Carbon House Print

Home > Energy Advice > Home Improvements > Insulation & Glazing

Home insulation & glazing
Nearly 50% of a typical home’s heat is lost through the loft and walls. By improving your insulation you can save on your energy bills and reduce your carbon emissions.

Cavity wall insulation
By having cavity wall insulation installed you can greatly reduce money spent on energy heating your home. The average home in the UK could reduce heating costs by 15%. The latest figures available, show that about 800,000 homes have had had cavity wall insulation fitted between 2002 and 2005. This has saved nearly 400,000 tonnes of CO2.

About 30% of all heat in an un-insulated home is lost through its walls. With the current increase in energy prices, you could save about £100 if you have your cavity walls insulated and this will pay for itself within 5 years. The CO2 saving per year is in the region of 750 kilograms.

Check our UK directory to find your local cavity wall installer.

Solid wall insulation
Compared to cavity walls, solid walls lose even more heat and to reduce the loss of heat is to insulate them on the inside or the outside.

You could save around £300 a year on your energy bills and will pay for itself in around six years. The CO2 saving per year is about 2.5 tonnes for a three bedroom semi-detached house.

Check our UK directory to find your local solid wall installer.

Floor insulation
One of the simplest ways to stop draughts coming up through gaps in the skirting and floor boards is to fix it yourself with a tube of sealant for a DIY store. Use a silicone sealant to fill the necessary gaps and you could save about £15 in energy bills. You could also insulate underneath your floorboards and increase the savings to £40 per year.

The CO2 saving for a semi-detached three bedroom house is about 500 kilograms.

Loft Insulation
Loft insulation acts as a blanket, trapping heat rising from the house below. You could save about £110 per year on energy bills as a result of insulating your loft to a recommended depth of 270mm.

£380m would be saved each year if everyone in the UK increased their loft insulation to 270mm which is enough money to pay the annual fuel bills of over 400,000 families.

With the recommended 270mm depth you could save nearly 1 tonne of CO2 per year.

Draught proofing
If you feel a draught coming from around your window or doors it means you are losing heat and about 20% of all heat loss is as a result of draughts and poor ventilation.

By draught proofing you could cut your CO2 emissions by 140kg and save around £20 a year on your heating bills. If all the residents in Great Britain installed basic draught proofing measures in their homes, they would save around £130m per year!

Tanks and pipe insulation
By insulating your tank and pipes you will keep your water hotter for longer. One of the easiest and cheapest ways to save energy and money is to insulate your hot water cylinder. You can reduce heat loss from your cylinder by over 75% by fitting a British Standard 'jacket'. A hot water jacket costs about £12 and this will help you reduce your energy bills by about £20 per year and will recover your outlay in about 6 months. You will also reduce your CO2 emissions by 150 kilograms.

Insulating your pipes will costs about £10 and this will shave £10 off your energy bill and reduce your CO2 by 60 kilograms.

Glazing
You can reduce heat loss through windows by half if you have double glazed windows installed and you could save in the region of £100 per year on your energy bills and also cut down on noise and condensation.

The UK could save the equivalent of 800,000 household’s emissions if everyone in the UK who needed double glazing had it fitted.

Check our UK directory to find you local glazier who can provide with the latest heat loss reduction systems.

Source: Energy Savings Trust