When homeowners make home improvements like a loft conversion or an extension, they generally don't make energy efficiency upgrades beyond those required by building regulations. Installing energy efficiency upgrades, such as insulation or draught-proofing, will not only make your home warmer, but also help alleviate causes of damp and mould, and lower your energy bills.
Making home energy efficiency upgrades in parallel with work being undertaken on your home improvement could be more cost effective and less hassle than employing a further tradesperson to carry them out at a later date. The following guide proposes some simple changes to better plan ahead and offer advice on which jobs can be easily combined.
Insulation
Make sure your extension is insulated to the standards stipulated by Building Regulations in England and Wales, and Building Standards in Scotland. Consider requesting a quote from your builder to arrange for the rest of your home to be insulated as well. If your home has cavity walls, a layer of insulation can be blown into the cavity.
If you have solid walls (usually homes built before 1920), you can have either internal or external insulation completed. Applying external insulation at the same time as your extension would ensure the exterior finish to the main building matches the extension, improving the aesthetic of your home.
External insulation will also make those cold rooms in your home warmer and, so long as sufficient ventilation is maintained, it can help alleviate many causes of damp and mould.
solid wall insulation could save around £225 a year from the heating bills of a typical gas-fuelled semi-detached home.
Savings could be significantly higher in detached properties, around £375 per year in a typical gas-fuelled detached home.
Lighting
Lighting accounts for 15 per cent of a typical household’s electricity bill. So, it can be a good time to consider the most efficient lighting options when making alterations to your home.
LEDs are the most efficient light bulb on the market and have made significant advancements since their early days of low quality lighting. They are available with varying degrees of brightness, colours, and ‘colour temperatures’ – from warm white to cool white in appearance – and can suit almost all light fittings. Although the cost of bulbs is coming down, it can sometimes appear prohibitive, so consider the most used lights throughout your home as a first step.
Your tradesperson must install low energy light fittings under current Building Regulations as part of the works they undertake and this would be something they can advise on for the remainder of your home.
If the average household replaced all of their bulbs with LEDs, it would cost about £100 and save about £40 a year on bills.
Turn off lights
Turn your lights off when you’re not using them. If you switch a light off for just a few seconds, you will save more energy than it takes for the light to start up again, regardless of the type of light.
This will save you around £15 a year on your annual energy bills.
Renewable energy
If your home improvement work requires scaffolding, such as a loft conversion, this would be an ideal time to install solar panels. Scaffolding is a significant part of the solar installation costs, so combining it with other works could make them much more cost-effective. Solar panels are most effective on south-facing roofs at a pitch of around 30 degrees.
There are various other factors to consider when thinking about whether your home set up works and how best to maximise the installation.
Heating upgrades
Extending the size of a home often requires improvements to your heating system and installation of new radiators or under-floor heating. As a larger area is being heated, a more powerful boiler will likely be required so consider upgrading to a more efficient boiler. This is particularly worthwhile if your current boiler is over 12 years old, with newer models significantly cheaper to run than their older equivalents.
Boilers are often located in kitchens and it’s important to plan ahead – especially if you’re thinking of investing heavily in a new kitchen. If you have an older boiler, for example, and you build your new kitchen around it, you might then find that that the boiler needs replacing in a few years’ time. An engineer might need to move kitchen units around to accommodate your new boiler which could impact on the aesthetics. It’s important to weigh up the pros and cons, and if your boiler is an old inefficient model, it might be wise to replace your boiler at the same time as getting your new kitchen fitted
More than half the money spent on fuel bills goes towards providing heating and hot water.
Installing a room thermostat, a programmer and thermostatic radiator valves and using these controls efficiently could save you around £75 a year.
If you already have a full set of controls, turning down your room thermostat by just one degree can save around £60 a year.
Whatever the age of your boiler the right controls will allow you to:
Set your heating and hot water to come on and off when you need them
Heat only the areas of your home that need heating
Set the temperature for each area of your home.
Windows and doors
When installing new windows or external doors, they will have to comply with minimum Building Regulations. However, it’s worth going beyond the minimum and installing the most efficient ones you can afford. As well as making sure your doors are well draught-proofed, you could consider getting triple glazing rather than double glazing which also includes the benefit of reducing sound from outside noise should you live in a busy location.
Installing A++ rated double glazing in an entirely single-glazed house could save around £105 per year off heating bills of a typical semi-detached home.
Draught proofing
Unless your home is very new, you will lose some heat through draughts around doors and windows, gaps around the floor, or through the chimney.
Professional draught-proofing of windows, doors and blocking cracks in floors and skirting boards can cost around £200, but can save around £25 a year on energy bills. DIY draught proofing can be much cheaper.
Installing a chimney draught excluder could save around £19 a year as well
Kitchens
If you're having a new kitchen installed and purchasing new appliances, choosing more efficient appliances will help save on energy bills
Careful in your kitchen
You can save around £39 a year from your energy bill just by using your kitchen appliances more carefully:
Use a bowl to wash up rather than a running tap and save £25 a year in energy bills.
Cutback your washing machine use by just one cycle per week and save £8 a year on energy.
Only fill the kettle with the amount of water that you need and save around £6 a year.
Switch off standby
You can save around £35 a year just by remembering to turn your appliances off standby mode.
Almost all electrical and electronic appliances can be turned off at the plug without upsetting their programming. You may want to think about getting a standby saver which allows you to turn all your appliances off standby in one go.
Check the instructions for any appliances you aren’t sure about. Some satellite and digital TV recorders may need to be left plugged in so they can keep track of any programmes you want to record.
Bathrooms
If you’re renovating your bathroom, make sure to purchase energy efficient to help reduce water usage throughout the home.
There are many different styles of shower head to choose from which are designed to aerate the water more thereby reducing water usage without a negative impact on your shower experience.
A water efficient shower head could save a four person household (e.g. a family of four or even a shared student flat) around £40 a year on gas for water heating, as well as a further £55 a year on water bills if using a water meter.* You should also look for low-flush toilets – saving at least one litre of water per use.
Spend less time in the shower
Spending one minute less in the shower each day will save up to £8 a year off your energy bills, per person. With a water meter this could save a further £11 off annual water and sewerage bills.
If everyone in a four-person household did this it would lead to a total saving of £75 a year.
If you’re adding extra heating to your bathroom, such as a towel rail or underfloor heating, make sure it is installed with easy to use, accessible controls and ask your installer to explain how to use them to allow you to control them better.
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