Get the home truths about saving pounds
FROM a quick lick of paint to a total home overhaul, few of us have been spared the delights – or disasters – of DIY.
And the reasons for doing so are similarly wide-ranging. Some stick to a small spruce-up for improving appearances while others aim to boost their property value with extensions and radical renovations.
This week however home makeover magic has taken a decidedly green turn..
But it’s not about a quick coat of teal-tinged emulsion, or khaki-coloured curtains. It’s about how you can save energy and lots of money as you do so.
From its leafy base in Knowlhill, the Energy Saving Trust is running a special week inviting the people of Milton Keynes to discover the home truths of fighting fuel costs from top to bottom.
And one of the Trust’s satisfied customers, Terry Higgins, has opened his doors to the Citizen to show exactly what that means.
The Great Holm resident, who lives with his wife Lynn and two children, started his energy-saving mission by having loft insulation fitted.
He said: “Our initial interest was in reducing our fuel bills, but we quickly realised that having a more sustainable house could also allow provide a sound, long-term investment. The simplest place to start was by doubling the depth of our loft insulation and draught-proofing around doors, window frames and our loft hatch.
“We then installed modern double glazing, with a 20 mm air gap, which has both reduced heat loss and noise levels.
“We were disappointed by the returns we were getting on savings, even from a tax-free ISA, so we decided to take our money out of the bank and put it on the roof.”
His top-down approach is, according to the Trust’s marketing manager Kathy Wyatt, the only way to go. She said there is no point in installing other, more green ways of producing energy at home if you haven’t insulated properly first.
She added: “Around half of heat loss in a typical home is through the walls and loft.
“To put it into context, the amount of heat lost in homes annually through un-insulated lofts and cavity walls is enough to pay for 1.7 million families’ gas bills for a year.”
Through a special arrangement with Milton Keynes Council and the government’s Carbon Offset Fund, city homeowners and private tenants can now get cavity wall or loft insulation fitted at a standard cost of just £95 for each job.
Nearly 2,500 households in MK have already got insulation installed through this fund.
Kathy added: “If you are over 70, or are in the receipt of certain income-related benefits, you may get the work done free.”
After insulation – which, at this time of year, is an ideal way of ‘wrapping up’ your home for winter – there are other ways of future-proofing your home.
In Terry’s case it meant reading up on the technology and terms involved, in order for him to calculate the savings – and he did so with the help of the Energy Saving Trust’s impartial advisers.
Armed with the information, he chose local firm Ecohouse to install the system.
He said: “We chose the largest system our roof could accommodate and one that qualified for the highest rate of the feed-in tariff, a type of financial compensation for generating our own electricity.
“We will be paid 41.3p per kilowatt hour on the electricity our system makes and three pence per kilowatt hour on electricity we don’t use that is fed back into the grid.
“Additionally, we expect to make savings by using the electricity and these are calculated at 13p per kilowatt hour. The system was only commissioned in mid-September, but last month we generated 322 kilowatt hours, which already represents £138.”
However the money-saving figures aren’t limited to hundreds of pounds, as Terry’s stunning sums demonstrate.
He said: “The system should produce 3,263.9 units per year and avoid 2,884 kgs of CO2 emissions annually.
“Using current prices and assuming 50 per cent of the electricity is exported and the remaining used, over the course of the 25 year feed-in tariff contract the total benefit works out at £40,216.48.”
If you want to take the first step towards massive energy savings – and advantage of the special £95 offer for insulation, call the Energy Saving Trust on 0800 512 012.
> To see the Citizen’s exclusive video tour of Terry’s home, visit www.miltonkeynes.co.uk
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Weather for Milton Keynes
Friday 25 May 2012
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Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 21 mph
Wind direction: East
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