Reduce your fuel bills – insulation and draught-proofing are worth the investment.

October 05, 2010

The cost of heating and lighting my home prior to making some energy efficient changes last year was approximately €4,246 annually. Following a range of upgrades the annual bill for our  five-bedroom house is now closer to €3,000.  The very helpful and informative National Energy Auditors- NEA conducted a detailed energy audit of my home, provided me with a list of potential upgrades with guideline prices and payback periods. My goal was to implement recommendations that would have the greatest impact for the least amount of money and/or the quickest return on investment.  Here are my best and worst upgrades.

 

I regret upgrading the water cylinder to a pre-insulated cyclinder.  Notwithstanding the hassle and problems of clearing the entire plumbing system, the recurrent problems with trapped air meant that the €500 cost ballooned to closer to €800.  So too, the 2 year payback on the installation of TRV’s (temperature guages) on all my radiators at a cost of €410 has been somewhat thwarted by my installation of a number of radiator covers which hinders the TRV’s accuracy.

 The real successes have been the cavity wall insulation at a cost of €1,500 and the roof insulation at €1,660. The proposed benefits and savings of €210 a year and €150 a year respectively have been well and truly exceeded.  Draught-proofing of (double-glazed) windows and front door seemed costly at €700 but potential savings of €180 mean a relatively quick payback period of 4 years.  Even a small change from open air-vents to controllable air-vents costing just €60 has very successful reduced draughts in windy weather.