How King's Lynn & West Norfolk homeowners can improve energy efficiency on heating, hot water, insulation to save money

View From a Shed by Kevin Holland

There's a government website that allows you to check the most recent recorded Energy Performance Certificate for your home.

If you haven't moved house for a few years, then you may not have had one conducted and unaware of what it is or how it can help you. I look at Energy Performance Certificates or E.P.C.s, like a wish list for the house.

It's a detailed report on all aspects of energy. Heating, hot water, energy use, insulation etc and gives practical and costed measures that a homeowner can undertake to improve efficiency to save themselves a whole load of money at the same time.

Our own company lives by the mantra 'Insulate before you generate and reduce before you produce'.

It really does make sense to reduce the amount of energy a house needs to retain a comfortable living environment, without costing the earth or compromising on the creature comforts.

When we moved into our multi-generational family home 19 years ago, it was leaking heat so we had the windows upgraded and some simple measures like loft insulation and radiator heat foils that saw us make big savings in the first few years. Even draught excluder and curtains behind the doors make a difference.

Stopping the wasted heat was easy but getting rid of oil and other energy types was now on the radar. So we had an EPC. And thermal solar for the hot water.

The EPC at that time was a G. The aim was for a D which would be a big jump, but in for a penny, in for a pound.

We took the leap and I got a job in solar and started out converting the old sheds into a business and retro fitting the house.

That was in 2008. Fast forward 14 years and this autumn, we had Andy and Paul from A1 Builders of King's Lynn in again to undertake some work on the house.

Internal wall insulation this time, on the north facing 300 to 400-year-old solid walls. Parts of the house date back further, but they're on the south side.

It was the north side that leaked heat through uninsulated ceilings and roof space. Not any more.

And we had a wood burner set into where the open fire was and a new hot water cylinder was put in to make more use of the free solar energy we generate.

Now I know this autumn, much like the summer, has been 'unseasonable' and extreme at times but I have to say the early results are encouraging. We haven't used any oil at all for heating at time of writing this column.

The comfort levels because of the insulation are extraordinary to say the least and best of all, we had Navitas EAS, the energy assessors in for a new EPC.

We are now a C rated house. Surpassed our biggest of expectations but can now see a clear route to a B rating. That will follow in another column, this time next year.

If we can do this on this old house, I believe there is not a single house that exists that can not achieve the same or better, if we just look and act on our EPCs.

https://www.gov.uk/find-energy-certificate