Optimising Your Home for Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency is an unavoidable topic of conversation at the present moment, with climate change an international concern of existential proportions. Meanwhile, trade disputes and international conflict have seen wholesale energy costs increase, with a corresponding impact on our home energy bills. From both a sustainability and affordability standpoint, then, energy efficiency is a key thing to improve in the average home. How might you optimise your own home’s energy efficiency?

Double-Glazed Windows

One of the bigger positive impacts made in recent years to improve home heat efficiency has been the roll-out of double-glazed windows. Most newer homes in the UK already have double-glazed windows installed as standard. Since 2002, double-glazing has been a regulatory requirement in new-build homes, and a required replacement in non-listed houses. Where double-glazing is installed and not quite doing the trick, there is also the option to upgrade to tripled-glazed windows.

Underfloor Heating

When talking about energy efficiency at home, it is impossible to avoid talking about central heating – the beating heart of your home’s heating provisions. There have been many iterations of the boiler over the past century, each of which has made some key improvements with regard to efficiency. However, as energy issues worsen, further iteration has become all the more necessary.

Underfloor heating, serviced by electric boilers that heat and pump water through the pipes, have been shown to be more efficient than many alternative heating strategies. This is because they deliver heat directly to areas of a space as opposed to radiated said heat from one corner.

Insulation

Keeping that heat in is just as important as providing it efficiently – and passive measures for heat retention can be hugely cost-saving in the medium and long term, too. This is why insulating (or re-insulating) your home is one of the best things you can do for your home’s energy efficiency.

Cavity wall insulation is another contemporary standard, wherein insulation is pumped between leaves of exterior brickwork to reduce heat transfer via said walls. Mineral wool insulation in the loft can also see dramatic improvements with regard to heat efficiency, as it prevents the loss of heat to air convection.

Energy-Efficient Lighting

The final piece of the puzzle comes in the form of lighting. While you might not think your home’s lights to be a particularly important aspect of home energy efficiency, the potential for wastefulness is in fact massive. Older incandescent bulbs only converted 5% of the energy they used into visible light – a statistic that more-than justifies why they’ve been phased out! Newer LED bulbs have been found to be dramatically more energy efficient, and could make a noticeable difference to your energy usage.