Insulating your home

How to guide: Insulating your home

• How to insulate your loft

  

  Much of your home’s heat is lost through the loft when it rises – a massive 26%, in fact. So the loft is the best place to start when insulating your home. By using a 270mm thickness of glass mineral wool loft insulation (or the thermal equivalent) you’ll save between £180 – £220 in energy bills and 1.5 tonnes of C02 per year.

• Hot water cylinder

  

  Most new cylinders come pre-insulated, but if you have an older un-lagged one, you can buy a cheap insulating jacket that is really easy to fit – this could save you £20 and 150kg of C02 every year.

• Radiators

  

  Sticking pieces of radiator reflector foil behind your radiators is a great way to save energy – this will stop the heat leaking out of the wall behind them. You can either paste the foil onto the wall before the radiator is fitted, or cut it to a size slightly smaller than the radiator itself, fixing it with adhesive pads.

• Hot water pipes

  If you insulate your hot water pipes, this will cut down the time you have to wait for hot water to flow from the tap. The most important pipes to lag are the ones that run under the floorboards and in the loft. You should also insulate the pipe that runs from the boiler to the hot water cylinder.

• Cold water pipes

  These pipes can be insulated to prevent them from freezing in winter. You can wrap the cistern in a purpose-made jacket or lag it with a glass fibre blanket. Pipework can be insulated using split foam tubes, which easily slide onto the pipes – use a double thickness around bends where freeze-ups are most likely to happen, and fasten the foam at intervals with tape to keep it closed.

• Insulating floors

  Keep your heat loss to a minimum by laying a good quality carpet with a thick underlay, or insulating floor covering such as cork or cushion vinyl laid on hardboard.

  If you’re installing underfloor heating, it’s a good idea to lay Aqua Panel thermal insulation that will direct all the heat up into the room, making the system more efficient.

  Gaps under skirting can be filled in with mastic or covered with wooden beading, which is best pinned to the skirting rather than the floor.

• Insulating walls

  A massive 33% of your entire home’s heat is lost through walls if your home is un-insulated, and cavity wall insulation is one of the most cost-effective and energy efficient ways to stop this happening. It can reduce home heat loss by around 60% and save you between £130 and £160 per year in heating bills.

  You might want to consider cavity wall insulation – where the gap between the outer and inner wall is filled with glass wool – or if you live in an older property with solid walls (ie built before 1920), you can line your walls with polystyrene-backed plasterboard. B&Q offers a full cavity wall insulation service. Visit the Energy Saving Trust

• Draughtproofing

  You can keep your home warmer and reduce fuel bills by fitting draught excluders to all the gaps around your doors and windows. Approximately 11% of a home’s heat is lost through these gaps, and you can choose from a wide variety of excluders. These range from easy-fit self-adhesive foam strips to more durable rubber and brush seals. You can also buy complete sets specially made for external and internal doors.

  Did you know that nearly 20% of all heat lost in the home happens through its windows? You can sort this out cheaply and quickly by fitting some secondary glazing film to your windows.

  Cover up keyholes and letterboxes, and put a threshold excluder if you get draughts coming in from under doors.

  But remember – if your home has a coal or gas fire, make sure you still have a supply of fresh air coming into the house so that they work safely. You can do this by installing adjustable ventilators.