How well insulated is your home? This guide will help you work it out!

Proper insulation is extremely important to ensure you are not paying over the odds for your energy bills and can also serve to improve the energy efficiency of your home. As of April 2021, the average gas and electric bill was £1,264. One reason that the price of your energy bill is so high could be because your home isn’t as well insulated as you think.

The team at Thrift Energy have compiled a list detailing ways you can find out if your home is in need of more insulation.

Drafts and cold areas

If you feel draughts and cold areas coming from outdoors, it is a sign your home needs better draft -proofing. Firstly, search for the source of the draft. Cold air coming through closed windows or doors could mean you need double glazed windows, while drafts coming from the floorboards could be a sign you need better underfloor insulation.

Sharp changes in temperature

If you turn the heating off and find that your house gets immediately colder, it’s a sign that heat is escaping quickly. This means that your home is poorly insulated, as insulation is designed to conserve hot air within your home. Additionally, if your interior walls are cold to touch, this is a sign you require wall insulation.

At Thrift Energy, we recommend installing solid wall insulation or cavity wall insulation. Both are just as viable, though you will need an installation professional to come out and assess your home to make sure it is suitable for insulation.

Check your loft!

If you can easily access your loft, it is worth going up there with a tape measure and seeing just how thick your insulation is. The current recommended depth for loft insulation is 270mm for glass wool, 250mm for rock wool or 220mm cellulose. Guidance on this has changed over the last few years. It used to be 200mm and before that it was only 100mm. Even if you have insulation installed, chances are you can add more.

If you don’t have easy access to your loft, there are a few ways you can check how much heat you’re losing through your roof from the outside. Do you find that snow and ice melts quickly away from your roof? This means you’re losing a lot of heat. A slightly less accurate way of diagnosing the problem is by monitoring the behaviour of pigeons. If you find that your home is where they gather most, it could mean your roof is producing the most heat.

Although this list of tips is designed so that you can check whether or not you need your insulation improved or replaced, at Thrift Energy, we always recommend calling in a professional to verify any issues you have and to recommend the best course of action.

Don’t hesitate to contact us today if you have any concerns or questions about the insulation in your home.

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