There are two extremely good reasons to conserve energy in your home. The first is certainly to save money. In a world that seems to get more and more expensive, saving energy within your home is one of the easiest and most efficient means of cutting back on your expenses. Secondly, conserving energy is a great way to do your bit for the environment, and is the easiest way of decreasing your carbon footprint. In fact, there are very few reasons against; even the cost of the bits of home improvement you’ll need to do will quickly be recouped by the savings you’ll make. ‘What must I do?’ I hear you chorus. Well, here are a few suggestions, ranging from the obvious to the obscure.

The most common means of cutting your energy bill is surely the telesales favourite, double-glazing. According to the NEF, this can save you about £30 a year on your heating bills, with the added benefit of increasing the security of your home. A survey of insurers including Legal and General confirmed that this could also potentially reduce your home insurance – and not to mention shutting out any intrusive noise from next door. This is, predictably, the most popular energy conserving improvement made to homes in the UK.

Insulation – whether loft or cavity wall – is perhaps the best way of making savings on your energy bills. One third of the heat produced by a central heating system can be lost through the roves and walls of a building, creating a combined wastage in Britain annually that could heat up to three million homes for an entire year. Loft insulation alone could save you just under £300 a year, and cavity wall insulation a further £100.

Installing a new boiler is another great way of reducing your bills by about £180 per year. Again, ensuring the condition of your heating a plumbing systems could save you a considerable amount on your home insurance, too. A combi boiler, which effectively removes the need to store water by only heating water as and when you need it, will go some way to making your home significantly more energy efficient.

Energy saving bulbs and appliances – such as kettles, washing machines, dishwashers – rather than their standard counterparts is another way. Also, turning off your TV (rather than leaving it on standby) and your mobile phone chargers when not in use is another slowly cumulative means of saving money.

There are other ever increasing rewards for those conscientious enough to pursue energy efficiency in their homes. British Gas currently offers decent rebates on council tax, not just to its members, via Defra. It is of exceptionally high priority to the government to encourage people to be as energy conscious as possible, and so it seems almost inevitable that they will continue to incentivise these sorts of home improvement.

For the sake of the planet and your wallet, it really does pay to save energy in your home.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 at 8:57 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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