BCE - Energy Efficiency

Home Energy Efficiency

Home energy efficiency is about generating heat more efficiently and retaining it inside our homes, thereby reducing our heating bills and carbon emissions

In future, when Broughton Community Energy is generating our own sustainable low-cost electricity, an electric heat pump will likely be the most efficient way to heat your home, but you’ll only get the full benefits if your home is well insulated.

However, improving your home’s insulation makes good economic and environmental sense today, regardless of whether you decide to switch to a heat pump in the future.

To help you on this journey, we’re delighted to have partnered with My Home Made Better, who can provide valuable advice free of charge.

Free house surveys so you know what needs to be done
Up-to-date information about grants (you’ll be surprised what grants are available!)
Advice on insulation, heat pumps, trusted suppliers and much more

Contact them now (click above) or contact us.

A word of warning. Your boiler will at some point need replacing (fact). Don’t wait until it happens in the middle of a cold winter, panic, and buy the first thing you can. Plan ahead now. Work out what your options will be, what you need to do, what the costs will be.

Want to learn more? ↓

There are two sides to home energy efficiency: getting heat in and keeping heat in. The two need to work hand in hand. If you switch to a heat pump, the size of heat pump you need depends on the energy efficiency of your house. Better insulation can mean a smaller heat pump, which costs less to buy and less to run.

Keeping Heat In

Getting Heat In

Retrofit (Insulation)

Retrofit is the new buzz word - to you and me it means insulation.
Yup, we've all been told about insulation a hundred times before. But have we done anything about it? - nope!

And here are some of our excuses for not doing so.

Why we don't

Too Expensive - No pay back
Need my loft for storage
I already have loft insulation
I don't like plastic windows
It's too disruptive

Why we should

Warmer home
Lower heating bills
Increase the value of your property
Lower carbon emissions

Where to start?

Roof

Roof - is the quick win. 25% of your heat can escape through the loft if you don't have sufficientinsulation. Since 2003 the minimum depth recommendation has been 270mm. So, if your house was built before then, maybe you need a little more? And even if it was built after, it's worth checking.
Loft insulation is not expensive and it's something you might well be able to do yourself. Beware if you see someone offering to spray the inside of the roof. It could cause problems.

Walls

Walls - a little more complicated but can reduce heat loss by up to 35%. If you have cavity walls getting insulation injected is fairly straight forward. Most importantly it is important to speak to a qualified professional about this.

Windows

Windows - can account for another 20% of heat loss. First and foremost are you double-glazed or better triple-glazed. If you are, have they been well maintained, if say the hinges are not working properly then they won't close properly and you'll get more draughts. Maybe you don't like the idea of having all the windows changed. But there are now lots of new and better ways of doing it. For example, take out the existing glass and have vacuum glazed units installed. Much thinner and more effective. Alternatively, there are secondary solutions held onto the frame by magnets, which are easy to remove and clean.

Floors

Floors - another 10-15% could be leaking out that way. Depends if you have timber joist floors or solid. But both can be insulated

Doors

Doors - yup another potential 10%, just through the outside doors not being insulated. Installing draught excluders is cheap and easy, and don't forget the letter box! (did you know the first letter boxes in doors were introduced in 1849)

And there are other tips such as reflector sheets behind radiators. Don't let the heat go through the wall, reflect it back in. Cheap and easy to buy and install.

One very important point is ventilation. You must have adequate ventilation on your house. You want to let the moisture out. But doesn't that then let the hot air out? Again, there is another solution with mechanical ventilation and heat recovery (MVHR), they think of everything now.

Yes, if you were to do all of the above the price might start to add up. But you will get that money back eventually as the price of your property will increase, plus your bills each month would be smaller, and most importantly it will be warmer (and cooler in summer)

Grants - and you might well be able to get grants to help you with this. There are a surprising number of grants available, such as ECO4, ECO4 Flex, Great British Insulation Scheme, Warm Homes Local Grant, Boiler Upgrade Scheme, and Hitting the Cold Spots. The eligibility criteria may be wider than you think, particularly if you have a low EPC rating (below D), and a household income below £36k, or may be Council Tax band A - D. It's worth exploring these through TEC Nor do you have to try to do everything, some bits are better than none. But best results would be all.

So what to do next?

Hopefully, what you’ve read will encourage you to think more about the energy efficiency of your home, and maybe, just maybe, take action.
There's a huge amount of information out there on the Internet, but beware as always there's also gobbledegook and sharks about.
We've partnered with other groups working in the community energy arena, in particular WinACC (Winchester Action on Climate Change) and tEC (The Environment Centre). They are both focussed on our Hampshire area and so are well placed to help us. They've started new initiative called My Home Made Better (MHMB). Here you can find out more detailed information about the above, plus you can contact them for help either on specific topics or in particular about grants.
One of the options they offer is an online assessment of your home. Sounds odd, but it's really helpful. They will talk you through the details of your house and make suggestions and provide a written report at the end of it. It helps to focus your mind on what needs to be done.
If, after the initial assessment, you would like more in-depth advice, they can arrange a survey and inspection of your home, including thermal imaging of your property (although there is a cost for this more detailed work)
We want you to start thinking about this, we'll keep reminding you. You know it's something that makes sense to do.... you just need to do it!
Please do contact us if you want and we will do our best to help if we can

Broughton Community Energy

Helping where we can