Free Home Insulation Guide 2022
Free Home Insulation
Free Home Insulation – Firstly – What Is Insulation?
Insulation is simply a material that is fitted to walls or loft etc that acts as a barrier to heat escaping to outside.
The material can be foam or Rockwool or poly euro thane and each will have its own U value which is merely a measurement of how long it takes for a specified unit of heat to pass through it.
With ever rising heating bills, insulation for your home is an absolute must, to keep your heat in your home for as long as possible.
Please see our Insulation Page
How Does Insulation Work:
The sole purpose of the insulation in your home is to slow down (as much as possible) the transfer of the heat from inside your home to outside.
Materials with a low U Value are the best types of insulation .i.e foam based materials are very low U Values and are great insulators.
Insulation works by reducing:
- Conduction, by having very little mass.
- Convection, by trapping air molecules and restricting its movement.
- Radiation, by having just enough mass to slow the transfer of heat by radiation.
Why Do We Need Insulation? TO SAVE MONEY !!!
An uninsulated home will be very cold and very difficult to keep warm in the winter months .
You could be wasting up to a third of your heat!
The vast majority of that heat loss (around 58%) comes from your roof and walls so it is very important that these areas are prioritised.
Adding insulation to your walls and roof can reduce your heating costs significantly and is the best home improvement grant on the market at the moment.
Top 6 Free Warm Front Grants
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Why Apply For A Warm Front Heating Grant ?
✅ There Is No Catch – We Guarantee it !
✅ If Your Application Is Accepted Your Grant Is 100% FREE
✅ You Will Reduce Your Energy Bills By Up To £300 Per Year
✅ You Will Add Lots Of Value To Your Home
✅ The Scheme Has Limited Funding – Ends Soon
Typical Heat Loss From Your Home
Heat loss will depend on your house type but as a rough guide you can expect to lose
- 25% of its heat through the roof
- 33% through the walls
- 15% through the floors
- 15% through draughts
- 20% through windows.
What Bill Savings Can I Make By Insulating?
How much insulation can save you depends on the size and type of your home, and how energy efficient it is already?
Over time, insulation will pay for itself with the savings you make on your energy bills, so it’s worth doing.
Loft Insulation Bill Savings : between £135 and £250 a year
Cavity Wall Bill Savings between £85 and £280 a year.
Floor insulation: between £30 and £75 a year
Internal / External Wall Insulation: Between £300 – £600 per Year
Insulation Facts Up To 2022
70 % of homes (14.5 million properties) now have cavity wall insulation
66% of homes ( 16.8 million properties ) now have loft insulation
9 % of homes ( 794,000 properties ) now have solid wall insulation
What Are The Benefits Of Insulation For Your Home?
Home Insulation creates a barrier for your expensive heat to have to pass which will keep your heat in the house for longer instead of it escaping through the roof.
Once insulation has been installed you will feel the benefits right away as your home ( particularly upstairs ) will be a lot warmer and your bills will reduce as a result of this.
The Energy Saving Trust calculate that the average saving per year from installing loft insulation is approximately £240.
For Solid Wall you will save up to £500 per year
Your house will feel warmer during cold weather and improve the energy efficiency rating of your home.
You will also reduce your carbon footprint by around 990kg of CO2 per year compared to an uninsulated loft.
What Bill Savings Can I Make By Insulating?
How much insulation can save you depends on the size and type of your home, and how energy efficient it is already?
Over time, insulation will pay for itself with the savings you make on your energy bills, so it’s worth doing.
Loft Insulation Bill Savings : between £135 and £250 a year
Cavity Wall Bill Savings between £85 and £280 a year.
Floor insulation: between £30 and £75 a year
Internal / External Wall Insulation: Between £300 – £600 per Year
What Is The Best Home Insulation ?
There are many types of insulation you can use for your home to prevent heat loss.
The most important thing to remember is to ensure your home is adequately insulated to insulate yourself against ever rising energy bills which will eat into your household income on an ever increasing basis.
Insulating your home will prevent heat loss so you will not need to pump in as much heat into your home, costing you a fortune.
Types Of Insulation Used For Homes
- Rigid Foam Insulation– rigid insulation is commonly used in the walls as they are built, underneath floors and in suspended ceilings
- Wool Type loft insulation – this is the most common form of loft insulation for cold roofs and is typically Fibreglass or Mineral fibre based
- Aluminium foil backed insulation – If your loft area has “warm roof” insulation (insulation laid between the rafters in the roof rather than the joists, this is likely what you have although I also see Fibreglass wool used.
- Multilayer foil insulation – not as common but is used in more specific applications where other forms of insulation may not be suitable.
