When looking at building an extension there are many aspects you need to consider, such as planning permission and building regulations. Finding the right builder and building supplies...
If you are planning a new kitchen there are a number of things you may want to take into consideration. The Building Services Guide tries to give you some guidance.
Are you losing money because your home is inefficient. You could be wasting hundreds of pounds each year, cut this down by looking at a few simple issues.
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We at the Building Services Guide have teamed up with the Energy Saving Trust to bring to you an insight into some measures that can be taken to reduce the amount of energy that your home consumes.
Energy Efficiency
Is your home energy efficient? If not you may be throwing away hundreds of pounds a year in unnecessary heating bills. If your home is not insulated over 50% of the heat you pay for could be ineffective and lost through your roof and walls. Carrying out some very cost effective insulation could save you a lot of money on your yearly heating bills. This needn’t cost you a great deal of money as there are grants available to cover some of the costs.
Loft Insulation As heat rises up to 25% of this heat could be lost through your roof, putting in loft insulation can cut this drastically and could save you quite a bit of money. The current standard to work to is 250mm (10 inches) of insulation. If you have had insulation done in the past this will be okay but upgrading the thickness will still save you some money. Loft insulation can be bought from your local DIY store or you can contact a specialist company who could do the loft insulation for you.
Wall Insulation The walls of your home are where most of the heat could be lost, up to 33%. So if you receive a £300 bill, £100 of this could have been lost unnecessarily through your walls. Unless you live in a non-standard kind of property construction, there are usually two types of walls, cavity and solid.
Cavity walls are where there are two layers of bricks making up the outer wall with a gap in between them. If this gap is empty then your heat loss will be considerable. To rectify this insulation is pumped into this gap; it then solidifies and creates the insulation. This job is best done by a company that specialises in cavity wall insulation. Although doing this will have an initial cost, the long term benefits will considerably outweigh your initial cost. Solid walls are more difficult to insulate as any insulation has to be attached to either the external or internal walls of the property. This could be in the form of cladding or insulated render to the outside or by building insulation onto the inside walls (however this decreases the internal area of your property). This form of insulation will probably turn out to be more expensive than for cavity walls and any layout will take longer to recuperate, however the benefit of having the work done will be instantly noticeable as the property will be much warmer. Again this work is probably best done by a specialist contractor.
Heating Efficient heating systems can save you a lot of money on your heating bills, having an inefficient boiler could mean that you are literally burning your money away. Old boilers could be burning as much as 45% of your money in waste. So for every £100 of your bill as little as £55 could actually be heating your home. New condensing boilers are the most efficient as they convert up to 91% of the energy into heat. To see how efficient your boiler is then follow this link. Boilers have a life of around 10 to 15 years, so if your boiler is older than this it may be worth considering changing to a new condensing boiler. If you are considering changing your boiler it would be wise to talk to a heating engineer first to make sure that the boiler is sufficient for the needs of your household. Before employing anybody to work on your heating make sure that they are CORGI registered.
Grants A number of grants are available for people in different circumstances; no names are mentioned here as these can change quite regularly. To see whether a grant could be available to you or to get more advice on energy efficiency then please follow this link or call the Energy Efficiency Advice Centre on 0800 512012.
