12 Ways to Make Your Home More Energy Efficient
12 Ways to Make Your Home More Energy Efficient
As energy prices and weather patterns change rapidly, it’s more important than ever to keep your home eco-friendly and energy-efficient. Modern innovations provide smart solutions to streamline your electricity bills, promote a sustainable household, and improve property value. On a smaller scale, learning new green habits can lower your bills for free. Mixing a few of these 12 ways to make your home more energy-efficient helps save bills and emissions all at once.
Make your Home More Energy Efficient Through Choices and Habits
1- Change your Energy Supplier
Energy companies operate for profit, and millions of Brits pay more than their fair share of bills. A straightforward way to cut your electricity costs is to shop around for suppliers and compare rates, tariffs, and perks. You can also decrease your carbon footprint by choosing a renewable supplier.
2- Get a Smart Meter
Many energy companies will send you a smart electricity meter for free upon request. When tackling energy bills, it’s always best to know your enemy. Smart meters provide dynamic information on your usage and allow you to set targets to aim for on your energy efficiency journey.
3- Stop With the Standby
Even on standby, your appliances drain the national grid and your bank balance. While they may seem insignificant, so-called ‘energy vampires’ can comprise 10% of your energy bill. Switching appliances off at the plug makes your home more energy-efficient, as does unplugging unused chargers to stop the drain.
4- Energy Efficiency in the Kettle
Every day, millions of British kettles use vast amounts of energy to rapidly boil water for cuppas nationwide. Three-quarters of us overfill our kettles every time, so careful measuring to boil only what you need makes a big difference over time. Boiling a full kettle uses up to 3 kilowatts, but you can also knock a third off that with an eco-kettle. This is also a great way of saving water, which is another important facing modern society.
5- Save Energy by Filling your Fridge
This might seem counter-intuitive, but storing water in the fridge improves its energy efficiency. As established in the kettle discussion, water is stubborn when it comes to changing temperature. When refrigerated, stored water actually helps your fridge stay cool, while also providing healthy hydration whenever needed.
6- Foil your Radiator’s Inefficiency
Radiators produce heat from both sides, sending countless watts of wasted energy into the walls. Foil this inefficiency by fashioning DIY insulation from tinfoil. When placed invisibly behind a wall-mounted radiator, foil reflects the heat back into your room to make your home more efficient. Though invisible, this tip shows up on your electricity bill by optimising your energy usage.
Smart Investments Make your Home More Energy Efficient
Changing your habits helps improve your efficiency, but investing in infrastructure makes a permanent and proactive impact on your home. Investing in efficiency always proves worthwhile despite the initial costs, as upgrades pay dividends and improve your quality-of-life ad infinitum.
7- Wrap Your Home Up Warm With Insulation
Heating makes up around half of most homes’ energy bills. The best way, then, to improve your energy efficiency is through improving your insulation. Wall and loft insulation only costs a few hundred pounds each and pays for itself in a few short years. Insulating the loft alone could save you as much as £750 in five years.
8- Double or Triple your Glazing
Double glazing is a great way to improve your home’s energy efficiency while cutting noise pollution and boosting your property value. Crucially, smarter glazing doesn’t stop with double-glazed windows! The right firm can offer triple glazing, and will upgrade your glazed doors or bifold doors to keep your home efficient and eco-friendly.
9- Secure your Front Door
Improving your energy efficiently often starts right at the front door. Out-of-date doors leech heat even while closed, through cracks, draughts, and the material itself. Solve this problem with modern solutions, such as composite doors. Composite doors combine reinforced cores with reliable, weatherproof finishes. This fends off cracks and warping to keep your home warm, secure, and energy-efficient.
10- Upgrade your Appliances
Your appliances, like your home at large, earn Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) ranging from A to G, based on their efficacy and efficiency. Improving your appliances’ ratings helps improve your home’s rating, so it’s worth checking whether your equipment is up to scratch. For example, switching from a G rated boiler to an A could save over £200 per year.
11- Make your Home More Energy Efficient With Solar Panels
The most efficient way to use the national grid is not at all, so why not create your own energy with some photovoltaic (PV) solar panels. While the upfront cost starts around four grand, the sustainable dividends and sense of independence proves priceless over time.
12- Government Grants and Incentives
While the Green Homes Grant ended in March 2021, the government still wants to help you make your home more energy-efficient. Schemes such as the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) and the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) can help fund eco-innovations to improve your home, protect the environment, and slash energy bills.