As a homeowner, it makes practical and financial sense to think about your carbon footprint and what steps you can take to reduce it. With the recent Cop26 conference, environmental action has never been higher on the agenda and there are lots of things we can all do to make a difference, especially in our homes.
If you’re ever thinking about selling in the future, potential buyers will be more interested in your property’s energy credentials, because of how much their bills will be, so working on building sustainability into your property’s future is recommended.
The government’s Green Homes Grant Scheme is worth exploring, which can give homeowners £5,000 worth of vouchers to make their home more energy efficient, as the UK looks towards a target of achieving net-zero carbon emissions.
Let’s look at a few ways you can do this:
Green Energy Provider
One simple change to make is switching to a green energy provider, so that your home can be powered using clean green energy sources. At the moment, the UK has quite a substantial range of providers that use renewable energy and other sources of environmentally friendly power. You can use a website like Simply Switch to compare providers and find a provider that works for you in terms of environmental impact and cost. Doing this also encourages larger providers to make their practices more energy efficient too.
Change a Lightbulb!
Small changes can make a big difference and replacing all of your lightbulbs with LED energy-saving bulbs can help you to make savings instantly and is also a decent bonus for potential buyers who won’t need to think about this if they buy your property. When you think about how much you use bulbs to light your home, this change can cut a fair wedge of CO2 off your carbon footprint.
Appliances
Energy-efficient heaters and being more efficient with hot water will be factors that buyers will be interested in. There are all sorts of options available to improve your energy output in these areas. Heating bills can be cut by upgrading to a newer, more eco-friendly boiler model and using smart meters and smart thermostats to control your heating. You could look into something like ground source heat pumps, which draw heat from the soil and can be used to heat underfloor heating and radiators. Or adding solar PV panels to your roof to power your home or solar water heating, which uses solar thermal technology to heat your domestic water.
Draught-proof
Make sure your property is well-insulated, exploring options such as roof and loft insulation, cavity wall insulation, solid wall insulation and draught-proofing your windows and doors, installing double/triple-glazing where possible. There are government grants for insulation that are accessible to home-owners so they’re worth taking into account and seeing if you’re eligible.
For more advice and information about selling or buying a property, please don’t hesitate but to get in touch with our team at Home EA who are on hand to answer any questions.
