How green is your home?

ECO-CONSCIOUS GILL WILLIAMS decided that it was time get more environmentally friendly by finding out if her home matched her green credentials. She was in for a big surprise...

HAVING a home energy check is a bit like a game of snakes and ladders. The points you gain on recycling are snuffed out by what the inspector finds in your attic.

We have a water butt, nourish our veggie patch with kitchen compost and have more double glazing than an Anglian showroom.

Yet an energy check on our three-bed detached house by David Thorogood, environmental chief of East Herts District Council, reveals energy is seeping from every cranny.


Not only are we pumping CO2 into the atmosphere, but our energy bills are unnecessarily high. And we’d scored a D on a scale of A to G if we were to apply for an Energy Performance Certificate as part of a HIPS report.

Homes lose up to 50 per cent of their heat through the roof and walls so this is where we can make big savings, says David as he climbs the ladder into my loft. We have about two inches of

insulation and boarding, installed 15 years ago when standards were lower. Today you need about 10.5 inches to keep the warmth trapped in your living space. Loft insulation will cost us about £150 and pay for itself in about a year.

We can make our home even more efficient with a cheap loft hatch pillow (available from B&Q) so heat doesn’t escape into the attic.

David also recommends we install cavity wall insulation – just contact your local council for a list of affordable suppliers. In a Thirties house like ours, insulation costs about £180 and you’ll get your money back within the first year – and cut 1.4 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Our seven-year-old combi will just about do but should be replaced when we’ve had it 15 years with a more efficient condensing boiler. These work better as they’re not constantly heating up a whole tank of water. That upgrade would save us £94 (0.8 tonnes CO2) every year.

If you do have a water tank then make sure it’s well wrapped up. Replacing a thin jacket with a thicker wrap is cheap and will save you loads. The tank thermostat should be set at 16C, warm enough to kill any bugs but not wastefully hot.

We only heat our house to about 15C in winter. You save about 10 per cent on your bills for every degree you turn the thermostat down.

But we’re wasting money by not having individual thermostats controlling the heat in individual rooms. Thermostats cost £15 each but they will cut your heating bills by about 15 per cent.

We lose some heat through our fireplace but at least don’t have a fuel-guzzling gas-effect fire. If you do have one make sure it has a glass front, otherwise the heat goes straight up the chimney. And there are now 100 per cent energy-efficient gas fires if you do want that “real-fire effect”. With these you don’t even need a flue so you can block that chimney up and stop heat escaping.

David beams when he sees all our energy-saving light bulbs. If every household installed just three compact fluorescent bulbs we’d save enough power to light all the streets in Britain.

Turning off our TV also gets full marks and we save about £37 a year by not leaving it on standby. And if you fancy a flat screen, be aware an LCD one uses less electricity than a plasma set.

Our A-rated fridge also meets with David’s approval until he takes a peek into the freezing compartment. Uh-oh, frost and half-empty. Unless you pack tight and defrost regularly, you’ll be wasting energy.

Outside I score brownie points for having a water butt. Not only does it stop water from the roof going down the drain but the overflow travels through pipes into our wildlife pond. The pipes are easy to connect (it took my husband a day), the birds and frogs have fresh, chlorine-free water and we don’t need to top up the pond from the tap.

However, I was surprised to find that my pot plants were an ecological no-no. Those tubs of geraniums and mumms use up an unnecessary amount of water so next spring I’ll be planting them out in beds where the roots will be less thirsty.



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