With the price of energy skyrocketing, we are all wondering how we can use less energy and save ourselves some precious pennies. Here at Ironglaze we place a lot of importance on making sure all of our products help to insulate your home and wanted to give you some advice on how to do an audit of your home to check its energy efficiency.

How to audit your home

An audit is a great way to assess what energy saving methods you already have in your home – and where it may be lacking. This can be done in one of two ways. If you have an up to date EPC (Energy Performance Certificate), this can help you identify possible improvements. An EPC will give your home a rating from A (most efficient) to G (least efficient) and will also come with a list of recommended improvements for your home. If you find you don’t have an EPC, you can ask for an assessment to be done on your home which usually costs between £60-£120 depending on the size and location of your property.

If you don’t have an EPC or another type of professional assessment, don’t worry. You can manually take an audit of your home by walking around and making note of what you find. The important things to make note of are:

• Draught proofing: Do you have any gaps around your doors and windows? Do you get a draught through your loft or the letterbox? Do you have double glazing?
• Insulation: Check your loft space, external walls and ground floor and look for insulation around your hot water tank and pipes.
• Lighting: Are you using efficient LED bulbs in all your overhead lights and lamps? Don’t forget to check in your oven, extractor fan and any external lighting you may have. 
• Heating: Make sure your radiators and boiler are working properly and remember to have them serviced regularly. Portable and plug in heaters are likely to be using more energy so assess whether you need them.
• Windows and doors: Are they double glazed? If not, what are they made of? Are there gaps underneath doors that can let the cold in? 
• Conservatory: If you have a conservatory, lean-to or orangery – what is the roof made of? Is it insulated properly? 

Once you have done this audit and have an idea of what you can do to improve the energy efficiency of your home, start to implement the changes. These changes are going to range from larger scale projects such as adding insulation to your attic and outer walls, to just going around and replacing your lightbulbs for more efficient ones. It may seem like paying out money at the moment is counter productive – but it will definitely save you money in the long run.

A huge loss of heat and energy we come across a lot in our field is through old windows and doors and insufficiently insulated conservatories. Switching to modern, energy efficient double glazing or a durable new door could significantly reduce your heating costs, whilst the quality of our products means that you can enjoy these energy-saving benefits for many years to come. We can also offer our Warmer Roof technology for your conservatory which can combat a lot of the efficiency problems that you might face. 

Please get in touch with our experts to discuss how we can help you improve your energy efficiency and save you money in the long run.