t take advantage of the first failed scheme, will be able to apply for the new scheme in June.

Sources:

• $50m foil clean-up bill
• homes insulation program clean-up outsourced to private firm

Since the Australian Federal Government’s roof and ceiling insulation rebate program there have been four recorded deaths of insulation installers because of foil insulation coming into contact with live electrical wires and faults.

Generally speaking foil insulation in new houses is considered to be very safe. Installation in older houses however can be a problem …

Usually foil insulation is only used in new house installations. With the Australian Government’s $1200 rebate that they have been offering however there have been a large number of older homes having foil insulation installed in the ceilings. Some of the older houses have live electrical faults and when the foil insulation comes into contact with these faults, or staples are put through the electrical wires, the electrical current is then conducted throughout the foil insulation.

According to this article on ABC there are about 37,000 homes that have had foil insulation installed and according to an Australian Government audit five out of every 400 or so of those houses have “live ceilings”. They say that would mean about 400 – 500 houses in Australia right now are in a very dangerous situation.

On Tuesday the Australian government banned the use of foil insulation in their rebate program.

The only way to find out if a roof or ceiling with foil insulation is electrically live is for an electrician to be hired to test the installation, at the expense of the home owner. If the electrician finds that the foil insulation in live then they should be able to be compensated by the company that did the installation, otherwise for the moment they are out of pocket the expense of the electrical test.

I don’t know how I missed this, but the Australian Government is offering $1600 to all house owner-occupiers to have ceiling insulation installed. They estimate that it will save up to $200 per house in energy bills, and increase the energy rating of all Australian homes to a minimum of two-stars.

In addition to offering the $1600 to owner-occupiers the government is also offering a $1000 rebates to landlords to encourage them to install ceiling insulation in their rental properties.

Currently about 40% of homes in Australia and New Zealand are not insulated, with Queensland having the lowest percentage of insulation of any state in Australia.

Our house currently has a spray on reflective insulation on the roof, which we also had done to our first house which you can see here, spray on reflective roof insulation. This type of insulation works by reflecting the suns heat, but there is no mass of insulation (like your classic pink bats, or fibreglass insulation) in the ceiling, so the $1600 could be used to insulate the area over the core four upstairs room in the house, although it would definitely cost a lot less than that to do.

You can read more about the free ceiling insulation project from the Australia Government here.