Make Energy Savings

Millions of homes in the UK still do not have adequate insulation. Rapidly escalating heating bills mean that buying insulation will save you more money than ever before and make for quicker pay back times.

The Energy Performance Certificate in the HIP recommends measures to provide savings that can be made on your home. The most affordable recommendations are also normally those with the quickest pay back time and loft insulation from scratch is one of these generating savings of £150 – £250 per year. A snapshot survey of EPCs provided since HIPs were launched showed most homes could typically save £180 on heating, £60 on lighting and £30 on hot water bills every year.

The Energy Saving Trust operate a grant scheme whereby many people are eligible for grants of £100 – £300 towards the cost of loft and cavity wall insulation. The yearly fund grant available this year is £800 million. Working owners can typically receive grants for two recommendations of £198 each – so usually £396.

As part of the scheme there is a facility where home owners can tap in their postcode to find details of offers available. Once fully rolled out, it is estimated that Energy Performance Certificate recommendations could lead to savings of nearly a million tonnes of carbon per year by 2020.

As an example of costs and payback time, the Energy Saving Trust puts cavity fill payback time at 2 years. But even the expensive recommendations like solar hot water systems are coming down in price. Previously more than £3000, some companies are now supplying and fitting solar h/w systems for around £2,500 – so shop around! See the Energy Saving Trust website for more information.

Aside from the Energy Saving Trust, other worthwhile websites to check out for available grants include: ukhomeinsulation.co.uk/grants-2008.shtml and solartech.org.uk/grants.html