With spring in the air, Energy Saving Trust offers advice on energy saving home improvements
With the clocks moving forward in the UK, spring has officially arrived. As the weather warms up and the days get longer, many people will be thinking about how they can refresh their homes. Energy prices have also increased for households in Great Britain from 1 April in line with the Ofgem energy price cap1.
For households in Great Britain who pay for their gas and electricity via direct debit, from 1 April the typical unit rate is 27.03p/kWh for electricity, with a daily standing charge of 53.80p and 6.99p/kWh for gas, with a daily standing charge of 32.67p.1
This means people can expect a 6.4% increase to their annual energy bills to £111 or around £9.25 a month, over the three-month period of the price cap.1
Experts at Energy Saving Trust are sharing their advice on spring home improvements to make your home more energy efficient, saving a typical household £910 a year. Energy efficiency upgrades are a smart, long-term solution to combat the UK’s notoriously inefficient housing stock and secure lasting savings, regardless of fluctuating energy prices.
Joanna O’Loan, knowledge manager at Energy Saving Trust, says: “If you’re planning renovations for long term home improvements this spring, there are several upgrades that can help you save both money and energy. From installing solar panels to adding extra insulation, there are many ways to enhance your home’s energy efficiency that will provide benefits all year round for years to come.”
Get your loft insulated
A significant amount of heat, approximately a quarter, is lost through the roof in an uninsulated home. Insulating your loft, attic, or flat roof is an effective way to reduce heat loss and lower your heating bills. Properly installed loft insulation can pay for itself many times over during its 40-year lifetime.
If your loft is easily accessible and free from damp or condensation issues, it can be insulated relatively easily, often as a DIY project. Rolls of mineral wool insulation can be used, with the first layer laid between the joists and a second layer laid at right angles to cover the joists and achieve the required depth.
The cost of insulating a loft varies based on the type and size of your house and the amount of insulation needed. For a semi-detached house, professionally installing 270mm of loft insulation in an uninsulated loft costs around £950, while topping up from 120mm to 270mm costs about £750. DIY insulation is cheaper, with costs depending on the length, thickness, and material of the insulation rolls or boards you purchase.
Installing top up loft insulation from 150mm to 270mm and cavity wall insulation can save
£250 a year in Great Britain and will reduce your carbon footprint by 700kg annually.
Install solar panels on your roof and soak up the savings
The average cost to install solar panels is around £7,000. Once your solar panel system is installed, you should see energy bills lower by around £340 a year for a typical home in Great Britian.
By signing up for the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG), you can earn around £120 annually and reduce your carbon footprint by 750kg each year.
Catch every ray: Add in home battery storage to make even more use of the electricity from the solar panels.
Upgrade the insulation of your walls and floors
Adding some insulation to a room is a good way to keep it warm all year round.
Internal solid wall insulation for a whole house costs around £7,500, which usually includes basic redecoration. However, you can have it done room by room to save on costs. And if you’re already renovating the room, that cost comes down even more.
Installing solid wall insulation can save up to £320 annually in Great Britain and reduce your CO2 emissions by 900kg per year.
If you have a suspended timber ground floor, you can lay mineral wool insulation between the joists after you take up the floorboards. If you have a basement, cellar or large enough crawl space, it can often be insulated from underneath without having to take up any floorboards. In either case, this will save you £110 a year in Great Britain.
Floor insulation also improves your carbon footprint by about 310kg a year.
If you’ve got a solid concrete floor, you can either:
- Dig up the floor, lay the insulation and put down new concrete. You have to insulate under a replacement concrete floor to follow building regulations.
- Lay insulation boards on top of the existing concrete, which will raise the height of your floor. You may need to adjust doors and sockets to accommodate the new floor height.
Reduce your carbon footprint with a heat pump
If you’re looking to dramatically reduce the carbon impact of your home heating, a heat pump is a great investment. Heat pumps use electricity to run but most of the heat they provide comes from the outside air or ground, not from the electricity itself. This makes them much more efficient than gas or oil boilers in terms of the heat they provide compared to the energy you pay for.
Even though electricity is more expensive than gas or oil, most people will end up paying less to heat a home.
Compared to an average heating system, heat pumps could improve your carbon footprint by 2,300kg a year in Great Britain.
For more energy saving tips and advice on energy-efficient home upgrades, visit the Energy Saving Trust’s website.
