With the UK Government pushing its ‘Net Zero Carbon’ initiative and urging people to choose renewables over fossil fuels, you may be considering investing in highly efficient electric heaters, boilers, solar panels or heat pumps. But before making that decision, it is crucial to review and improve your home’s insulation. In this blog we list down the key steps to improve the energy efficiency of your home. The importance of this is embedded in the fact that the reduction of heat loss from your property means you will waste less energy, hence optimally utilizing the heating products in your home.
What is ‘Home Insulation’?
Generally, good insulators are made of materials that have structural similarity to wool, which aid in trapping tiny pockets of air. Mineral wool, fibreglass and polystyrene are the most commonly used home insulation materials. Insulation will help you keep the rooms of your house at a desirable temperature, all year round, protecting you from the harsh winter and excess heat in the summer.
In a typical house, the walls account for 30-40% of the heat loss within the property. The roof – 25%. The floors – 20%. Usually modern houses are well insulated, but the same cannot be said for older properties. During winter, heat from within the home could be lost, causing your heating systems to over-work in order to try and maintain an optimal room temperature. This could cause a spike in your energy consumption and in-turn, exorbitant energy bills for you to pay.
The Energy Saving Trust estimates that in a year, a typical 3-bedroom, semi-detached house could save up to £310 on energy bills by installing loft and cavity-wall insulation.
Improving the energy efficiency of your home.
As depicted in the diagram above, a poorly insulated UK home uses around 130 watts per m2 of heating. Taking the average house size as 100 sqm, the energy consumption in the poorly insulated property would be 13kW, or around 8 hours of heating per day, which would make the energy consumption 104kWh per day.
Follow these key steps and let us know if you have seen an improvement in the energy efficiency of your home.
For more information on energy-efficient products that could help you reduce your carbon footprint, call our office on 01162425533. Alternatively, you could also browse through our free brochure for more product-related information.
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