Heating and hot water
In the UK, making sure that heat for your home is generated in the most fuel-efficient way possible is vital if you’re looking to reduce your carbon footprint or energy costs.
While it’s possible to reduce your consumption by improving your home’s insulation or by turning down the temperature on your thermostat, ultimately you will need to find a way to generate heat inside your property over the winter. And with heating and hot water making up more than half of what an average home spends on energy each year, it makes financial and environmental sense to make sure you are using an efficient boiler to do so.
Boilers
Over the last few decades, boilers have become much more fuel-efficient, especially since the introduction of condensing boilers, which help to prevent the loss of too much heat through the boiler’s flue – basically it’s chimney – by using the heat from the exhaust gases to heat the water used for central heating.
If your boiler uses mains gas or LPG, and has been installed since around 2005 – or if it uses oil and was installed after 2007 – it’s more than likely that it will be a fuel-efficient condensing boiler. If this is the case, it’s unlikely that a change of boiler will make a significant difference to your energy consumption. If you don’t use mains gas, finding a way to switch from oil or LPG would help – but this can be difficult logistically. It may be that looking at other, lower carbon forms of heat generation would be a better bet.
Typical cost
£4,000
Yearly savings
£265
Yearly CO2 savings
623kg
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.
Solar water heating
When you think about using solar energy for your home, you might understandably think about generating electricity through photovoltaic cells. But there is a much more simple way to use the sun’s energy to your advantage – using it to heat water.
Solar water heating systems heat the hot water you need for your home – what will come out of the taps – by using solar collectors to use the sun’s infra-red rays to generate heat. Obviously, it might not be sunny all the time, so the heat that can’t be generated by the sun is created using your usual boiler.
It might seem obvious, but in order to have this sort of system installed, you’ll need a spot that gets a lot of sun, such as a south-facing roof or wall, and the room available to install a large hot water cylinder if you don’t already have one. You shouldn’t need to worry about planning permission, though. Unless you’re in a listed building or a conservation area, these sorts of installations are usually covered by permitted development legistation.
Typical cost
£4,000
Yearly savings
£95
Yearly CO2 savings
275kg
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.
Heat pumps
An increasingly viable – and popular – way to generate heat without the use of fossil fuels, heat pumps can be installed in most homes. They basically harvest heat which is outside your home, and move it inside.
There are lots of types of heat pumps, but the most common are ground source heat pumps, and air source heat pumps. Both ground source and air source pumps use a small amount of electricity to compress a gas, called a refrigerant, which generates heat in an incredibly efficient way.
Much more heat is produced by a heat pump than would normally be produced by the amount of electricity involved would normally create in, say, an electric heater. And with electricity generation becoming much less reliant on carbon, heat pumps are very environmentally friendly.
If your home is heated by an up to date, efficient gas boiler, the main benefit of switching to a heat pump will be the environmental impact – with a saving of around 2,600kg of CO2 emissions in an average home. And if you are currently using other, less efficient methods of generating heat, such as electric storage heaters or an oil-powered boiler, the financial savings could be significant, too.
It's worth bearing in mind that you’ll need a reasonable amount of space outside your property to be able to put the pump – and some space inside, too. The outside unit of an air source heat pump is likely to be about the same size as a standard washing machine, and you’ll need to make sure it has plenty of space around it for good air flow to enable it to work properly. Ground source pumps are a bit more difficult to install, and bulkier. Your installer will be able to talk to you about your best options.
Both methods will most likely mean you will need to add a hot water cylinder inside, as they don’t produce hot water on demand in the way that most modern boilers do.
Replacing an A-rated gas boiler with an air-source heat pump
Typical cost
£10,000
Yearly savings
£ no change
Yearly CO2 savings
2,600kg
Replacing electric storage heaters with an air-source heat pump
Typical cost
£10,000
Yearly savings
£1,703
Yearly CO2 savings
3,050kg
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.
Electric heating
Electricity is increasingly seen as an environmentally-friendly source of power, both for transportation, and for heat. Renewable energy, particularly in the form of wind and solar, represents a major proportion of the electricity generated in the UK National Grid – over 50% at times – and that proportion is expected to continue to grow, making electric-powered heating systems greener and greener.
However, while heat pumps use electricity sparingly, other electric domestic heating systems require a large amount of electricity, so can be much more expensive than other sources of heat.
Light and power
If you’re on this website, the chances are that you’re the sort of person who’s conscious about turning lights off when you leave a room. But even you might be surprised to read that over 10% of most UK homes’ electricity consumption comes from the use of lightbulbs.
Luckily, the technology behind lightbulbs, having been unchanged for almost a century, has come on in leaps and bounds in recent years. Whereas a traditional lightbulb actually converted only 5% of the electricity it used into actual light, modern LED bulbs are much more efficient, and don’t take time to ‘warm up’ in the way that efficient lightbulbs did in the 1980s!
The savings to be made can be pretty significant. If you replaced ten traditional 100 watt bulbs around your home with LEDs, you would save about £130 each year.
