Making changes to your home like insulating cavity walls, lofts, tanks and pipes can give you significant savings on your heating bills as well as reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Even simple draught proofing to fill the gaps around your windows can help.
Insulating your home
- Cavity wall insulation - Around a third of all the heat lost in an un-insulated home is lost through the walls. Cavity wall insulation is a fantastic way to significantly reduce the amount of energy you need to heat your home.
- Solid wall insulation - If you have solid walls you can either insulate them with external or internal insulation.
- Floor insulation - Insulating beneath floorboards will reduce heating bills and improve the comfort of your home. Gaps and cracks around floors and skirting boards are easy to fill yourself using a tube of sealant.
- Loft Insulation - Insulating your loft could save you around £145 per year on your energy bills.
- Draught proofing - Using strips and excluders to draught proof around leaky door and window frames can save around £25 a year on heating bills.
- Tanks and pipe insulation - Tank and pipe insulation keep your water hotter for longer by reducing the amount of heat that escapes.
- Glazing - Double glazing cuts heat lost through windows by half. Double glazing works by trapping air between two panes of glass creating an insulating barrier that reduces heat loss, noise and condensation.
- Generate your own energy - If you've done all the previous suggestions you could consider renewable energy.
Renewable energy technologies like solar panels, wind turbines, and wood fuelled heaters are becoming increasingly popular. These are effective alternatives to fossil fuels and will help you to meet your own energy requirements and reduce your home's carbon dioxide emissions.
