Save with Walls                

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In most houses, walls are the largest exposed area to the elements.

As a result it’s no surprise that we lose a very large proportion of our heat through them, typically around a third for an un-insulated house.

As time as gone on, the nature of walls has changed. Originally they used to be thick, high thermal mass affairs. They were designed to hold heat and change only slowly with temperature. Look at an old cottage for instance and all that thick brickwork. The idea was that once warmed up it would hold heat for ages.

Then in the 1920s, double layer walls came in that had a cavity between the two layers of bricks - a system of building generally remains to this day. However all houses built since the late 1990s will have the cavity between the two layers filled with insulation.

The idea of this filling is to cut down on heat loss and it can be very effective indeed in cutting your heating requirement and Carbon emissions.

 

POSITIVE STEPS:

If your house has cavity walls (ie: probably built since the 1920s) you can generate some substantial savings by having them insulated. At a stroke, insulation makes your house considerably more efficient.



It’s actually quite a straight forward process and has had government money thrown at it to help people with the cost.

It’s about as fast a payback as loft insulation and financially is a no-brainer thanks to grants given to installers. Even better, someone else comes and does the job for you !

What they do is drill a number of small holes in the outer layer of the wall, through which insulation is blown in. This works its way through all the cavities and pretty soon the place is insulated. Think of it like a nice big woolly jumper for the house… It’s very effective, and you should see the difference immediately in your heating consumption.

 

  How to go about it:

Check for adverts in local papers and see if your council’s website has anything on it. There maybe some local special offers.

Alternatively call the Advice Centre on 0800 512 012 who should be able to help. They can advise on who your local registered installer is and also whether grants might be available.

In summary: Well worth doing – you’ll making big savings very quickly and be cutting a huge chunk off your Carbon emissions in one go.