Insulating your home

The efficiency of your home is important not only for your carbon footprint but it’s a great way to lower your energy bills and ensure your house is not losing heat.

The amount of heat your home can retain depends on how insulated it is, heat is usually lost through the floor, walls, windows and the roof.

If you own your home, you can take some measures to insulate it to protect it from losing heat in the winter and release heat in the summer or, if you rent, you can ask your landlord to look at installing measures to help ensure your energy bills don’t go through the roof!

Improving your home’s insulation

There are many ways you can improve your home's insulation. Some of the below improvements can be costly, check if you can get support through the Great Britain Insulation Scheme or, if you're in Greater Manchester, GMCA’s Feel the Benefit campaign.

  • Insulate any exposed hot water pipes, and your water cylinder if you have one
  • Insulate your loft, as heat rises a lot of energy can be lost through the attic, the Energy Saving Trust explain more about loft insulation and its benefits here: Roof and loft insulation guide - Energy Saving Trust
  • Install double or triple glazing – You can replace the whole window including the casing or you can just replace the windowpane. The latter is a slightly cheaper option, but it will depend on the overall condition of your windows.
  • Insulate your walls – this can be via cavity wall insulation externally (for properties built after 1920 only), you can also get your internal walls insulated to retain more heat in the home.
  • Improve air tightness – air can leak through gaps in floorboards, windows, chimneys, walls and floor junctures, but many of these can be easily remedied at low cost. Replace seals around window frames, close up chimneys (include an air brick), seal gaps between floorboards and walls, and when carpeting make sure to buy a good quality underlay. Make sure to retain some ventilation when improving air tightness to ensure the property remains in a good state of repair.

Tell us what you've done to insulate your home to reduce your carbon footprint: communications@growthco.uk