Reducing Heat Loss from your Home and Reducing your Bills in the Process
While all new homes are required to conform to stringent building regulations designed to make them as energy efficient as possible this is not the case with older homes.
In the vast majority of cases a great deal can be done to increase the energy efficiency of older properties, reducing the energy requirement and consequently lowering household energy bills substantially.
Many of the improvements described in the insulation section of this site can be put into place extremely cheaply and easily and with no specialist knowledge or particular DIY skills. If you know which way round to hold a screwdriver then you’re half way there already!
If you wish to undertake this work yourself, you will find everything you need at Wickes with FREE DELIVERY on orders over £50! Click here for more information.
While other sections of this site deal with lowering the cost of the energy that you use, the insulation sections of this site are geared towards reducing the amount of energy that you actually require in the first place and by considering both of these approaches you can expect to make significant savings.
There are many reasons for improving the thermal efficiency of your property, from purely financial rewards so a sense of individual environmental responsibility – whatever motivates you to make a difference to your energy consumption the advice in this section will enable you to achieve that.
With global energy prices continuing to increase you may also wish to consider the information in other areas of the site such as solar and wind power – both of which can be deployed at home and are becoming a better and better option with every single energy price rise!
However your home energy is produced the insulation tips provided here will help you to use less of it and they are split into several easy to follow sections:
Home Insulation Audit Checklist – An overview of how you can improve the insulation around your home and save energy AND money.
Loft insulation – reducing the heat loss through the roof of your home. Hot air rises and it will happily and quickly rise up all the way up through your house and out through your roof if you let it – at your expense.
Central heating insulation – increasing the efficiency of your heating and hot water systems. Make sure the water that you’ve paid to heat stays hot long enough for you to use it.
Radiator Insulation – make sure the heat from your radiators is going into your living space, not heating your brickwork.
Floor Insulation – cutting heat loss through uninsulated floors.
Sloping Roof Insulation – reducing heat loss through a sloping roof.
Ventilation and Insulation – preventing damp and rot by ensuring good air circulation around your home.
Draught proofing – keeping the warm air in and the cool air out. Gaps around doors and windows can let in cold air and make your house feel cold – you can either keep it out or pay to heat it – it’s your choice.
Cavity wall insulation – reducing the heat loss through the walls of your home. Heat transfer through walls is one of the greatest heat loss factors in a property and can be drastically reduced.
Given the effectiveness of loft insulation we have also prepared detailed information on how to undertake this yourself and this can be found under:
Loft Insulation – DIY installation instructions – a “how to” guide for the DIYer.
Though a separate section entirely as far as this site is concerned, Double Glazing is another insulation method and is one of the most straightforward ways to massively improve the heat retention characteristics of your property, although not necessarily the cheapest. We have provided both an over view of how it works and a consumer guide to having it fitted and they can be found here:
Double glazing – introduction to the function and types of double glazing.
Consumer guide to double glazing – a detailed guide to the process of having double glazing fitted (or replaced).