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If your home is getting on a bit in age, it may not be the most energy-efficient property. The quality of the build, the way that the wiring has been set up, and the technology that is in place throughout the home, might have been great at the time, but by our modern standards, they might not fit the bill.
All of this can result in you paying more for your heating and electricity bills. You could be hemorrhaging heat and you could be wasting electricity. In addition to the increased costs, your property is also not as environmentally friendly as it could be.
Here are a few ways that you can reduce the carbon footprint of your home while also helping shrink your bills.
Modernize Your Heating And Air Con
Modern heating and air conditioning units are much more efficient than older models. Manufacturers are very conscious that consumers demand greener products that are cost-effective to run.
By bringing in a company such as Arundel Cooling and Heating Inc. to install new, more efficient equipment throughout your home, you could help to reduce your bills and improve your carbon footprint.
Rewiring Your Home
If your home is more than thirty years old, then the wiring will not have been designed to withstand the demands of our modern homes. If you look around your home and count how many electrical appliances that you have plugged into your sockets that did not exist thirty years ago, then it will become easy to see how our home’s wiring is often not fit for purpose anymore.
If you are having to use lots of muli-extension cables to plug your electrical items in because there are not enough power outlets, then this is also a problem.
Your fuse box will not have been designed to hold this level of power usage either. Putting too much pressure on this might also be a fire risk.
Contact a professional electrician and have a look at how you can modernize your wiring in your home.
Get A SMART Meter Fitted
Energy suppliers will bill you based on the meter readings that you supply them. Very often, by the time they have recorded the reading and billed you for your energy, the reading is already out-of-date. This leads to inaccurate billing. Some companies will bill based on an estimate of your usage. This often means that you end up paying too much on your bills.
By having a SMART meter installed, it will be possible to see your energy use in real-time. That means that whenever you boil a kettle or switch on a light switch, you can see your bill going up. While it can be disconcerting to watch the amount of money that you owe creep up in front of your eyes, it also means that you are only ever paying for energy that you have used.
The fact that you can see your own usage going up will make you think about how you are using your power. If you tend to leave lights on in rooms that you are not in, or like to have the TV on in the background when you are doing something else, then you might find that these habits quickly get broken.
Keeping The Heat In
If heat is escaping from your home, then it will cost you much more to heat your home. You will need to pump more heat into your house in order for it to stay warm.
Heat can escape through a number of different places. This includes your roof, the walls, and through doors and windows. By addressing the areas that you are losing heat, you will find that your home stays warmer and becomes less expensive to heat while being more eco-friendly.
Having roof insulation laid down will help stop the heat from going straight out of the top of your home. Roof insulation is relatively cheap and is easy to fit in your attic.
If you have a cavity wall, having insulation placed down in the gaps will help to prevent the heat from escaping. For solid walls, there are also internal and external insulation options.
Where the heat is escaping through your doors and windows, you may need to either have these preplaced, or look at the seals around the frames, and where the frames meet the walls.
By opting for UPVC doors and windows, you will find greater energy efficiency. While making sure that your seals are all intact and all holes are filled will also help.
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