Insulating your home
Insulating your home is critical to safe energy and therefore money. You can insulate the following areas and items in your home to spend less money heating water up, and your hot water will stay hotter for longer. All good for your pocket, all good for the planet.
Loft insulation
In a house with an uninsulated loft, a quarter of your heat is literally going through the roof. That means for every £4 on your heating bill, £1 of it has evaporated.
upgrading your insulation from a minimal level of 100m to the recommended 270mm can greatly reduce your heating bills. It also helps you do your bit for the environment – by everyone in the UK installing 270mm loft insulation, we could save 2.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year, which is equivalent to taking about 100,000 cars off the road.
Cavity wall insulation
About a third of all the heat lost in an uninsulated home escapes through the walls, so it might also be beneficial to look into getting cavity wall insulation to prevent heat loss.
Houses built after 1990 should already have it; if your house was built between 1920 and 1990, it’s likely to have cavity walls and is a good candidate for insulation to be installed. Pre-1920 and your walls are probably solid.
Filling cavity walls is not a DIY job, so you’ll need to hire a registered installer. For an average-sized house with easily accessible walls, a pro will get the job done in around two hours. Read more in our cavity wall insulation guide.
Hot water tank insulation
In case you don’t have a combi boiler, you’ll have a hot water tank somewhere in your home. A British Standard hot water cylinder jacket costs about £15 and you can easily fit it yourself if you follow the manufacturer’s instructions.
having a jacket fitted around your tank, check that it’s at least 80mm thick. Topping up your hot water tank insulation from 25mm to 80mm thick could save you around £20 a year, which is more than the cost of the jacket.
Pipe insulation
Pipe insulation is another task you can do yourself, as long as your pipes are accessible. The insulation consists of a foam tube that Care Plans the exposed pipes between your hot water cylinder and boiler, reducing the amount of heat lost and, therefore, keeping your water hotter for longer.
Pipe insulation is extremely cheap and you can order it online after measuring up your pipes.
Calling in a professional is a wise course of action when having trouble reaching pipework.
Insulating your home further information
Find out more about maintaining and servicing your boiler or energy saving tips.
