A brief guide to home insulation

Home insulation is something that you should never skimp on. Whether you are restoring, building or extending a house, this is the area that in the long run, if you do it properly now, will save you the most cash.

Obviously it is easier to install effective home insulation during the building process. However it is also possible to effectively retrofit existing houses with insulation materials in attic and ceiling spaces and suspending floor.

The more effective the insulation is, the less heat will be lost from heaters around the home, this will reduce the energy you need thus saving you money and reducing the associated greenhouse gas emissions.

Two different types of standard insulation exist although there are lots of variations and options to choose from. Most of the time though, types either fall into the reflecting heat category or the absorbing heat category.

The type of insulation that stops heat escaping can be made from a large variety of different products, some of which materials are recycled or recyclable. This is a good way to be even more eco friendly! This type of insulation traps air and prevent the flow of heat through the outside walls of the house and between floors.

Reflective insulation works by reflecting some of the heat radiation that falls onto it, as the name suggests.

It is also worth making a note of the fact that many houses that were built after the 1920’s were built with two layers of outside walls with a small gap or cavity in the middle. If this gap is not filled with insulation materials then your home will be less energy efficient. A much larger amount of heat will escape through the walls and your house will be much more prone to indoor condensation on the walls and ceilings. Also in summer, your house will heat up significantly in accordance with the amount of heat it receives from the sun causing it to build up inside your home. Cavity wall insulation can pay for itself in only 4 years and financial help may be available if you want to make energy saving improvements to your home.

The Government, local authorities and energy suppliers all offer grants to help you put into practice energy saving measures in your home. If you can’t make improvements for free then you may at least receive help with any costs.

It is thought that if all of the houses in the United Kingdom with unfilled cavity walls had them filled with insulation, the energy saved as a result would be the equivalent of the heating for one million homes each year.

These are not the only measures you can take to ensure you have an energy saving, money saving and eco-friendly home. Installing large windows on the Northern side of the house encourages warmth when the sun shines but make sure that they are double glazed. Ensure all the other windows in your house, including your roof or loft, are also double glazed. Under floor heating and heat sink materials such as brick and concrete are also excellent ways to ensure that your home is more energy efficient and makes use of effective insulation.

A simple guide to loft insulation

Loft insulation is often overlooked by many householders but is one of the main ways that we can avoid man made carbon emissions. The running and heating of homes is said to account for almost one third of all man made carbon emissions in the UK, according to The Energy Saving Trust.

This means having loft insulation will undoubtedly save you money. In fact the combined cost that can be saved from effective loft insulation can be up to £155 a year.

The British government has pledged that all new homes built by 2016 will be carbon neutral – but what about those of us that live in older homes? If you are planning on making improvements to your home in order to save energy then very often financial help will be available from the government in the forms of offers or free insulation grants so it is something worth looking into.

What is loft insulation?
Essentially loft insulation is just a piece of material that is laid into your roof or on the floor of it. This material can be made of lots of different things, including recycled material as long as it is comprised of long thick fibres. You can pay someone to install this material or you can do it yourself as a D.I.Y project. If you do decide do it yourself make sure that you take the proper safety measures.

• Make sure that you are wearing protective clothing and a mask to prevent inhalation of the fibres or skin irritation.
• Make sure that the floorboards or supports that you are working on are secure platforms to do the work.
• Ensure adequate ventilation and good light.
• Don’t insulate under a cold water tank or pipe work.
• Do not put insulation around wires or in very close proximity to them as overheated wires can cause a fire hazard.
  

To ensure that the job is done properly most people who are not experienced at this type of installation hire a trained professional that they can trust to do the job to maximum effect. Another drawback of doing the work yourself is that in nearly all cases you will not be eligible for a grant. The work must be done by a qualified professional company.

You can obtain information on further energy saving by calling your local Energy Saving Trust advice centre on 0800 512 012 for free and impartial advice on saving energy in your home. They also offer advice on all other types of insulation and energy and money saving techniques.

Energy Saving Tips to cut fuel costs

With household energy bills on the rise, insurance broker Confused.com, is offering the following tips to help consumers to reduce their monthly payments for energy in their home:

Start switching your supplier
Around half of the households in this country have never switched gas and / or electrcity supplier, leaving some homes paying 30% more for their fuel than they should be.

It is possible to reduce that overspend straightaway simply by - there are more than 14,000 to chose from - which does not even always mean changing supplier. By switching to the best deal available, the average customer, who has never before switched energy suppliers or tariffs, can make a saving of £284.62, according to Confused.com.

Consider capping
The wholesale cost of energy is almost double what it was last year - Centrica's Interim Management Statement on 12 May 2008 admitted, "On average the month-ahead prices for gas and power were 92% and 100% respectively above those for the same period of the previous year. Against this backdrop all major energy suppliers increased residential energy tariffs during the first quarter of the year.

Further increases in gas and electricity prices are expected, which means that now could be the time to switch to a capped-price tariff. If utilities companies up their prices again - and rises of between 10% and 20% have not been uncommon - that mediocre capped rate from your energy supplier could suddenly be very reasonable. If you need some consistency in your monthly spending, consider capped rates.

