How to go green, save money and add value to your home

Trying to add some value to your home can be difficult, especially if the big things like a new kitchen or modern bathroom have already been done. People are also struggling to keep control of energy bills, all while being more environmentally conscious than ever before. Here are a few ideas that more and more people are turning to, so they can add value to their home, save money on their bills, and go green all at the same time.

Keep Out the Draft

Any home’s biggest bill, after the mortgage or the rent, will usually be energy. Whether you use electricity or gas to heat your home or a mixture of both, you will have noticed the bill climbing up year on year as energy prices have risen globally. Poor insulation or old, single glazed windows cost homeowners hundreds of pounds a year as the heat leaves their home and goes outside.

Modern uPVC windows and doors start saving you money on heating right away, click here to find out more about them, and better cavity wall insulation can pay for itself very quickly, especially with the government grants available. Good insulation and fresh double-glazing add value to your home and make it more desirable to prospective buyers.

Solar Panels and Heat Pumps

Solar panels are showing up on roofs across the country, for use as electricity generators and to heat hot water systems and showers. Collecting your own solar energy can be a great way to reduce energy bills. Most systems store some energy at your home or supply it directly when the sun is shining and you are using power. When you are not using any electricity and the solar panels are working, they actually supply the energy to the national grid and your energy bill is credited with the proceeds!

Heat pumps work great in a well-insulated home. Replacing your conventional hot water boiler, a heat pump supplies fresh warm air to all the rooms of your house. You can lose very little temperature and heat a home efficiently with a heat pump. Modern systems like these not only pay for themselves over time by reducing your bills substantially, they are also becoming features that modern buyers are looking for when finding a new home.

Home Battery Packs

This is the latest technology to help homeowners reduce bills. A battery pack similar to an electric car is installed on a wall in your home, and charged with electricity in off-peak, cheaper hours. The energy is then there for you later when electricity is more expensive, saving you money. Used along with solar panels, you will often charge the battery completely from solar power, giving you long-lasting zero cost energy in your home. If you don’t use the power, your battery can feed the grid, earning you credit.

With a small investment, we can get a quick return on our money by saving on our energy spend, and add some value to our homes. Read more about how to switch energy today.