Appliances
While it might be a surprise that lightbulbs use up more than 10% of your electricity, that also means that almost 90% of your electricity is used elsewhere! This will be through the use of appliances throughout your home, and particularly those you use for cooking and washing.
It’s worth knowing that leaving items on standby can be expensive in itself, with most UK households spending more than £50 each year by doing this! Each smart speaker – an Alexa device or equivalent – is likely to cost you about £7 per year to keep on standby, so it might be worth thinking about what you need to have switched on all the time.
And when buying an appliance, the best thing you can do is to keep an eye out for its energy rating, which range from a G for the least efficient, to A+++ for the most efficient.
If you’re looking to take active steps to reduce your energy consumption, the first appliances to look at are your oven (microwaves are usually much more efficient ways to cook food), dishwasher (accounting for almost 8% of most homes’ electricity consumption), washing machines and tumble dryers. Even just choosing a tumble dryer with an A+++ rating rather than simply an A rating will save you more than £600, and over 500kg of CO2, in its lifetime.
Green power
Using renewable energy – natural, endless resources – to create electricity has become much more widespread across the UK, with offshore wind and other sources now generating more than half of our power when conditions are right.
Alongside that, more and more homeowners are choosing to look at ways to use the resources around them to generate their own power – not just without using fossil fuels, but completely free. With the cost of energy increasing, and especially if you have bought, or are thinking about buying, an EV (electric vehicle) or electric car, finding a way to generate your own power will be an attractive idea.
Domestic wind turbines and even hydroelectricity systems can be installed, but these require you to have some pretty niche elements to your property, are prohibitively expensive to install, or both! So we’ve focussed on what you’re most likely to choose, and how to get the best of it.
Luckily, the technology behind lightbulbs, having been unchanged for almost a century, has come on in leaps and bounds in recent years. Whereas a traditional lightbulb actually converted only 5% of the electricity it used into actual light, modern LED bulbs are much more efficient, and don’t take time to ‘warm up’ in the way that efficient lightbulbs did in the 1980s!
The savings to be made can be pretty significant. If you replaced ten traditional 100 watt bulbs around your home with LEDs, you would save about £130 each year.
Photovoltaic cells - solar panels
Solar panels are the first thing many of us will think of when it comes to generating your own power from renewable energy. Photovoltaics or PV create electricity you can use in your home from the sun’s rays. Contrary to popular belief, they can still generate electricity on a cloudy day – although they will be most effective on a sunny day.
The most important consideration when having solar PV panels installed is finding a spot large enough to put your panels. As you would expect, a shade-free, south-facing roof will usually offer the best performance, but they don’t have to be installed on a roof and can still operate in partial shade. You’re looking for around 25 square meters of space to have them installed.
Once you’ve worked out whether you’ve got the space, it’s worth knowing that installing solar panels fall under ‘permitted developments’, so unless you’re in a conservation area or living in a listed building, the likelihood is that you won’t need planning permission. However, as the system is usually quite heavy, it would definitely be worth employing a surveyor to check that your roof structure is capable of handling the additional weight.
There are significant benefits available from installing solar PV, which can be enhanced by small changes to your energy consumption and adding additional systems. As your PV system will be generating most of its electricity during the day, you will benefit from switching the majority of your usage – such as using a washing machine or dishwasher – to the daytime. Likewise, it makes sense to find a way to make the most of the electricity generated during the daytime that you’re not able to use.
Using a PV diverter, for example, diverts energy being created by the solar panels but isn’t being used inside your home to supplement your water heating through an immersion heater. You can also send any excess power to the National Grid through a Smart Export Guarantee, which will significantly increase the savings available to you through installing solar panels, without the additional cost of adding battery units.
Typical cost
£6,500
Yearly savings
£435
Yearly CO2 savings
1,020kg
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, installing a 4.2kWp system with a Smart Export Guarantee.
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.
Battery units
To really make the most of a solar PV system, you will need to find a way to save the electricity created at peak times – in the middle of the day – to use at the times you want to use it, such as when you want to watch some Netflix in the evening.
Some people also choose to have a battery unit installed to store energy they buy from the national grid, to benefit from cheaper electricity available at off-peak times.
If you’re adding a battery unit when installing PV, it’s worth bearing in mind that you will still be able to send any excess electricity to the National Grid through a Smart Export Guarantee, even though you’ll be more self-reliant and therefore sending less to the grid overall.
continued advice
helping to turn the plan into reality
The Home Energy Report is designed for action - so we'll do everything we can to help you to turn our advice into reality and make a material difference to the life of your family and your impact on the environment.
We'll be in touch with you directly shortly after your report has been sent through. We'll be there help to answer any queries you might have, and work with you to help guide your next steps.
If we've flagged any potential grants, we'll do whatever we can to help you to access them, and we'll always be here to flag any new initiatives or great deals - such as better mortgage rates - that you might be able to access because of your green credentials.