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Home and the environment

Each household in the UK creates around five and a half tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. That's five and a half times the weight of the rubbish a household throws away in a year. It's also nearly double the carbon dioxide emissions that the average car produces in a year.

Cutting carbon dioxide emissions in the UK

The average household could save around 1.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO ₂) a year by insulating, improving their heating system and using energy efficiently in their homes.

If everyone with gas or oil central heating installed a new condensing boiler, we'd cut emissions by 6.7 million tonnes. We'd also save around £1.3 billion per year on our energy bills and enough energy to heat nearly 1.9 million homes for a year.

If everyone installed cavity wall insulation, we'd cut CO ₂emissions by nearly 4 million tonnes, enough to fill nearly 790,000 hot air balloons.

If every home that could had 270mm loft insulation we'd save nearly 3 million tonnes of CO ₂, the same as the annual emissions of over 540,000 homes.

If everyone topped up the insulation on their hot water tank to the full recommended thickness of 75mm, we'd cut CO ₂ emissions by over 900,000 tonnes every year - the equivalent of taking 300,000 cars off the UK's roads.

If everyone in the UK installed just one energy saving light bulb, we'd save enough CO ₂ to fill the Albert Hall over 1,200 times.