external wall insulation

fleur

I hope I've put this question in the right forum. I live in a 1930s house which doesn't have cavity walls, I've heard about external wall insulation. Can you get grants for this work? Has anybody had this done and is it worth it? thankyou

Biscuit_Tin

fleur wrote: »

I hope I've put this question in the right forum. I live in a 1930s house which doesn't have cavity walls, I've heard about external wall insulation. Can you get grants for this work? Has anybody had this done and is it worth it? thankyou

There are no grants I am aware of, but you may be entitled to a subsidy under the Energy Company Obligation scheme if you are with one of the bigger energy suppliers
https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/home-grants/article/home-grants/energy-company-obligation-eco

Savings from the insulation will vary based on the property, but Which? indicate typical annual savings as follows:
3 bed terrace - £155
3 bed semi - £245
4 bed detached - £415

https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/insulation/article/solid-wall-insulation/solid-wall-insulation-costs-and-savings

matelodave

Biscuit_Tin wrote: »

There are no grants I am aware of, but you may be entitled to a subsidy under the Energy Company Obligation scheme if you are with one of the bigger energy suppliers
https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/home-grants/article/home-grants/energy-company-obligation-eco

Savings from the insulation will vary based on the property, but Which? indicate typical annual savings as follows:
3 bed terrace - £155
3 bed semi - £245
4 bed detached - £415

https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/insulation/article/solid-wall-insulation/solid-wall-insulation-costs-and-savings

I'm always a bit sceptical about estimated savings as they depend on what you pay for your energy and how & when you heat your house.

So once you've done the obvious like decent loft insulation, carpet on the floors, double glazing or even thick curtains and a bit of draught proofing you are rapidly approaching the realms of diminishing returns in which you start paying silly amounts of money to save less and less.

You can also get onto a decent tariff and perhaps improve the heating controls but in the end it starts cost a hell of a lot to save another £50 a year

Even going out and getting a shiny new boiler for £2k to save £200 a year will take 10 years to pay back (assuming that it does actually save £200)

Looking at the which? info I find it difficult to justify £7k to save £155 a year which would take 45 years give or take to get back or even £13k to save £415 which looks a bit better at only 31 years.

You really need to see how much you actually pay for your heating (take out the cost of hot water & cooking) to see whether some of these claims are realistic.

If you pay say £600 a year for your gas, take £100 or so off for hot water plus about the same for cooking if you've got a gas cooker then your heating is going to cost around £400 a year. Even if you save 25% you'l only be knocking £100 off your gas bill.

Robisere

We live in a 1960's bungalow, part of a Sheltered Housing complex. The 6 bungalows of which ours is part, would be called "Link-Detached" if private, but our landlord insists that the 'Link' portion is an 'outbuilding'. It is in fact directly attached and built into each adjoining bungalow. The main house is CV Wall and has been insulated thanks to government funding for Social Housing, but the Link is not, it's single brick with a (non-upvc) door back and front, in line. This made it a very cold and damp room and heat was lost each time the kitchen door was opened onto one of these doors. The Link room has no heating, but we fitted an electric heater, which we keep on low heat.
We paid to have the Link room insulated internally, with correct grade thermal insulation, walls painted and plastered. I painted the floor with 5 coats of Garage Floor paint, then fitted carpet tiles. It made a big difference: the room is now warm enough to use as storage and no longer damp. Perhaps you could investigate a similar internal solution? Not exactly cheap, but perhaps a couple of rooms at a time?

Robisere

Check this out fleur:


https://www.homebuilding.co.uk/internal-wall-insulation/

Cardew

Robisere wrote: »

Check this out fleur:


https://www.homebuilding.co.uk/internal-wall-insulation/

The advantage of internal wall insulation is that it is a fairly easy DIY job and you can initially just insulate the room(s) that are most used.



I have a detached converted Victorian stables used as an annex. This had battens, kingspan and plasterboard fitted, as described in the article.


I would take estimated savings with a pinch of salt - they might apply if you heat with normal rate electricity.

nigelbb

Biscuit_Tin wrote: »

There are no grants I am aware of, but you may be entitled to a subsidy under the Energy Company Obligation scheme if you are with one of the bigger energy suppliers
https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/home-grants/article/home-grants/energy-company-obligation-eco[/URL]

It's not being with a big supplier that decides whether you are eligible for a grant so much as the fact that you need to be receiving benefits.

nigelbb

Cardew wrote: »

The advantage of internal wall insulation is that it is a fairly easy DIY job and you can initially just insulate the room(s) that are most used.

The disadvantage of internal wall insulation is that your rooms become smaller.