As winter rolls in, keeping your home warm becomes a top priority. Especially as households will be paying more for energy this year without the Government's Energy Bill Support payment, and a rise in energy costs in January.
However, help is at hand via the Great British Insulation Scheme (GBIS). Qualifying households could get a £2,000 insulation upgrade for only £200! Even better, we've teamed up with insulation experts InstaGroup to make your route to a warmer, more comfortable and cheaper-to-run home as easy as possible. Read on to learn more about insulation, GBIS and how to find out if you qualify.
Making sure your home is holding onto the warmth you’re paying for is important - that’s where insulation comes in.
An uninsulated home loses around a third of all heat through walls and a quarter of heat through the roof. An average house with poor insulation will spend around £15 per day to heat their homes on the coldest days this winter. A sobering thought.
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Insulation: Where to Focus
The two insulation measures you should be considering are cavity wall and loft insulation. While they come at a cost, these measures will pay themselves back quickly.
Cavity Wall Insulation
Cavity wall insulation is the process of filling the gap in between your outside walls with spray insulation. The insulation is injected through holes drilled on the outside of your house. If your house already has cavity wall insulation, you may be able to see filled holes around 2.2 cm in size dotted around the outside of your home.
There are two other signs to look out for. Many houses after 1920 were built with cavity walls but it was only in 1990 that wall insulation was consistently fitted during construction. If the brick is evenly spaced and over 26 cm thick, it is also likely to have a cavity wall.
Cavity wall insulation is relatively expensive, with costs reaching up to £1800. However, this measure can save up to £690 a year, making it an extremely worthwhile investment.
Loft Insulation
It’s much easier to find out if you have loft insulation - just have a look and check you have the recommended 27cm thickness. If not, you can often easily top it up yourself if your attic is easily accessible and doesn’t have any damp issues. Or, you can pay a professional to do it for you.
Loft insulation can cost up to £890 on average to install, but annual savings can reach £590. If the insulation is correctly installed, it can last for 40 years and pay for itself many times over.
The Great British Insulation Scheme
The Great British Insulation Scheme aims to help up to 400,000 households with the installation costs of several types of insulation over the next 3 years, the most common being cavity wall and loft. You may be eligible if:
- You are a homeowner (or renting privately and on benefits)
- Your Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) is rating D or below? Check here
- In England, your home is within Council Tax bands A-D? Check here
- In Scotland and Wales your home is within Council Tax bands A-E council tax band
Are you a YES across the board?
If so, you’re likely to qualify for a 90% subsidy on your insulation upgrade through the Great British Insulation Scheme. That could mean paying just £200 on a typical £2,000 cavity wall insulation project.
Next steps:
We’ve teamed up with insulation experts InstaGroup to make your insulation upgrades as easy as possible. The form below guides you through the qualification criteria. Add your details and InstaGroup will contact you for a free consultation.
NB: Unfortunately InstaGroup do not currently cover Devon, Cornwall and Scotland. If you live in these areas, check the scheme homepage.
Go Further to Keep the Heat In
It’s not just insulation that can help keep your home cosy. Simply make a few simple lifestyle changes to keep the draughts at bay.
- Keep your bed warm. We all hate the feeling of getting into a freezing bed, but you don’t want to keep the heating on at night. Instead, swap to your Winter duvet when temperatures get below 15 degrees. Load up your bed with thick blankets and use bedding made out of materials like flannel or fleece to keep you toasty all night!
- Use draught excluders. Block up any gaps around windows, doors and unused chimneys with draught-proofing tape. You could even DIY your own draught excluders! This could save you around £61 a year.
- Close external doors. Stop cold air from getting into the rooms you’re using by closing internal doors. This is especially important if there are rooms in your home that you don’t heat or keep at a low temperature.
- Keep curtains closed. Hanging heavy curtains over draughty windows will help keep the cold out at night. This is a great tip if you don’t have double-glazing.
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