When it comes to improving your home, some projects are more beneficial than others. When you’re deciding what area to tackle next, consider the following options if you want an energy efficient home. They’ll not only be great for your bank balance in the long run, but you’ll be doing your bit for the environment as well, and what could be better than that?
Update Your Heating System
A dated heating system and old boilers can become pretty costly in the winter months, so it’s definitely worth looking into new alternatives when you have time. Thanks to the digital age and the demand for convenience, there are now plenty of products to choose from that will make those blasted fuel bills a little less depressing.
Remote controlled heating systems can shave pounds off your heating costs while working with existing boiler or energy supplier. You can schedule in your heating times and adjust them from any location; they can even remind you to turn the heating off if you’ve forgotten to do so before you left the house.
Add an Economical Fireplace
If you’re having to stock up on ridiculous amounts logs to get you through the winter and would rather not burn through all your hard earned cash so quickly, why not look into a more efficient fireplace.
Balanced flue fireplaces are a more economical option and also have a number of additional positive features. Heat is transferred into your living space instead of being wasted and lost up the chimney. Being room sealed means outside noise is eliminated, and you can have peace of mind that there’s no naked flame, an ideal feature when you’ve got children running around.
Replace Your Windows
Yes, this is a significant investment to make, but you can lose so much household heat through your windows. It might be worth switching to double or even triple glazed. While you will probably feel out of pocket, to begin with, you’ll soon see a reduction in fuel costs and will have even added value to your home. Properties that have double or triple glazing installed are much more attractive to potential buyers.
By offering better insulation, modern windows play an important role in both heating and cooling your home and actually help boost security too. They might even reduce the cost of your home insurance but you’d have to investigate this with your provider first.
Use Energy Saving Bulbs
An energy efficient upgrade that can be achieved on the smallest budget is the replacement of those old costly lightbulbs. Lasting so much longer than the traditional bulbs, these efficient alternatives are a no brainer and can be purchased at most DIY stores.
Energy saving bulbs will still emit the same light as the traditional types but may take a little longer to brighten up. Don’t let this minor delay put you off; they really are worth every penny you save.
Invest in Solar Energy
With technology in this area continuing to advance, adding solar energy to your home may not be as complicated as you think and is becoming increasingly accessible to public consumers. By converting the sun’s energy into electricity, solar panels can efficiently heat your home and are much more environmentally friendly than those noisy old boilers.
Although they can sometimes be seen as an eyesore, they will pay off dividends in the following years to come, and there are plenty of well-known energy providers in the UK offering solar panel optionsright now.
Try Out a Wind Turbine
Taking advantage of the wonderful English weather experienced through most of the months of the year, harnessing the energy created by the wind can be a great alternative to consider. Giant turbines are usually the first images that spring to mind when thinking about wind energy, but there are some smaller scale sizes too.
There are free standing or mounted options to choose from when you’re looking to install, and they will efficiently cut electricity bills and your carbon footprint once installed. An interesting side note; if you’re not connected to the national grid, any excess energy can be stored into batteries and used on those rare windless days.
Both solar panels and wind turbines will require some maintenance upkeep so do bear this in mind when choosing a route to take, but with everything taken into account, you’ll be looking at some long term savings with these energy efficient additions to your home. Now it’s time to let the improvement projects commence.