Before & After Exterior Insulation

The 1930′s solid wall semi opposite is a typical example of a thermally inefficient property that can benefit from energy saving external wall insulation fitted by Wethertex.

The pebble dash is blown and needs replacing and so this is a great opportunity to install thermal insulation boards whilst re-rendering.

The small extra cost involved makes exterior insulation a no-brainer.

As the photo below shows the tired looking semi has now been transformed into an attractive and maintenance free home.

More importantly though the insulated walls will save the owners around £450 p.a on heating bills and any condensation damp or black mould will be destroyed forever.

With Solid Wall Insulation Grants available to help with the costs and a 15% Government subsidy there really has never been a better time to arrange a free no obligation quote or talk to one of our advisors for more information.

Freephone 0500 300 407 or click EXTERNAL WALL INSULATION QUOTES & ADVICE

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The most cost effective and thermally efficient method of insulating solid walls is by having external wall insulation fitted on the outside of the walls. Not only does it avoid internal disruption and re-decoration caused by internal dry lining, it also avoids reducing the living space and protects the fabric of the building as well.

If you live in one of the 170,000 houses that have solid walls in Surrey and wish to permanently reduce  the spiralling costs involved in keeping warm in winter then call or email for more information on the likely level of costs as well as finding out what sort of free Grant you are eligible for.

Freephone 0500 300 407 or click EXTERNAL WALL INSULATION ADVICE to ARRANGE A FREE QUOTE

Effectiveness of External Insulation

As you can see the house opposite is a fairly typical example of a pebble dashed semi built in the 1930′s with 9 inch solid brickwork under the cement based rendering.

The pebble dash is looking tired and is starting to absorb water and cause the solid walls to leak even more heat than the usual 40% heat loss suffered by this type of build. Typical heating bills would be around £1200 p.a.

Now,take a good look at the same house after it has been thermally upgraded using a rendered external insulation system.

We are sure you will agree the house now looks a lot more appealing and the effects of the wall insulation on the are not detrimental to the appearance of the windows or the door surround etc.

In fact,the property will now lose 85% less heat through the walls and as well as having a lovely maintenance free finish,the newly-insulated walls will stay dry and mean an average £500 p.a reduction in heating bills!

Freephone 0500 300 407 or click FREE NO OBLIGATION EXTERNAL INSULATION ADVICE & QUOTES

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In this second article on energy saving tips we look at simple and effective ways to cut down our electric usage and save  our hard earned money whilst also being kinder to the environment.

In this day and age most households have far more high-tech gadgets and appliances than ever before and virtually all of them are run on electric or rechargeable batteries and so every watt we can save is a big help in keeping bills down.

Energy Saving Tips

1. 1.If you have a lamp with a dimmer feature you will be surprised to learn it still uses electricity when switched off unless you unplug it at the mains.
2. Use  PIR outside lights so you are not burning electric
3. If going away on holiday use timer switches to minimize usage
4. Make sure your electrical goods are not left on permanent stand by
5. When using the fridge or freezer keep to a minimum the amount of time the doors are left open.
6. When charging your phone, computer or camera make sure you disconnect the plug from the socket as soon as the re-charge is complete
7. When replacing any white goods try to buy A rated appliances
8. Replace light bulbs with low energy or LED lights if at all possible
9. Dry washing outside as often as possible to reduce tumble drier costs
10. Only use the washing machine or dishwasher on a full load and washing at 40 degrees instead of 60 degrees saves energy as well.
11. If you need to defrost a food item put it in the fridge as the cold given off will make the fridge use less electric whilst the defrosting occurs
12. Re-discover your romantic side and enjoy candle lit dinners and evenings without switching on the lights!!
13. Check out solar garden and path lighting as a decorative alternative outdoor lighting source.

These are just some examples of simple every day actions that will help you save money on your electric bill without spending any extra on new devices. Of course, if you have the finance available you can invest in solar panels or wind turbines to generate your own electric and further cut your bills and in time more affordable systems will make these an increasingly popular choice.

By cutting down on your energy useage you help to create a better environment for you and future generations. Considering the young are going to be saddled with billions of debt after the global financial meltdown the least we can do is make sure they have a healthy and clean environment in which to live.

This is the first in a series of energy saving articles and in this one we look at saving money on our heating bills without any impact on our lifestyle.

