Make Your Home More Energy Efficient

It makes good economic sense to improve the energy efficiency in your home. By reducing the amount of energy that is required to maintain your home at a comfortable temperature, insulation can substantially cut your heating bills and contribute to all our futures by reducing Green House Gas Missions.  However, you can choose to take some of this benefit by improving the comfort of your home and ensuring it is cosy and warm in winter. 

A good starting point is to look at your central heating system and how well your home is insulated.  If you have cavity walls, then installing cavity wall insulation can make substantial savings on your heating bill.  It will also improve the comfort of your home.  You should choose a registered installer to ensure that the insulation will be installed correctly and provide you with peace of mind.  If your loft is not insulated, then you should get this done and typically, 270mm of mineral wool insulation should be put in place.  If you own a gas boiler that is more than 15 years old, you should consider changing it.  Today’s state of the art gas boilers with dedicated controls can cut your heating and hot water bills quite substantially.  There are models that fit comfortably inside a kitchen cabinet and provide high performance and will pay for itself in terms of running costs savings within a couple of years.  But don’t forget, anything to do with gas must be dealt with by a registered installer. 

Is it Simple to Improve the Level of Insulation? 

Certain jobs, such as cavity wall insulation are covered by building Regulations standards and require specialist equipment operated by trained technicians.  Others, such as improving levels of loft insulation, can be carried out by the householder, although it is important to check manufacturers guidance on the correct handling of the products and ensure that adequate safety measures are taken.  In either case, the use of Irish Home Builders Association member contractors will ensure that the insulation is carried out to the highest standards and that the maximum savings will be achieved with the minimum disruption. 

Where Should I Look to see if my House requires Insulation or General Maintenance? 

It doesn’t take long to check your home.  First, give the walls a look over to ensure that rain is not penetrating the wall and therefore causing damp patches on the home interior.  Check the roof and chimney, broken tiles or slates should be replaced as a matter of urgency by an expert who has the right equipment to work safely at height.  Also, check gutters and drainpipes for damages and leaks. 

My Home is Quite Cold and Draughty – What is the Best Remedy?

The following cheap, but smile tips will help eliminate drafts and wasted energy in your home.

Exterior doors: To eliminate draughts and wasted heat use an easy to fix brush or PVC seal on your exterior doors.  Remember, however, the ventilation is also important, especially if you have open fires, gas fires or a boiler with a flue. 

Letter Boxes and Keyholes: Nylon brush seals or a spring flap for the letterbox can help and a cover on the keyhole. 

Hot Water Tank: An insulating jack for your hot water cylinder costs just a few Euro and will pay for itself within months.  We recommend that you fit a jacket that is at least 7.5cm thick.

Hot Water Pipes:  These can be insulated to stop heat escaping from them to good effect.  The best pipes to insulate are the ones between the boiler and the hot water cylinder.

Wall Insulation: This can be the most cost effective way to save energy around the home.  Up to 30% of heat in your home is lost through the walls.  If you want to insulate against this, the first thing to do is to check they type of walls you have. 

Double Glazing: Your home could be loosing up to 20% of its heat through single glazed and poorly insulated window frames.  With double glazing, you can actually cut these losses by over half.