Climate Change

Over 40% of the UK's carbon dioxide emissions, the main greenhouse gas which causes climate change, actually come from the energy we use every day - at home and when we travel. Things like insufficient insulation, leaving lights on unnecessarily or overfilling the kettle all waste energy and result in needless carbon dioxide emissions.

What can you do today?

Under the Governments Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) scheme, energy suppliers are obliged to encourage people to use energy more efficiently by helping with the supply and costs of installing energy saving measures and providing advice on energy efficiency.

Call the Energy Saving Trust on 0800 512 012 to find out more.

Around half of heat loss in a typical home is through the walls and loft making them the two biggest causes of heat loss in the home. It's definitely worth getting yours insulated, as it will save you money and reduce your carbon footprint.

Cavity wall insulation

Just insulating your cavity walls could save you around £115 a year on your fuel bills and 610 kg of CO 2. The installation cost is around £250 (when subsidised under the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target), which means it would pay for itself in just over two years. If every house in the UK that could installed cavity wall insulation it would cut CO2 emissions by nearly 4 million tonnes, enough to fill the new Wembley Stadium 500 times, and save around £690 million a year.

Solid wall insulation

If your home was built before the 1920s, it probably has solid walls. Solid walls lose even more heat than cavity walls, but you can also insulate them either internally or externally. Solid wall insulation will save you around £400 a year and two tonnes of CO2.

Loft Insulation

Loft insulation acts as a blanket, trapping rising heat from the house below. If you currently have no insulation and you install the recommended 270mm depth you could save around £150 a year on your heating bills and around 800kg of CO 2 per year.

Draught proofing

If you can feel cold air coming in around the windows in your home it means warm air is escaping. In a typical home this heat loss accounts for 20% of the total heat lost. Draught proofing is an easy DIY task that simply fills gaps and decreases the amount of cold air entering your home. By installing draught proofing around doors and windows you could save around £25 a year on your heating bills and reduce your emissions by around 130kg of carbon dioxide (CO 2) each year.

There could even be grants and offers available to help you pay for draught proofing.

Tank and pipe insulation

Insulating your hot water tank is one of the simplest and easiest ways to save energy and money. Fitting a British Standard 'jacket' that's at least 75mm thick around your tank will cut heat loss by over 75% and save you around £35 per year. The jackets themselves cost about half that, meaning that you'll reclaim your initial cost in around 6 months.

Fitting insulation to hot water pipes is easy if they are accessible. The insulation will cost around £10 and save you around £10 a year, which means you should recover the cost of fitting within a year. Professional help may be required to fit insulation to harder to reach pipe work, which would incur extra cost.

Get your free home energy report

To get your free personalised home energy report which will rate your home A-G, suggest improvements you could make and calculate your potential savings. Visit the Energy Saving Trust at www.energysavingtrsut.org.uk/check

Contact the Energy Savings Trust

Melanie Nolan of the Energy Savings Trust works closely with Kingsley Transition Initiative and can be contacted in the following way:
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Telephone: 0151 637 3678
Energy Saving Trust advice centre, Merseyside and Cheshire