How to make your home more energy efficient?

With the latest multiple price raises for utilities looking into making ones home more energy efficient is super important.

‘This is Money’ reports that energy efficient homes are in demand:

• Property energy efficiency is ‘important’ to nine in 10 home buyers
• More than half are looking for a well-insulated home, research shows
• A fifth of Britons wouldn’t consider a house with an EPC of below grade C
• We look at the energy-saving features that are most wanted by house hunters

The cost of energy efficient home improvements can be anything between £100 to 1000s of pounds!

But what are the most sensible ones bringing you the most of ROI?

Solar Panels PV

Homes with solar panels (a solar cell panel, solar electric panel, or solar panel, also known as a photo-voltaic module or PV panel) on their roofs can save on their electricity bills hundreds of pounds a month when using home-generated electricity instead of costly grid power. This means solar panels will be paid back in a few years!

Analysis from climate website Carbon Brief suggests the payback period for a £4,300 rooftop solar system, with a power capacity of 3kW, has dropped from 16.7 years in October 2020 to 11.1 years under the current price cap. The payback period drops to 4.1 years following the latest price rise from April 2022. We have been thinking about installing solar panels for a while now and as our house is big I see a lot of sense in doing so to save on the electricity price and cut our carbon emissions. Its not about the size of the house here but rather the fact we work from home most of the week and use robotic hoovers and a few other appliances using power – so in our case it makes absolute sense. I went through our electricity bill and see we could indeed offset the solar panel cost in 4 years.

The savings will depend on the how many people live in the house and how the energy is bing used throughout the day/evening. Data from EST – Energy Saving Trust states that if you live in south east England (as we do 🙂 ) and you are home all day you can save round £610/yr provided that you sell some of the generated power. I got 3 quotes from the qualifies solar installers from mcscertified.com so I know in our case the spent will be quickly paid back and definitely want to go for it!

Heat Pumps

So originally we wanted to get solar panels + heat pump as I was interested in getting the £5000 grant from Government from the Boiler Upgrade Scheme for those living in England and Wales. However looking at their cost – something between £7000-£13,000 they are rather pricey. You also need to pay extra for fitting the hot water cylinder (standard pumps don’t heat water on demand) or for making changes to your central heating system.

If you get any savings from installing heat pump depends where you are living and how energy efficient is your house already.

If you are replacing an old boiler with energy efficiency rating G that mean you may save around £400 on your bills. However if like us you have a new boiler with energy rating A (I think ours is A+) then there wont be any savings in fact we will pay slightly more if we install the heat pump. As Which states it would be an extra £80 for us…So we will refrain from installing a heat pump but we still may invest in solar panels.

Insulation

Our house is well insulated as since getting it in 2017 we have been improving it iteratively and a word Kingspan sounds like a music to my ears ;-). If you can’t insulate your home with a thick Styrofoam then there are other things you can still do to keep the warmth inside your home.

• insulating hot pipes and your hot water cylinder (if you have one) shouldnt cost more than £30 but can save almost £80 of your annual bill!
• insulating cavity walls will cost round £1000 for a 3bed semi-detached house – however as 30% of the house warmth is lost through the walls it sounds like an important and sensible improvement! Annual saving up to £400 on your energy bills…Make sure your house has an adequate ventilation as else you will have condensation problems and it will be counterproductive as you will get many other problems!

Draught excluding

Do you remember my post about draught excluders from Chimney Shop? Its a super quick and budget friendly fix. The draft excluders cost as little as £18 and installed above an unused fireplace may save about £90 from the annual energy bill. Learn more about draught proofing draught-proofing your chimney here.

Draught proofing windows and doors could also save about £60 in a typical two bed semi-detached house. Professional draught-proofing will be more costly (£200-£300) but it will be paid back in not whole 2 years!

Another low cost home improvements

• Turning your combi boiler flow temperature down to 60°C could save you up to £100 a year
• Turning down radiators in rooms you aren’t using or use less could save you up to £70 a year
• Turning appliances off at the socket could save you up to £70 a year 
• Washing clothes at a lower temperature could save you up to £40 a year 
• Using your tumble dryer less could save you £70 a year
• Closing all your curtains and blinds at night
• Tracking your energy usage using an app

Read more about each of them in details on: Energy saving tips to save money website.

ah and it goes without saying that we all should use LED bulbs by now 🙂