A properly insulated home is going to save you plenty of money on your energy bills and you will feel warmer in the winter months and cooler in the summer.
Saving money is a key priority for many homeowners who are trying to keep their household bills under control and it is always beneficial to learn more about ways to cut your energy bills, including the advantages of insulating your walls.
Reducing heat loss
It is estimated that about a third of all the heat that escapes from your house flows out of uninsulated walls.
The reason why the heat loss is so pronounced is because heat always flows from a warm area to a cold one, so in the winter months when the temperatures are lower outside, this accelerates the heat loss.
If you are living in a house that was built after 1990, there is a fair chance that you will benefit from wall insulation to keep the heat in, but if your house is older than that date, it is equally likely that your property doesn’t have any insulation in the walls.
Most types of wall can be insulated and doing this could trim up to £200 off your annual heating bills.
What wall type do you have?
The first thing to do if you are considering insulating your walls is to determine what type of wall you have in your property.
A cavity wall is comprised of two walls with a gap in between them, with the outer layer made of brick and the inner wall also constructed of brick or concrete block.
A solid brick or stone wall has no cavity and is just a single layer.
To work out what type of wall you have, take a look at the brickwork on the outside of the property to see what pattern the bricks have. If they have an alternating pattern the walls are likely to be solid construction and if it is more of a regular pattern, this normally indicates that you have cavity walls.
Another way of establishing what type of wall you have is to check the thickness of the bricks. A narrower wall is likely to be solid and if the wall is greater than 260mm in thickness, it is likely to be cavity.
If you have a stone wall, it will normally be thicker and is most likely to be solid
What to do next
If you have cavity walls and are not sure if they have been filled already or not, you can ask a registered installer to carry out a borescope inspection.
You could also make enquiries with your local authority building inspection department to check the construction history for your home.
If you find that you can fit cavity wall insulation, it is well worth considering the idea of getting quotes for the work to be done, especially when you consider that the average payback period is normally less than five years.
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Jodie Howard has worked in the property sales and development industry for over 10 years. Also a DIY enthusiast, currently renovating her own home, she writes for property and personal finance blogs in her spare time.
