Construction
The less air flows from inside to outside, the more efficient your property will be when it comes to retaining heat – which means you’ll have to spend less money and fuel to keep it warm in the winter.
The construction of your property plays an important role in this. Heat will find the path of least resistance so escape from your home – looking for what’s called a Thermal Bridge to get outside. Essentially this means finding a material which isn’t insulated and can lead the heat on a direct path out of the building.
This means that it’s important to find elements of the construction of your home that could act as thermal bridges. Materials like glass and metal are particularly good thermal bridges.
Making sure that your windows are as energy efficient as possible is key, and it is also a good idea to look at the location of any steel joists or studs, and find a way to insulate them as much as possible. Often you will find that the corners of your building are in need of some additional insulation. You may also need to look at the makeup of your external walls – about a third of an uninsulated property’s heat is lost through the walls – and consider adding some additional insulation to prevent the walls themselves acting as a thermal bridge.
Insulation
In an ideal world, good insulation will be installed during the construction of a building – enabling the insulating materials to be concealed within the fabric of the property. But thankfully, it is becoming increasingly cost-effective to retrofit insulating materials to all properties.
Walls
If your property was built since the 1990s, it will usually have insulation within the construction of its walls – a really important factor when it comes to keeping the heat in. If it was built before then, but after about 1920, it’s likely that you will have cavity walls which would benefit from some additional insulation. You can probably spot this yourself by looking at the type of brick used in the construction of your home – if they are laid lengthways in a consistent pattern, it’s most likely that you have cavity walls.
Cavity wall brick pattern
Cavity wall insulation
The good news is that cavity wall insulation can be added relatively easily by simply injecting insulation in foam form into the cavity from the outside. Your installer will drill small holes through the outside walls, and spray the insulation into the cavity. Once they’re done, the holes will be filled and barely noticeable, and your home will be much more thermally efficient.
Typical cost
£1,200
Yearly savings
£285
Yearly CO2 savings
670kg
These costs are based on a typical three bedroomed semi detached property in the UK.
Savings are based on calculations based on prices in April 2022.
More up to date information may be available at www.energysavingtrust.org.uk
Home Surveying Services Limited is not in any way affiliated with the Energy Saving Trust - although we do share their mission.
If your property was built before about 1920, the likelihood is that it has solid walls. Again, it’s relatively easy to check this on a brick-built property by looking at the brickwork – if the bricks have a pattern, looking like some bricks have been laid side-to-side, and others laid end-to-end, then you are likely to have solid walls.
While it’s not possible to use cavity wall insulation on a solid wall as it has no cavity, it is possible to insulate these walls by adding either internal or external insulation. The initial cost for doing this is more than adding cavity wall insulation, but the resulting savings are even bigger, too.
Solid wall brick pattern
Internal wall insulation
The cheapest way to improve the insulation of your solid walls is to add internal insulation. A great time to do this is if you are thinking about redecorating, as the insulation can be added before you get the paintbrushes out, and will be almost unnoticeable by the time you’re finished.
You will need to remove skirting boards and doorframes, and the insulation will make each room about 10cm smaller due to the thickness of the insulating panels, but they can also be installed room by room, minimising the disruption and potentially spreading out the cost.
It’s also worth mentioning that any pre-existing issues such as rising damp would have to be resolved fully before this sort of insulation can be installed, but the cost benefits are significant in the long term.
Typical cost
£5,000
Yearly savings
£455
Yearly CO2 savings
1,070kg
These costs are based on a typical three bedroomed semi detached property in the UK.
Savings are based on calculations based on prices in April 2022.
More up to date information may be available at www.job-prices.co.uk and www.governmentbusiness.co.uk
Home Surveying Services Limited is not affiliated with either of these websites.
External wall insulation
A more expensive, but also more comprehensive solution for insulating your solid brick walls might be external wall insulation. This involves adding an insulating layer to the outside of your solid walls, before a layer of render or cladding is added on top. This can be a great way of improving the weatherproofing of your property, and completely fills any gaps in the existing fabric of the building.
External wall insulation is also a great way to transform the energy efficiency of your solid brick property without disrupting any of the inside of your property, and it can even prevent internal damp by reducing condensation build up inside – although like internal wall insulation it cannot be installed if there are existing issues with damp in the walls themselves.
However, it is worth noting that planning permission may be required for the installation of external wall insulation.
Typical cost
£8,500
Yearly savings
£655
Yearly CO2 savings
1,540kg
These costs are based on a typical three bedroomed semi detached property in the UK.
Savings are based on calculations based on prices in April 2022.
More up to date information may be available at www.job-prices.co.uk and www.governmentbusiness.co.uk
Home Surveying Services Limited is not affiliated with either of these websites.
Loft insulation
Unless your property has already had loft insulation installed, the chances are that if you would benefit from the installation of additional wall insulation, you will also benefit from loft insulation.
Even if you have had loft insulation installed previously, there is a good chance that improved techniques and new materials will improve the insulation of your loft still further, with insulation available up to a depth of 270mm.
Loft insulation is one of the easiest tolls you can use to improve the energy efficiency of your property – with significant savings available from just a small initial investment, and very little disruption to you or your property.
Typical cost
£350
Yearly savings
£170
Yearly CO2 savings
400kg
These costs are based on a typical three bedroomed semi detached property in the UK.
Savings are based on calculations based on prices in April 2022.
More up to date information may be available at www.mybuilder.com and www.governmentbusiness.co.uk
Home Surveying Services Limited is not affiliated with either of these websites.
Floor insulation
While we often focus on heat loss through the air, it’s worth bearing in mind that a significant amount of heat can be lost through the floor of a property. If your property has a solid floor, insulation can be added on top – and if your property has a suspended floor with floorboards, as many older homes do, the benefits from adding floor insulation can be significant.