Check your appliances
If you are looking to buy the latest plasma screen, or American- style freezer, take a moment to read the booklet that comes with it. Some household appliances guzzle up electricity so it is worth having a look around your home to see if there are appliances which might be significantly increasing your energy bills.

Check your meter regularly
Energy suppliers are only legally obligated to read your meter every two years, which means that your gas and electricity bills are based on what they think you might use up. Make sure that you check your meter on a regular basis and let your supplier know the reading. Their lines are often open 24-hours-a-day and they will amend your bill accordingly.

Don't inherit someone else's supplier
A classic mistake to make when you move into a new residence is to stay with the previous owner's supplier. Make sure that you read the meter as soon as you move in, and investigate the previous occupier's energy supplier.

Unless that supplier is offering the best deal, look to change to a better tariff, or even change supplier altogether. If you want to save money, dont be lazy - start to investigate whether switching makes sense.

Shop around
In order to really save money, you need to search the whole market and all of the available tariffs.

How to Find the Rebuild Cost for Your Home

When taking out buildings insurance you will be asked for your home’s rebuild cost, and this amount will decide how much you need to insure the property for. There are two main ways to find your home’s rebuild cost: hire a surveyor or use a rebuild calculator.

Hire a Surveyor

The best way to get an accurate rebuild cost is to instruct a chartered surveyor to carry out detailed measurements of your house and then prepare a professional Rebuilding Cost Assessment. This should set you back around £200, and you can find a local surveyor here.

Use a Rebuild Calculator

A second option is to use a rebuild calculator. Though simple and free to use, the drawback here is that you only get a rough idea of your home’s rebuild cost. This is important to bear in mind because if you underinsure and then, for whatever reason, your home requires a rebuild, you would only be paid up to the amount your home insurance covers, leaving you to cover any shortfall.

Likewise, don’t make the mistake of over-insuring, i.e. don’t insure for the amount you paid for your home or its current market value, both of which are likely to be much higher than the rebuild value. You only need to insure your home for its rebuild value.

To use the calculator you’ll need your home’s external floor area for both upstairs and downstairs. To find the ground floor area: go outside, measure the length and width of the downstairs walls and multiply these two figures together. If the upstairs is identical to the downstairs, simply double the ground floor area. If different, calculate the upstairs area separately and add it to the downstairs result.

Once you enter the above information, plus answers to a few other questions, simply hit ‘calculate’ and you’ll be presented with the approximate rebuild cost of your home.

Important:
The calculator is based on five house types (detached, semi, terraced, detached bungalow, semi bungalow) of average quality and standard construction. You should consider hiring a surveyor to find the rebuild cost for:

• Houses not built of brick
• Properties with basements, cellars or more than two storeys
• Houses with special design features
• Houses other than of average quality
• Houses of greater size than those described in the tables in the leaflet 'ABI Buildings Insurance for the Home Owners'
• Houses containing hazardous materials within their construction, e.g. asbestos
• Historic or listed buildings

Flats and Maisonettes

The calculator is not suitable for finding the rebuild cost of flats because construction methods vary too greatly. A surveyor may be your best bet in this instance. However, as most flats are leasehold there should already be buildings insurance in place through the management company/building owner, and paid for via service charges. If you have a lease, check the contract just to make sure.

Regularly Check Your Home’s Rebuild Cost

It’s important to periodically check that your buildings insurance amount still covers the rebuild cost. Some insurance providers automatically do this by ‘index linking’ the policy, i.e. premiums will adjust in line with fluctuations in rebuild costs. Also, any extensions to the property will likely increase the rebuild cost.

The point is, if the rebuild cost increases without your buildings insurance increasing to match, you could end up underinsured – again, a big problem should the property require a rebuild and you have to make up the shortfall.

What to do in event of a fire

According to the Association of British Insurers, every day in the UK 200 homes suffer a fire, and one person dies and 40 are injured as a result of fires in the home. Regrettably, many of us will be involved with a house fire in some way in our lives, and it’s not likely to be much fun. But there are preventative steps that we can take to avoid this undesirable situation, and also steps we can take to limit the damage if we’re unfortunate enough to have a house fire.

BEFORE: Precautions you can take

Document your possessions
For the purposes of potentially claiming on your home insurance, it’s by no means a terrible idea to keep receipts, or take digital photos of individual items around the house that you may have to claim for. Don’t forget that many mobile phones can double-up for this purpose. Obviously, this precaution isn’t fire-specific – you may well thank yourself for having done so if you get burgled, for example.

Forewarned is forearmed
Fitting smoke detectors to each floor of your house is a good way to raise the alarm in the early stages of a fire. If you do this, be sure to regularly check that they work and the batteries are functioning – there is little point in a purely decorative smoke alarm.

Take care in the kitchen
Fires in the home most commonly begin in the kitchen, usually from the heat given off in cooking. To this end, one should never leave things cooking on a flame unattended. It is now becoming more commonplace for households to have a fire extinguisher and fire blanket located in the kitchen, and it’s understandable why.

