Feeling the chill? How to perform an energy efficiency check on your home

Is your home energy efficient? That’s a question most people don’t know the answer to, yet keeping an eye on your energy efficiency is a useful – and surprisingly easy – thing to do during winter.

By taking our advice, you could save substantially on your winter bills – a chance that most people would jump at, especially since Christmas is fast approaching.  Read on and follow our tips to perform your own energy checks and hopefully find a few ways to keep your home warm and your bank account happy this winter.

Check insulation…

This one is a must for keeping your home hot and your bills…not.  Heat loss through your roof and through the walls could mount up significantly if your level of insulation is below the recommended amount for your property.

While insulation is indeed an expense, it is a worthwhile expense in the long run, as the savings build up in just a year or two. It could also be worth you looking into your roofing material while you’re checking the insulation.  A roofing company in Yorkshire can help with this.

Lighting…

On average, lighting accounts for about 10% of your energy bill. Given this figure, you should definitely consider looking at your light bulbs. To save energy, it’s worth thinking about replacing standard bulbs with more energy-efficient bulbs, such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs), as they can drastically reduce your energy use.

Heating controls…

Inspect your heating and cooling equipment at least once a year to keep a sufficient check on your energy efficiency. You should think about replacing any equipment that is 15 years old or more.

Like with the insulation tip, a new unit would be an expense of sorts – but, given the money you’ll save in the time after the purchase due to the natural efficiency of a new boiler, it seems more appropriate to call the expense an investment.

Check your electricals…

This one is incredibly useful for energy efficiency.  Often easy to ignore thanks to the convenience of leaving appliances on standby, it really is worth switching things off and unplugging them when they are not in use.  Consider unplugging the item entirely, as this will prevent phantom loads, or change the settings on your device to allow for a more economical performance.

Call in a professional…

After you’ve completed your DIY auditing, think about calling in a professional. While the tips we’ve mentioned here will go a long way towards gaining you substantial improvement on your energy efficiency, it is also useful to call in someone who has a sharp eye for detail of this kind and could really save you money and energy.

Don’t let this discourage you from doing your own checks, though. Your DIY auditing can, in fact, help the professional give a more in-depth assessment of the efficiency of energy in your home.

For more information and tips on performing your own energy efficiency checks this winter, have a look at this useful page on the website of housing charity Shelter.

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