There are some very practical and easy things we can all do to keep the heat in our houses and save money as well as reducing our impact on the planet. This section describes how insulation, double glazing and radiator panels can make a big difference.
Insulating your house is one of the most effective ways of reducing your carbon dioxide emissions. For the average house 30% of the heat simply escapes through the walls and is wasted. You can also insulate your loft, floors and windows too.
Cavity Wall Insulation
In most houses the outside walls consist of two layers with a gap between them. By filling this gap with insulating material you can significantly reduce the energy lost through the walls and reduce your heating bill by 25% or £120 a year. It also helps keep your house cooler during the summer.
Click here for details of how to check if you have cavity walls.
The insulation is applied from the outside through small holes in the outer wall and the process only takes a couple of hours.
If your external walls are solid you can have insulating treatments added to the surfaces of your walls to reduce your heat losses.
For outside surfaces you can apply a weatherproof insulating treatment. For inside surfaces you can apply internal insulation such as ready-made insulation boards, wooden battens filled with insulation or flexible linings. All of these approaches could save you around £250 a year and also significantly reduce your climate change impact.
Loft Insulation
Loft insulation is the most cost-effective energy saving measure you can take and it's also very easy to install.
Over 30% of your household heat could be simply escaping through your roof. By adding a 270mm layer of insulation can save around £150 on your heating bill and dramatically reduce your carbon dioxide emissions from unecessary heating.
Suppliers
The following are recommended suppliers of insulation products:
Home Insulation Guide This guide from Wickes provides excellent practical advice on how to insulate your home.
Install double-glazing
Double-glazing creates an insulating barrier by trapping air between two panes of glass. It can dramatically reduce your heating bill and therefore reduce your impact on climate change.
Single-glazed windows and badly insulated window frames account for about 20% of heat loss in a typical home. If you install double-glazing you can cut your heating bills by £70 a year as well as reducing condensation and noise.
If you can't afford to replace all your windows at once then start by double glazing the ones in the rooms which you heat the most.
If you're on a budget, fitting secondary glazing could be the answer. It's less expensive than replacement double-glazing and will still save money by cutting heat loss and draughts.
Remember to look for the Energy Saving Recommended logo when choosing double-glazing products.
Use radiator reflector panels
Shockingly over 50% of the heat from our radiators is simply used to heat the walls behind them, which means that less than half is used to heat our rooms.
Energy saving radiator panels are like tin foil sheets that reflect the heat back from your walls into your rooms thus reducing the amount of heating required and directly reducing your impact on climate change. They can also save as much as 20% on your heating bill.
Installing radiator panels is easy. Simply cut them to the required size and fit behind your radiator. There's no need to remove the radiator, a simple dust behind is the most that should be needed.