No smoke without fire
If you do smoke in the house, it will accordingly increase the risk of being involved in a house fire at some point. So be sure that anything you smoke is properly stubbed out when finished. Plus it’s best to avoid smoking when very tired, as it is commonplace for fires to begin when people fall asleep whilst still smoking. Certainly avoid smoking in bed.

Do a bedtime check
Fire presents a greater risk when you’re asleep – so check every room in the house for appliances left on, candles left lit and suchlike before going to bed.

DURING: Get out!

Have a plan, and stick to it
When the fire alarm sounds, workplaces insist that you get straight out without stopping to salvage anything, get you to a safe organised place and take a roll call – and with good reason. If the smoke alarm sounds in your house, then you should gather everyone in the house together, exit via the quickest escape route, and call 999. The biggest mistake you can make in the event of a fire is to go and find out what’s triggered the alarm. It is possible for people in these situations to open the door to a burning room, which may then cause the fire to spread quicker, or trap them from the rest of their family.

Don’t go back!
Too often, people return to the house to try and save pets or possessions. Unless pets cannot escape due to being in a cage or suchlike, then they almost always do without human assistance. And possessions can be covered by your home insurance. None of these things are worth endangering your life for by returning to a blaze.

AFTER: Damage limitation

Safety first
If you suffer from respiratory problems or feel unwell after a fire, go straight to see your GP or the nearest hospital A&E.

Returning to the scene
It is advisable not to re-enter your home after a house fire until you are told by trained professionals that it is safe to do so. Remember even when it has been declared safe, there may still be broken glass and sharp objects exposed.

Who to call
After a fire, it is best not to assume that anybody else is going to contact your home insurance provider. It’s best to do so as soon as you can in order to get the ball rolling in terms of recovery, and ideally do so before you incur any expense. You should also call close family or friends to inform them of what’s happened, but also reassure them that you’re ok.

The clean-up
Do not try to clean up any items until a qualified restoration service has a chance to evaluate the fire damage. If the incorrect equipment is used, then you may end up causing further damage. Your home insurance company are likely to come in handy here, as they will probably be able to put you in touch with specialist cleaners.

For more information concerning fire safety in the home, visit the Directgov website

Is Now the Time to Switch to a Fixed-Price Energy Tariff?

It is difficult not to notice that the cost of living has been escalating lately…Mortgage payments, fuel prices and the cost of food all seem to be throwing heavier punches than ever before – and the price of our household energy bills is also joining in the pummelling.

The wholesale cost of energy prices has almost doubled in the last year*, and bodies such as energywatch, OFGEM and British Gas are in agreement that this is the driving force behind recent and future price increases. So is now the right time for consumers to ensure that they’re on a fixed-price tariff, and hence shielded from future price fluctuations?

What if you’ve never switched?

By switching to the best deal in the marketplace, the average customer who has never switched energy suppliers or tariffs can make a saving of £226**.

The best capped deal is currently offered by EON, which is their Price Protection 2009 tariff – where prices can be fixed until the October 2009. However, this offer is still almost 14% more costly than the cheapest alternative tariff**.

And just because you have always been powered by the same energy supplier, this doesn’t mean that they are going to reward your past loyalty. On the contrary, the best deals tend to be offered to attract new customers – so it pays not to think of a long-standing supplier as a member of the family or part of the furniture. So what’s stopping you shopping around?

Is it worthwhile if you’ve switched before?

Market rates have been particularly volatile over the course of the last twelve months. It is worth checking for the best deal in your area because there are still a large selection of tariffs available – around 14,000 at the time of writing – and you may find that you’ve been lumbered with a tariff which is causing you to pay over the odds. It cannot hurt to check out comparison sites to see if you are still getting a deal you’re happy with.

Be sure to go to a site which has subscribed to the energywatch Confidence Code – a voluntary code of conduct which ensures that sites are independent from gas and electricity suppliers, show all available tariffs from all licensed suppliers, and show accurate prices with update dates clearly state. Click here for more info

If you go to a site such as Confused.com which has signed up to the Confidence Code, you will have peace of mind that you are getting the best available deals.

To cap or not to cap?

So should we be bracing ourselves with a fixed-price tariff such as that offered by EON? Although wholesale costs are reported to have doubled in the last year, and this is still an influential factor affecting the retail cost to consumers, it is worth bearing in mind that the best capped deal currently available is still a good 14% more expensive than the best uncapped tariff – which is a significant amount. That said, average price hikes of between 10% and 15% are still common, and as such a capped deal is worth considering for those who wish for some stability in controlling their outgoings.

But according to Gareth Kloet of Confused.com, “The forecast may seem a little gloomy, but it’s not all bad news. I think it’s always possible to get a better deal than even the lowest capped tariff, and those who regularly shop around may find that they stay on top of the game by paying beneath the odds.

“Around half of the households in this country have never switched supplier, which is ridiculous. In some cases, they can be paying an extra 20% premium on their fuel through their inertia***. Some can even make that kind of saving straight away by contacting their energy company, and switching to a better value tariff – without even having to change their supplier!”