Oct 27 2009
UK home owners waste a staggering £2.9 billion on energy bills and inadvertently pump 15,529,410 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year by failing to adequately insulate their homes, reveals new research and analysis from Rockwool.
The company says that if these householders were to invest in loft, cavity wall and other insulation they could not only save money, but also make a significant contribution to the Government's target for reducing green-house gas emissions.
The research reveals that more than one in four (28%) of UK homes do not have loft insulation, with 58% having no cavity wall insulation and 58% also having unlagged pipes.
The Energy Savings Trust estimates that installing loft insulation, cavity wall insulation and pipe lagging for the average three bedroom property (which did not have any of these previously) would cost just £510 and save the homeowner up to £275 a year in fuel bills and could equate to a carbon saving of 15,529,410 tonnes per year.
Despite these compelling cost savings and the additional help that is now available to homeowners to install insulation, such as grants for green improvements (including the Government's Carbon Emissions Reduction Target - CERT) millions of homeowners continue to live in inefficient and poorly insulated properties.
The findings follow reports from the Department of Energy and Climate Change which state that up to 4.6 million households in England could be in fuel poverty in 2009 due to energy price rises outpacing income growth and energy efficiency improvements.
"It is staggering that so much CO2 is being pumped into the atmosphere, with so much energy lost and money wasted by poorly insulated homes, particularly given how relatively simple and cheap it is to rectify this problem," states Rockwool managing director Hans Schreuder.
"There is a lot of help for home owners available now meaning many low income householders won't have to pay for home insulation or can take advantage of significant discounts. We urge homeowners to investigate the help that is available to them and to look seriously at the savings they can make by properly insulating their homes.
"If all of the UK's 25,350,000 homes were properly insulated the nation would not only save £2.9 billion a year on energy costs, we would also make a considerable cut in carbon emissions , scoring an important victory in the battle to prevent global warming."