Inside: Energy Efficient Changes You Need To Make Today. Collaborative post.
Despite the fact that energy bills seem to be dropping slightly, more Brits are still looking for ways to maximise energy efficiency in their homes to help them combat colder weather and provide added warmth and comfort without having to have the heating on 24/7.
But making your home energy efficient isn’t always about the significant changes you can make; although they need to be part of the equation, too, it’s about the small habits you adopt and the plant that can make all the difference.
If you want to improve energy efficiency, the following can give you places to start.
Insulate Your Home
Your first line of defence against heat loss in the home should be getting insulation. You can add insulation to walls, lofts, floors, tanks, pipes, and radiators. While 100mm Celotex insulation for walls can improve energy efficiency, wall insulation isn’t always feasible for older buildings that are currently being lived in, so looking at other options can help you improve your home energy rating.
Easier alternatives include adding foam insulation to loft spaces, wrapping pipes in insulation, and insulation under floors. Even though this, too, is a big job, it’s not as extensive as adding it to walls. Adding foam insulation can decrease energy loss by up to 33%, saving you around £500 annually on energy bills.
Stop Draughts
This is a simple trick anyone can do to help reduce heat escaping from your home. Look for areas where air is getting in to identify where you are potentially using heat and allow you to fix it. Place a candle or a piece of thin paper or material in areas where you suspect there is a draught and then address it. If it’s coming in under your front door, a draught excluder can work well to block the gaps and stop air from escaping or coming in.
For windows, from where most of your home’s energy escapes, along with doors, if it’s the seal, resealing any cracks or holes can stop the issue instantly or adding floor-length curtains or window films can be effective, too. Or you might find that you need to replace old single-glazed windows or blown double-glazing to help you improve energy efficiency.
Energy Efficient Appliances
Energy efficiency appliances and fittings can be a great place to start reducing your energy consumption. Start by changing your lightbulbs over to LED ones for immediate savings; LED light bulbs (each household can save upwards of £50 per year doing this).
Then, you can look at updating your appliances as needed to more energy-efficient ones or repairing inefficient appliances to make them work better and reduce how much energy they use to operate.
Other options include low-flush toilets, low-pressure taps, water-saving shower heads or implementing smart controls to give you greater control over how each aspect of your home is used and how much energy you are using.
Creating a more energy-efficient home can be a big undertaking. Still, by making small and consistent changes, you can start to reap the benefits of your endeavours to help you reduce your bills and increase efficiency in one fell swoop.