5 Ways to Improve Your Houses Energy Efficiency

An energy efficient home saves money and helps the environment too. But what are the best energy efficiency measures we can take to make the biggest differences?

What is Energy Efficiency in Your Home?

When people talk about energy efficiency, they’re referring to the steps they’re taking to lower their energy consumption around the home.

Energy efficiency can relate to a whole host of different elements, all of which add up to create an energy efficient home which costs less money to heat and helps to save the planet too.

What is a Good Energy Efficiency Rating for Your House?

The best energy efficient rating a house can achieve according to the UK’s EPC score system is an A, but it’s not an easy thing for anyone to achieve. Theoretically, a new build should be the most energy efficient house on the market, but it’s trickier when we’re considering how to make an old house more energy efficient.

The average EPC score in the UK is D, leaving plenty of room for improvement. Ideally, we should aim to improve an older home up to a C or even a B by adding and improving energy efficient house features.

How Do I Test My Energy Efficiency?

While anyone selling a home needs to have a certificate detailing their EPC score, many of us make energy efficiency improvements such as installing insulation and then want to know what impact we’ve had on our home’s energy efficiency and energy consumption.

One way of checking how energy efficient any property is could be to follow the same steps as an EPC assessor would:

1. Check what insulation your property has such as cavity wall or loft insulation (270mm of loft insulation is the recommended standard)
2. Count the number of light fittings and check whether you’re using energy efficient bulbs
3. Undertake a visual inspection of the windows and doors to check how they’re glazed (triple glazed is best) and whether there are any gaps to plug
4. Check how old the boiler is, what the controls are like and whether the radiators have individual thermostats

If you have a smart meter installed at your home, you can learn how much you’re spending on energy at different times of day. It’s also possible to buy standalone energy monitors to test how much energy is used when certain electrical items around the home are switched on.

Is 100% Energy Efficiency Possible?

To get technical for a moment, many people ask whether 100% energy efficiency can be achieved in homes and other buildings. There’s a scientific debate over whether 100% efficiency of any machine (in this case, the machinery of the home including building materials, insulation and heating efficiency) is ever possible. They argue there will always be some energy lost in the friction of machinery.

But even if the best we’re aiming for is 99% efficiency, we’ve still got a very long way to go – and we all need to play our part.

How Do I Improve the Energy Efficiency of My Home?

Here are our top tips for improving the energy efficiency of your home:

1. Insulate your home. One of the best energy efficiency measures out there is to keep the heat inside, and insulation can help you do that. Check what insulation your home already has and see whether you can improve it. Don’t forget small insulation measures like plugging small gaps around window frames to reduce draughts.
2. Upgrade your boiler. Inefficient boilers are a huge issue for homes, not only lowering its EPC score but also meaning we have to use more energy to heat our homes – and this costs money. A new boiler can pay for itself in the medium term, and it means that signing up for a cheaper energy tariff could save you even more money when coupled with a new boiler.
3. Upgrade your windows. Poor windows can let out a lot of heat, so replacing them for improved models can save us money as well as improving the energy efficiency of our homes. Go for quality double glazed windows or, if you can afford them, triple glazed windows.
4. Replace light bulbs. Even though the general shift to more energy efficient lightbulbs took place in the UK several years ago, it’s still worth paying more for higher quality energy saving bulbs.
5. Keep track of your energy consumption. Whether you choose to have a smart meter installed to keep track of your energy usage or install energy monitors, the best way to improve your household’s energy efficiency is to figure out what is using that energy.

There are dozens of small improvements we can make in our homes every day to lower our energy consumption and improve our energy efficiency. Try switching your computers off every night or only filling the kettle with the amount of water you need. The small things can add up into huge savings over time.