Useful Energy Saving Tips for Heating Homes

1. Fit thermostatic valves to radiators in each individual room and minimize heating in under-used rooms to allow for different temperature settings.

2. For every one degree you lower your heating thermostat you reduce your heating bill by 7% . Try keeping an eye on the next day’s weather and adjust the temperature settings accordingly as in the UK it is common to go from 5 degrees one day to 12 degrees the next and yet we leave the heating at the same temperature for the same amount of time.

3. Try reducing the temperature of the last hour at night down to 13 to 15 degrees as the built up heat will still keep the house warm at this lower setting.

4.If your boiler is older than 5 years, and if finances allow, think about upgrading to a far more energy efficient boiler as this can save around 15% of energy used. Also regularly service your boiler.

5. In summer reduce the time that the hot water is being heated as the ground temperature means you need less time to get the water up to temperature.

6. Insulate your walls with subsidized cavity injections or if you have solid walls consider insulating paints,insulating wallpapers,drylining or external wall insulation.

7. If having double glazing fitted invest in A rated frames and have argon gas filled glass units. These are 25% more energy efficient than lesser glazing units.

8. Flush through your radiators and bleed them to ensure they are working properly with no cold spots on their surface and fit radiator reflectors behind the panels to save 11% being lost on external walls

9. If you have vented floor boards and are having new flooring use the opportunity to insulate between the joists with breathable mineral wool insulation

10. Eliminate excessive draughts by checking seals around doors and windows

Alternative Heating Sources

Depending upon finances and the situation with grants you may also wish to seriously consider alternatives such as Ground or Air Source Heat Pumps, PV Solar Panels,Wood Burners or even Wind Turbines for light industrial or agricultural reasons.

In future years as technology is refined the cost of these heating alternatives should drop to a far more affordable level so it is worth re-visiting these systems every few years if they are currently out of your budget range.

It is defined as being when a household has to spend more than 10% of its income on providing an acceptable level of heating and lighting in their homes.

The UK Government has a legally binding obligation to eliminate fuel poverty by 2016 and last December the Statutory consumer body, Consumer Focus, published an update on the latest fuel poverty figures. The new figures caused great alarm amongst politicians and consumer rights bodies such as Help the Aged.

Shockingly the figures for England alone showed a massive INCREASE in year on year figures and 5 million households (up from 4.1 million in 2010) are now classed as being in

Fuel Poverty

.

Whilst lots of households are struggling to keep pace with heating cost increases there are certain areas of the UK where fuel poverty is worse than others. For example 17% of the South East are classed as being fuel poor but in Wales it is 40% and in the North East it just over 30% and overall it is 1 in 4 households. This is largely due to the 88% increase in energy bills since 2006 and the strain on incomes in the recession has made a bad situation even worse.

A Helping Hand

The eagerly anticipated Green Deal in late 2012 should bring financial relief to the 5million households facing “eat or heat” decisions in the form of free grants and loans for insulation and general energy saving devices such as new generation boilers .

Bookmark our site for the latest updates on the Green Deal.

German research shows that for every 1 euro investment in insulation products, 5 euros are returned through an increase in tax receipts and more employment. The insulation industry calls on National and Local government to give priority to energy conservation in buildings through fiscal and other measures.  Energy grants should be used to maximise the potential for increased  insulation before subsidising other Green measures.

Recently, the German Research Centre, Jülich,published the results of a study performed by KfW banking group. KfW received from the German federal government € 1.4 billion in 2010 to support the energetic upgrading of the German housing stock. This money allowed them to offer 1% interest promotional loans and make non-repayable contributions of  12.5% ​​of the insulation costs to anyone improving the heat retention of an older building by insulating the walls and roofs.

The final result? It was  8.9 billion € in promotional loans as part of a total f € 21.5 billion of investment attracted. This huge uptake saw 350,000 new jobs being created and the  German government gained an additional € 5.4 billion in revenues, while public spending – especially on a social level (unemployment, social benefits …) – decreased by € 1.8 billion.

For € 1.4 billion investment from the government, there was a return on investment of 7.2 billion €, or a ratio of 1 to 5. Or in other words every euro that Germany invests in energy conservation in buildings, brings the government 5 euros.

