Energy efficient homes are significantly better than those that aren’t efficient. This isn’t an opinion, it’s a cold hard fact. Attempting to achieve the utmost efficiency is critical if you own a home. The main concern is that a lot of older houses are not built to be energy efficient. Newer homes are, and that’s because thye’ve been built during a period where there are more regulations surrounding efficiency. Modern homes have to be built to a certain standard, making them efficient.
How do you know if your home has good energy efficiency or not? It’s relatively simple, and there are two different indications. Firstly, check your energy bills to see how much energy you’re using. If your bill is constantly higher than the average bill in your area, it shows you’re using far too much energy.
But, the Home Energy Score is a better indication of how efficient your home is. Effectively, this is a scoring system that was developed to help people understand just how energy efficient a property is. It operates on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the worst and 10 being the best. Your score is calculated by taking your energy use into account, and you can get it assessed by a local provider. The average score is 5, so if you are on the lower end of the scale, your home needs to improve.
There are plenty of things you can do to improve your energy efficiency at home, click here to get solar. Why is this so important? Everyone bangs on about saving energy, but what are the actual benefits? Generally, you can narrow things down to four very significant advantages of an energy efficient home.
#1 Save money
Evidently, saving money will be a huge benefit for homeowners. How much money can you actually save? Well, it depends on the changes you make around your home. Something as simple as installing better windows can shrink your energy bill by 12%, and you can learn more about that to see how it works. But, this shows how much can be saved when one change is made – there are many other things you can do around the home to improve efficiency and reduce your energy bills.
You really can’t underestimate how valuable it is to save money in this day and age. The cost of living is rising, so any spare dollars will be greatly appreciated. If you take into account the monthly savings you get from being more energy efficient, you could save hundreds – maybe even thousands a year. This money can then be put to better use in your life; perhaps you use it to save up for a new car, or to send your child to college? The point is that it is never a bad thing to save money, and being more energy efficient is such an easy way to save without making any big sacrifices.
#2 Save the planet
Currently, there is only one planet that we can live on. Obviously, none of us really knows what the astronaughts and space geniuses are doing up there with all their satellites and money. There’s talk of making Mars inhabitable, but are we really going to see a scenario where the whole world gets evacuated to live elsewhere? In reality – and this is going to sound harsh – when this planet dies, so will everyone on it.
What’s this got to do with making your home more energy efficient? Well, the reason the planet is dying is largely down to climate change and global warming. What’s the main cause of this? Extremely high energy usage, particularly from non-renewable sources. If you strive to make your house more efficient, you will use less energy every single day. As a result, you make a major contribution to saving the planet and helping to cool the temperature on earth. If everyone tried to be more energy efficient, we would be able to live on this planet for a lot longer. Without wanting to sound too preachy, the actions you do today will help those of tomorrow. Do you want your kids to grow up in a world that’s riddled with climate issues?
#3 Add value to your home
The third benefit of an energy efficient property is that it adds value to your home. We’ve spoken about adding value to your property many times on this blog, and that’s because it’s one of the most important things for a homeowner to do. Gradually, over the course of your homeownership, you should be adding value here and there. Things like kitchen renovations add value, a roofing upgrade adds value, but so does improving your energy efficiency.
How does it do this? Well, it goes back to this idea of the Home Energy Score. Nowadays, homebuyers are looking out for this score when making a purchase. They want a house that is extremely efficient because they want to see all of the benefits we’re talking about. Thus, the price of your home can go up as it offers something valuable.
Also, a lot of the things you do to improve energy efficiency will add value as well. Installing solar panels can add value to your home, as can installing new windows and doors.
#4 Makes your home easier to sell
This benefit goes hand in hand with the previous one. As well as making your property increase in value, energy efficiency will make it much easier to sell. For starters, it is instantly more attractive to buyers. If you can advertise it as having a really high Home Energy Score, loads of people will be interested. This means your real estate agent will have loads of potential buyers all itching to look inside your house and see how great it really is.
Effectively, what you have here is a case where there’s a high demand for what you’re selling, but a low supply. Anyone with a business brain knows that this puts the seller at an advantage. Your property offers something that can benefit the next owners, which is why so many people are interested. But, as there’s so much demand, the buyers have to fight amongst each other to ensure they get the right outcome. This can create a bidding war that sees the price of your home shoot up even further, but it also means your home is so easy to sell. It shouldn’t be on the market for very long and you can sell it for a very hefty profit.
How do you improve energy efficiency at home?
Energy efficiency is ultimately all about reducing your energy usage wherever possible. We have touched upon a few ways you can do this, but here’s a rundown of some tactics to try:
- Install solar panels for clean and renewable energy, reducing your need to tap into the national electricity grid
- Get new windows or a roof to improve thermal insulation and use less energy in the winter
- Close windows when using an HVAC system to make it run efficiently and use less energy
- Open your windows when it’s warm to negate the need for air con if it’s not super hot
- Buy appliances with good energy efficiency ratings to use less energy every day
- Turn off your lights and appliances when not in use
To conclude this piece, you’ve seen the four big benefits of an energy efficient home: save money, save the planet, increase property value, and make your home more attractive to buyers. You’ve also seen some simple ways to cut down your energy usage, meaning you’re one step closer to achieving a better Home Energy Score and being more efficient.