Here’s a question to consider, who within your house controls the heating thermostat? Your husband, your wife, your partner, the children… the bill payer maybe?
Throughout the winter months we wonder how many of us will hear the expressions “put another jumper on if you’re cold” or “who’s cranked up the thermostat?”
Experts say that a comfortable living room should be in the region of 21 degrees. But for many of us, the reality is, we could see severe increases in our energy bills to ensure our homes are set to this constant temperature.
What can you do to help this?
Well of course, you can always dig out your old woolly jumpers, and ensure the kids have an extra pair of socks on. Or maybe check the energy efficiency of your home. Many people aren’t aware if their home is adequately insulated or not. The warmth you are trying to generate in your home could be quite simply escaping through your walls and roofs.
Approximately 25% of our homes heat, escapes through poorly insulated roof space. And apart from the yearly trip up to the loft to dust off the Christmas decorations who actually spends much time in their loft to assess if the insulation is the correct thickness and hasn’t become dislodged over many years?
Insulation is also very important in the summer months. With the sun shining down on your roof space, a loft can get very warm, and without the correct insulation, that heat could be transferred to your upstairs bedrooms. The correct insulation level should keep the heat within the loft space.
How thick should my loft insulation be?
Current guidelines advise that your loft insulation thickness should be at least 270 millimetres (for glass wool). Any existing insulation you may already have laid, can be left in the loft and an additional layer added to it to bring it up to the required minimum recommended thickness. Even if the old insulation has been there for some time it still retains its insulant value.
What insulation material do A&M Energy Group use?
The majority of loft insulation we install is the Knauf Insulation Glass Mineral Wool – Earthwool loft roll. The ready cut rolls make it a friendly material for our loft installers to use, it is made of rapidly renewable bio-based materials and is manufactured to the highest ISO standards.
What is the cost of installing loft insulation?
If you have no insulation installed already, you could expect to pay approximately £700 for 270mm of new loft insulation installed at a typical three bed semi-detached home. There would obviously be savings to have if there was already insulation in your loft space and it was just being topped up.
Through the government backed ECO scheme, A&M Energy Group also work with energy retailers to access any insulation grants for the cost of the install. This would be calculated once the surveyor has carried out a short survey.
Insulation is one of the few home improvements where you can carry out at a cost, but see savings made on your energy bills year after year. A typical three bed semi-detached home can see savings of up to £135 per year once the correct loft insulation is installed*
*Saving figures taken from Energy Saving Trust website on 21 May 2019.
See more on their website.
