Why Insulating Your House Will Save You Money – And Where To Do It!

Insulation plays a huge part in saving your hard-earned money. It keeps a warm house warm and a cool house cool, and you need to make sure that your insulation is working properly for you. It may cost you a little money to get it up to scratch, but it will save you money on your utility bills over time, so it is well worth doing.

Here are our tips on how to get the most from your insulation:

Insulate Your Walls

Walls are one of the main places that heat can escape through, so you need to make sure that the insulation is thick enough and of good enough quality. Most modern houses have cavity walls – that is to say two separate walls with a space in between. This space should be packed full of insulation. If your walls are solid then your only option is to line the walls either externally or internally with an insulating layer. You’ll find that solid walls lose more heat than cavity walls, so it is worth investing in.

Insulate Your Loft

Loft Area of Dune house in Thorpeness, Suffolk, England – Photo Courtesy: Joe Wolf

As we all know, warm air rises, and a lot of heat escapes through a poorly-insulated loft space. By making sure your attic is effectively insulated, you can expect to use far less energy to heat your home, and therefore save you loads of cash. Insulating a loft is really easy – and shouldn’t cost you too much money – it’s simply a case of putting a few extra layers down on the floor of the loft space.

Insulate Your Floors

The cracks in your flooring and gaps between skirting boards and walls can be sealed to prevent air escaping. This is an easy job that you can do yourself to reduce the amount of heat that is lost. Another trick is to insulate underneath your flooring – an engineer will visit, pull up the floorboards and lay the right kind of insulation for your house.

Water Pipes and Tanks

Your plumbing system should be well insulated – your boiler will work more effectively and your pipes will be much less likely to freeze over in very cold spells. Your hot water will stay warmer for longer meaning that you don’t have to have your heating on constantly. People tend to put insulating jackets on their water cylinder, and use special foam to lag pipes.

Double Glazing

Double glazing your windows is a great way of making sure no heat escapes through the windows. Not only will it save you money and keep your house warmer, you will also benefit from being able to shut outside noise out. Draughts can be fixed with foam or excluders, and letterboxes can be fitted with flaps that keep the draught out.

Making sure your house is properly insulated will save you no end of money and keeps you far more comfortable in those long winter months. Make it a priority to review your insulating as the sooner you do this, the sooner you can benefit from all the cost savings it has to offer.

Andrea Hopkins is a frequent blogger and an environmental activist. She works for Atomik Interiors and Spray Systems which delivers high end construction services to residential and commercial clients. She practices yoga in her free time.