As well as adding insulation in the form of mineral wool, it is now possible for a robot to spray foam insulation underneath the floorboards, keeping disruption and costs to a minimum by avoiding the need to take the floorboards up.
Typical cost
£1,500
Yearly savings
£75
Yearly CO2 savings
180kg
These costs are based on a typical three bedroomed semi detached property in the UK.
Savings are based on calculations based on prices in April 2022.
More up to date information may be available at www.energysavingtrust.org.uk
Home Surveying Services Limited is not in any way affiliated with the Energy Saving Trust - although we do share their mission.
Draught proofing
You don’t need a professional installer to improve the thermal efficiency inside your home. Simply taking steps to spot any gaps in the fabric of your property – especially around windows and doors – and blocking them up to keep warm air inside will help you lose less heat energy, and save you money.
From fitting draught excluders to the bottom of external doors, to adding replacement sealant to the edges of windows or fillings gaps in floorboards, there are many and varied ways in which draughts can be blocked to prevent unnecessary heat loss.
If you have an open chimney, even just draught-proofing that could save an average semi-detached property around £65 each year according to the Energy Saving Trust in April 2022.
Windows and doors
Glass and metal are the most attractive materials to heat looking to form a thermal bridge and send heat outside your home, so it makes a lot of sense to look at having the most efficient doors and windows installed at your property.
While you may need to check whether you need to seek planning permission to change your windows and doors, the long term benefits to doing so – both financially and for the environment – are significant. Even if you live in a conservation area or your home is a listed building, there should be steps you can take to improve the thermal efficiency of your windows.
Double glazing and triple glazing
It is now even possible to have triple glazing, rather than the very popular double glazing, and the energy efficient window frames can be made of wood or uPVC. The gaps between the glass in either double or triple glazing is filled with sealed air or gas which helps to keep warm air inside your property.
When you’re selecting the windows to be installed at your home, it’s worth looking at the product’s rating – on a scale of A++ for the most efficient, to E for the least efficient – which looks at the efficiency of the whole unit, including the glass and frame. You may also notice u-values, which is another way of measuring how easily heat passes through the window – but the rating is the best guide.
Typical cost
£7,500
Yearly savings
£175
Yearly CO2 savings
410kg
These costs are based on a typical three bedroomed semi detached property in the UK.
Savings are based on calculations based on prices in April 2022, replacing single pane glass with A++ double glazing.
More up to date information may be available at www.energysavingtrust.org.uk
Home Surveying Services Limited is not in any way affiliated with the Energy Saving Trust - although we do share their mission.
Secondary glazing
In the same way that hanging a thick curtain in front of a window or door can help to keep heat inside the property, secondary glazing acts as an additional thermal barrier to help prevent heat escaping the house.
Whether you add a simple film to the inside of the window panes – which can be purchased as a DIY kit – or fit an additional pane of single or even double glazed glass on the inside of the property, the benefits compared to single pane glass can be significant. This type of secondary glazing can be expensive, but offers significant energy improvements for properties with large, single pane windows.
Doors
Like windows, doors often act as a thermal bridge as they will always offer less insulation than an insulated wall. However, modern doors do feature integrated insulating materials, and when fitted properly will offer effective draught reduction.
If you are considering replacing your external doors, it’s worth bearing in mind that you will need to have it approved by building control prior to installation.
Conservatories
Glass windows will never be as thermally efficient as an insulated wall – so it’s worth bearing in mind that any heat generated in a conservatory will be lost at a much quicker rate than elsewhere in a property. However, the same steps can be taken with the glazing and doors inside a conservatory as on the rest of the property – and if left unheated, a conservatory can actually act as an additional thermal barrier to help the rest of the property be more thermally efficient.
Ventilation
While preventing air escaping outside is the overall goal when improving your property’s insulation and thermal efficiency, it is important that this is not done at the cost of the building’s ventilation.
Put simply, ventilation enables your property to breathe – and by reducing the opportunities for air to get outside, it is possible to create problems by making it too difficult for clean out to circulate from the outside in. This can lead to a build up of condensation, starting around the inside of windows, and ultimately to problems with mould and even damp.
While EPCs focus, understandably, on the steps you need to take to increase the thermal efficiency of your home, it is important that you take note of the ventilation you will need in order to prevent the pendulum swinging too far and leading to unexpected issues in the future.
Trickle vents
The best way to avoid damp issues is by ensuring that any windows you have fitted include trickle vents, which enable ventilation to happen in a managed way – preventing heat loss, while maintaining air flow.
If you notice condensation on the outside of your windows, this is actually a good sign that the insulation is working well – but condensation between the panes is a sign that the seal has broken, and that the window should be swapped for a new one.
Air bricks
Looking at the construction of your property, it’s important to know whether you have air bricks installed. These can be made of cement, plastic or metal, and are added to the construction of walls in order to allow air to flow under a suspended ground-level timber floor.
They are usually placed about 8cm above ground level, and how many vents you need to ventilate your property will depend on its size, but they are usually placed couple of metres around external walls.
When draught proofing a property, it may be tempting to look at air bricks as a potential source of heat loss, but it’s vital that their ventilation is maintained to prevent damp and long term damage to the suspended floor and other elements of the building’s construction.
Door undercuts
Maintaining good airflow inside your property is just as important as managing the airflow between the inside and outside. Making sure the gap between the bottom of a door and the floor is the right size to keep heat in while allowing a manageable level of airflow will help to regulate temperatures throughout your home, while also preventing the build up of damp in specific rooms which could find themselves poorly ventilated.
continued advice
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