Insulation

Around half of heat loss in a typical home is through the walls and loft making them the two biggest causes of heat loss in the home. It's definitely worth getting yours insulated, as it will save you both money and reduce your carbon footprint.

Cavity wall insulation

Just insulating your cavity walls could save you around £160 a year on your fuel bills and 800 kg of CO ₂. The installation cost is around £250 (when subsidised under the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target), which means it would pay for itself in about two years. If every house in the UK that could installed cavity wall insulation it would cut CO ₂ emissions by around 4.6 million tonnes, enough to fill the new Wembley Stadium 590 times, and save over £860 million a year.

Find out more about cavity wall insulation here

Solid wall insulation

If your home was built before the 1920s, it probably has solid walls. Solid walls lose even more heat than cavity walls, but you can also insulate them either internally or externally. Solid wall insulation will save you around £500 a year and two tonnes of CO ₂.

Find out more about solid wall insulation here

Loft Insulation

Loft insulation acts as a blanket, trapping rising heat from the house below. Without it, you could be losing as much as 15% of your heating costs through your roof. If you currently have no insulation and you install the recommended 270mm depth you could save around £205 a year on your heating bills and around one tonne of CO ₂ per year.

Find out more about loft insulation here.

Draught proofing

If you can feel cold air coming in around the windows in your home it means warm air is escaping. In a typical home this heat loss accounts for 20% of the total heat lost.
Draught proofing is an easy DIY task that simply fills gaps and decreases the amount of cold air entering your home. By installing draught proofing you could save around £30 a year on your heating bills and reduce your emissions by around 150kg of carbon dioxide (CO ₂) each year.

There could even be grants and offers available to help you pay for draught proofing.

Find out more about draught proofing here.

Tank and pipe insulation

Insulating your hot water tank is one of the simplest and easiest ways to save energy and money. Fitting a British Standard 'jacket' that's at least 75mm thick around your tank will cut heat loss by over 75% and save you around £40 per year. The jackets themselves cost about half that, meaning that you'll reclaim your initial cost in around 6 months.
Fitting insulation to hot water pipes is easy if they are accessible. The insulation will cost between £5 and £10 and save you around £10 a year, which means you should recover the cost of fitting within a year. Professional help may be required to fit insulation to harder to reach pipe work, which would incur extra cost.

Find out more about tank and pipe insulation here.

Contact your local advice centre on 0800 512 012 for more information.