- Change the boiler. I always change boilers over 10 years old even if they still work because they will be costing a fortune to run. Nowadays its relatively cheap to buy a boiler and they are not only smaller, but also more energy efficient. Make sure you employ a Gas Safe registered engineer to do this.
- Insulate your loft to a depth of at least 250mm. This is a cheap and easy way to lower your heating costs. In most cases you can do it yourself – just roll it out. Buy loft roll from a DIY store or builders’ merchant.
- Upgrade your windows. This won’t be cheap, but it will do more than make your house more ecological and sustainable – you’ll have lower heating bills and a higher level of comfort. It will make your home more sellable too.
- Stop draughts. Take a walk around your house and find the places where cold air is leaking into your house. It sounds pretty boring, but you’d be amazed how much heat is lost through even small holes, like a mortise lock. It’s possible to buy draught excluding strips to go around the edges of doors and windows, and there are also products to stop draughts in other places, like keyholes, letterboxes and unused chimney flues.
- Change your light bulbs to LED lighting wherever possible. LED lights use a fraction of the electricity of incandescent bulbs and some can be dimmed. The technology has improved hugely over the years so it’s really worth investigating. Look for the lumen rating rather than the wattage – lumens measure the amount of light emitted. If you want an LED equivalent to a 40W bulb, look for 450 lumens; for 60W you want 800 lumens.
- Install a thermostatic control to your central heating system and fit thermostatic valves on the radiators in every room as well. This is all about comfort control, allowing you to have every room heated to the level you prefer – this could be warmer living rooms and cooler bedrooms, for instance. You’ll be turning your boiler down and saving hundreds of pounds a year.
- If you’re doing significant refurbishment take the opportunity to insulate wherever you can. I like to insulate every floor and wall, even if they are internal. This stops heat transfer from room to room, so the heat stays in the rooms where you want it to be.
- Fit a water butt in your garden that recovers rainwater from the roof. This can be used to water your garden. More complex systems can even use this water to flush toilets in your house.
- Fit aerators to your taps. These clever devices usually cost less than a fiver, but can reduce the flow from your taps by up to half with no noticeable loss of pressure. Most modern taps will take an aerator – pick one up you’re your local plumbers’ merchants and simply screw in place.
- Investigate new ways to heat your home: Ground source heat pumps are great, but you need a big garden for them to work. Air source heat pumps (which extract heat from the air outside) are pretty good too and they can be used in all sorts of locations because you don’t need a garden to put pipework in (see www.energysavingtrust.org.uk for more information).
For more inspiration, watch George’s video on creating a more sustainable home.
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