According to Petri Ven, Sr. Advisor and Construction Standards Update Federplast.be, “this study confirms that the environmental  benefits of insulation products is much larger than the environmental cost of it. It does not make sense for government to waste money on other Green technologies instead of more insulation.

payback on external wall insulation

it is important to be both accurate and realistic in assessing returns on capital invested in external insulation. The true cost is the difference between installing a render only system and installing an

insulated render

system and this is known as the ” marginal cost ” ie the extra money the insulation element will cost.

The

marginal cost of fitting an external wall insulation

system would be returned in around 3 to 5 years depending upon your heating patterns. As an example the Energy Saving Trust say a typical 3 bed semi has 75m2 of wall area and will enable saving of around £350 per annumn and so based on £15 extra per m2 the £1125

cost of insulation

will be recouped in around 3 to 4 winters.

Do not forget that in addition to the heating bills coming down there is no ongoing outside maintenance and your home will increase in value over an uninsulated similar property in the same area according to a RICS valuation.

Other considerations are the unknown rate at which heating bills will continue to rise and of course every family heats their home in the way that best suits them so savings, costs and therefore payback will vary a lot.

The U value is therefore a measure of how quickly heat escapes through a structure to the outside and as a result also how much carbon is leaking through the walls as well. In todays hard pressed times with ever rising heating bills it is very important to have a home with a low U value if you wish to keep those winter bills down.

The Building Regs state that if the walls are worse than 0.7 in U value you have to fit insulation if adding or replacing a layer to an external wall . The target to try and hit is 0.3 but they will accept a higher figure if 0.3 is not achievable due to the property features etc. An average installation would be around 0.35 U value which still represents an improvement of over 80% in thermal efficiency of the wall.

 They have also instructed the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) to give a higher value to homes with substantial energy saving measures such as external wall insulation systems. Whilst RICS are still formulating the new valuation models it is thought that a premium of around 5% to 6% will apply ie an increase in value of around £8000 to £10,000 on the average property price of £160,000.

The Green Deal will also report in early 2012 on possible low interest loans tied to the property on the basis of the money saved on lower bills being used to pay the loan installments. The big flaw in current thinking is that under this proposed scheme there is no financial incentive for the home-owner unlike the Feed In Tariff  for solar panels.

Other Insulation Grants Available

There is often some financial help available to all home-owners regardless of income or house type non-Governmental sources. The much maligned Energy Companies often run free grant schemes which contribute towards the costs of external wall insulation and Wethertex have access to these grants on behalf of its clients. Please call or email us for up to date grant information.

Freephone 0500 300 407 or click EXTERNAL WALL INSULATION GRANTS

A solid wall insulation system fitted on the outside of the wall is by far the most effective way of insulating a home to save energy and cut heating bills. Whilst thicknesses can vary, along with different insulation materials, a typical result is a 80% minimum reduction in thermal heat loss,measured in terms of a wall’s  insulation U value .

Compare the insulated house opposite with the one below.

The blue sections are cold so no heat is escaping through the insulated loft and roof areas. However, as the red colour shows, the un-insulated solid walls of this house are simply leaking heat at an alarming rate.

Given the ever-rising cost of our winter heating bills it is also our hard earned money disappearing through the walls as well!

Freephone 0500 300 407 or click SOLID WALL INSULATION ADVICE to ARRANGE A FREE QUOTE

No Damp Walls

Another huge benefit is that the condensation dew point on a solid wall is transferred outside the home so no damp can occur on interior wall surfaces that have been insulated externally by a trained specialist fitter.

This obviously has health benefits as well for those people with allergies and asthma and in particular small children and babies.

What About Internal Thermal Insulation?

When it is not technically possible to insulate externally or, if in so doing, you compromise the period look for example, then internal insulation or dry lining is a viable option.

Although not as efficient as fitting insulation boards on the outside of the walls, it can be used as an alternative  for example on a solid front wall that has architectural features that need to be preserved.

What Do I Do Next?

Professionally installed exterior solid wall insulation is therefore the best thermal option, subject to costs being affordable..

With free surveys,help with grants and no obligation quotes there has never been a better time to explore the benefits of solid wall insulation by contacting the UK’s leading approved installers of these exciting new energy saving insulation systems.

Freephone 0500 300 407 or click SOLID WALL INSULATION ADVICE to ARRANGE A FREE QUOTE

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