3 energy saving home improvements you should be considering now

Over twenty-four million households are set to face an energy price cap of £3,549 this coming October. For someone with an average monthly income of £2,615 (after tax), this could mean spending 33 per cent of take-home pay just on energy next year.

This huge rise in energy prices has led to considerable efforts from homeowners to add energy-saving improvements to their homes. In fact, according to 2022 trends report, 52% of homeowners we surveyed said that saving money on bills was their main motivator for buying eco home improvements.

If you’re looking for ways to live more sustainably and lower your energy consumption, the below energy saving improvements are some of the most popular eco-trends homeowners are having done this year.

1. Loft insulation

An uninsulated home loses a quarter of its heat, just from the roof. It’s not surprising then that there was a 419% increase in demand for loft insulation last year, as it’s a cheap and highly effective energy saving home improvement.

In your lifetime, your insulated loft will pay you back many times for the cost of installation.

According to the Energy Saving Trust, turning your uninsulated loft into a 270mm insulated loft could save you up to £580 a year, depending on the type of home you have. It will also enable you to save thousands of kilograms in CO2 emissions, helping you to reduce your carbon footprint as well.

2. Cavity wall insulation

Like loft insulation, cavity wall insulation is another top eco home improvement that saw a 352% increase in demand last year. Adding a layer of cavity wall insulation can help trap up to a third of your home’s heat, preventing it from escaping through your walls.

Within just a few years, cavity wall insulation will pay you back for the upfront cost of installation, helping to make your home cheaper to heat.

Cavity wall insulation will make your home warmer, lower your energy bills, and your carbon footprint. It can also add an average of £11,764 to the value of your property! Not all homes have cavity walls (the chances are higher if your home was built between the 1920’s and 1980’s).

It takes between one and four hours to insulate cavity walls. There are a huge range of cavity wall insulation types, from insulation boards to wool or mineral fibre to EPS or PUR. If you’re interested in getting your walls insulated, get into contact with some specialist tradespeople, and request some free quotes today.

3. Underfloor heating

Underfloor heating is an incredibly effective way of heating your home and does so in a far more eco-friendly way than other heating methods, like radiators. Substituting your radiators for a more efficient and low maintenance underfloor heating system will allow you to get rid of pesky cold spots and will free up your wall space, making your house seem bigger.

There are two kinds of underfloor heating (UDH), called wet UDH, and electric UDH. It costs between £1,350 and £1,850 to retrofit wet UDH in a 10 m2 room, whereas it costs between £600 and £850 to retrofit electric UDH in a 10 m2 room.

It currently costs around £161 a year to run wet UDH, and around £768 a year to run electric UDH in a 20 m² room. To heat one 10 m² room for four hours a day will cost you around £10.80 a month using electric UH. That’s around 10p per square metre, when run for six hours.

Wet systems are, on average, 25% more efficient than radiators, as they can perform at 50°C, rather than the 70°C – 90°C that radiators require. Though initially expensive to install, UDH does repay itself in the long run in energy savings, especially when paired with a renewable energy source.

It can take anywhere from one to five days to install underfloor heating. As well as saving you on annual energy bills, installing underfloor heating can add an average of £12,290 to the value of your property.