Home energy efficiency is something that many of us are looking at for several different reasons. Perhaps the two most notable of these are financial and environmentally-friendly purposes. Aside from reducing our overall home energy usage, however, many of us may not know how to improve our home’s efficiency in this regard. That being said, there are quite a few notable ways that you can do so. While some might be obvious, there are a few surprising ways that you’ll be able to do so without having to spend a significant amount of money on it.
Put In Insulation
Insulation is one of the most effective ways of improving your home energy efficiency. This is primarily through reducing the amount of energy that needs to be put into heating your home during the Winter months. While many people will have already insulated their roofs and other key areas such as walls, there are a few places that many people may not have thought of. Chief among these are around your doors and windows, which can often be one of the more common areas that heat escapes from your home. As a result, these are the areas that you should begin insulating.
By doing so, you’ll begin to notice a significant drop in your heating bills. Another way to ensure that your home is more efficient is by installing thicker doors that better help to keep the heat in. Furthermore, hanging thick curtains up at each of your windows can also have a drastic impact on this. Combined with your roof insulation, this can be quite a significant saving over the long-term. It should also be noted that you should check all of your insulation to ensure that it’s properly installed and that there’s been no damage to it over time.
Upgrade Your Boiler
While the majority of us will know that upgrading our appliances to more energy efficient models will have a significant impact on energy bills, few of us know where to start. One of the more notable things that you should upgrade first is your boiler, especially before Winter begins to set in. This is chiefly because a boiler is often one of the bigger energy users in our homes. As such, by upgrading it to an energy efficient model, you’ll soon begin noticing a considerable reduction in your home’s energy bills.
Following on from this, you should then start looking at some of the other large energy users across your home. By concentrating on these first, you’ll be able to drastically reduce these bills while also making your home more environmentally friendly. While many people may use small steps to reduce these bills, sometimes you may need to go with the larger replacements to see an equally large reduction in heating and energy costs. Newer models have been quite easy to choose from over the past few years. This has primarily been through a rating system that manufacturers follow, with the most energy efficient options becoming increasingly popular.
Use Double Or Triple Glazing On Windows
Double glazing is something that has become increasingly popular over the past few decades. This has primarily been because of the heat and energy benefits that they offer. This kind of windows keep the majority of your radiator or heating system’s warmth inside your home. As a result of less heat being lost, you’ll be spending less money on your heating needs. What many people may not have heard of, however, are triple glazed windows.
While these have only been on the market for a few years, they’re quickly becoming one of the more common windows to choose from. Like their older counterparts, they significantly reduce the amount of heat that’s lost from your home and subsequently the amount of money and energy that goes into your heating. The key difference between double and tripe glazing is that the newer version is much more effective at doing so. While it may be somewhat more expensive to have these installed in your home, they can pay off dividends in the long-term when it comes to your heating bills.
There can be a few other ways to improve your home energy efficiency that can be quite effective. These can include the likes of using more energy efficient appliances. While many people might think that this means getting rid of every appliance and switching over immediately, you can start with the small appliances such as a kettle. This will start having a growing impact on your home energy bills over time, as well as make your home more environmentally-friendly. There’s also the likes of using solar energy panels and a variety of other sustainable energy sources such as wind energy and more. Combined with the methods above, you’ll notice a significant reduction in your home energy bills over time.