- Blown In Insulation – for cavities. Usually rockwool or bead
- Foam Spray Insulation
Is Free Insulation Available To all Homes In The UK?
Free insulation grants available through the ECO 3 scheme were created to help low income households in England, Scotland and Wales make their homes more energy efficient and lower their ever increasing heating bills.
Not every household can apply and there are certain criteria that have to be met to qualify for the scheme.
Eligible households can then apply for an insulation grant and upon successful completion a registered insulation installer will install the insulation of your property.
This is a non repayable grant so it does not have to be repaid at any time in the future. A 25 year full warranty is also included.
The ECO scheme offers grants available for a number of different types of home insulation and applicants can be eligible for more than one grant.
Are All The Top 5 Free Insulation Grants Free?
Under the ECO scheme the ‘Big Six’ utility companies are obliged to provide funding to households that have to improve the efficiency of their homes.
This is in part to achieve the government’s goal of being net carbon neutral by 2050 but as a main aim of tackling fuel poverty across the UK.
There have been over 2.4 million free installations of insulation since the government brought in the scheme to reduce fuel poverty.
Who Can Apply For Free Insulation Grants?
Home Owners & Private rented homes can apply for a FREE INSULATION CHECK if a person living at the property is in receipt of a qualifying benefit OR is eligible under the local LAD Scheme
If you are unsure if you are eligible, please take our short survey below and we will contact you if you can apply for the grant
Why Are Government Insulation Grants Available?
Free Loft Insulation & Free Home Insulation is available in the UK and is funded via the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) to improve the efficiency of homes.
These Grants have helped many people to lower their heating bills and are funded by a levy to every fuel bill in the uk .
Your heating bills will increase year on year, so we recommend insulating the whole of your property .
Insulating your the floors, loft, and walls will give you maximum savings to your bills.
In short , if it does not move………………………INSULATE IT !
Grants For Free Underfloor Insulation
A small amount of heat is lost whatever floor type you have, be it concrete or suspended wooden floor. Insulating your floors should save you around £50 per year in heat savings. Whilst it is a very small saving, it is very much worthwhile.
This involves insulating the space below the flooring and will involve taking up the floor for access.
You don’t need to insulate the floors of upstairs rooms in your house if they’re above heated spaces, such as the living room.
Rooms above unheated garages do need to be insulated.
Rugs and carpets on the floor will also help your feet feel warmer, which might mean you don’t feel the need to put the heating on as much. Saves you £60 per year
Average cost £15 -£20 per roll – Diy cost around £100 per room.
Should You Insulate all Floors ?
Old suspended wooden floors can be very draughty and insulating them will save you up to £50 a year on lost heating.
These Timber floors can be insulated by lifting the floorboards and laying mineral wool insulation supported by netting between the joists. Average room will need 3-4 rolls of insulation and cost will be around £15 -£20 per roll depending on thickness.
You can also use foam board such as Kingspan.
Remember to seal the Gaps and draughts around the skirting boards and floors too with a tube of sealant bought from any DIY store.
Wooden floors will have air bricks in your walls, so take care not to block them up. They are needed to help ventilate the space under your floor and stop your floorboards rotting.
Concrete floors
New houses will have a ground floor made of solid concrete.
Solid floors are insulated using rigid insulation foam, which can be fitted either above or below the concrete.
This will raise the level of the floor, so you will need to trim doors down. and move skirting boards and some electrical sockets.
If the concrete is above the insulation it can store heat during the day, which helps to keep the room warm at night.
If the insulation is above the concrete the room will heat up more quickly in the morning.
You have to insulate a solid floor when it is replaced in order to comply with building regulations.
The finished floor should achieve a U-value of 0.25 W/m2K or less.
Are There Grants For Foam Insulation?
There are at present no grants for foam insulation.
There has been a lot of bad press recently about the relatively new kid on the block ( I only have heard of it in the last few years or so) of the use spray foam insulation to insulate your roof rafters.
This is currently being sold via cold calling and direct mailing to lots of potential clients who are having to part with up to £5000 for the privilege of having this installed in their loft.
It is a most expensive way to insulate your loft in my opinion with no or minimal benefit to the end user.
We strongly recommend you do not have foam insulation in your home at any cost.
The link below will show you that foam has no use in a domestic home and you should use traditional tried and tested insulation instead.
Conclusion
If you are thinking about having this fitted to your home, please take into account the above content.
For your loft you should only have it sprayed onto your loft floor to create a barrier to your heat entering the loft.
Alternatively, have Rockwool insulation rolled out instead.
Do not have your rafters sprayed as all the heat will be wasted once in the loft unless you wish to keep the squirrels and mice nice and warm in the loft.
SEE HERE FOR FOAM INSULATION WARNING