The cost of living crisis is looming over everyone. As costs grow, many have to sacrifice comfort for the sake of their heating bills. That’s why this article will help homeowners take care of their home heating in a cost-effective manner while also boosting the value of your property and improving its energy performance. Let’s look over some options:

Improving Your Home Heating

One of the often overlooked areas where heating costs can creep up is with old boilers. Older boilers can be a significant drain as they lose their efficiency over time and even develop water leaks. This can be especially true if you’ve been skipping out on their annual maintenance.

As boilers age, they can start losing more heat over time, using up higher levels of energy to do the same job. This is often compounded by the rising gas and energy costs that we see. Many homeowners may not even notice this happening. Getting a new boiler might sound like an expensive hassle but you may want to think in the long term. Yearly costs will decrease and your home heating will be more consistent.

Buying a more efficient boiler is not the only thing that matters. A 99% efficient electric boiler still uses electricity, so the input will be costly compared to your current system. Electric boilers are only a good option if you are not connected to a gas main and other fuels are close to the expenses for electricity.

There are also other options that can help you keep your home warm. If you can afford something more high-end you could go for a heat pump. One of the core advantages of heat pumps is that they are a year-round solution, cooling in the summer and heating in the winter all with one device. These can have up to 400% efficiency but there are some caveats to installing them.

Heat pumps are only a good option if you have good insulation in your home, otherwise the extra efficiency will go to waste. They also lose a bit of their efficiency in extreme cold, so they are best for areas without the harshest conditions (they will work in most places in the UK). Heat pumps also require adequate space for an outdoor unit and possible indoor installations like a water tank.

Mitigating the Cost of Heating Systems

There are several government policies that can help homeowners reduce the cost of their new heating installations. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) can help you obtain either a biomass boiler or a heat pump, paying between £5,000 and £7,500 for your new heating system as long as it is an improvement for your home’s energy performance.

The cost of heat pumps in the UK   can be as high as £10,000 to £20,000, depending on which one you’re trying to get. However, with the aid of government grants, the price of a heat pump can be reduced to between £2,000 to £3,000. If that seems feasible, you will find that heat pumps can be highly efficient (2 to 4 times as much as boilers).

While biomass boilers are also an option and are available with grants, biomass has recently become more expensive so it might not be as cheap a choice as it used to be. Even with grants the price of these boilers can be fairly high and we only recommend them if you do not have a gas main and are reliant on expensive alternatives.

Make sure your home is eligible for these upgrades. It’s best to check with an installer and see what suits your home most.

Insulation & Glazing

If improving your heating system is off the table due to costs. There are some more subtle solutions you can look at. One of these is improving the glazing and insulation in your home. There are numerous government grants that can help with this, providing homeowners in financial straits the ability to pay for home improvements.

Schemes like the ECO4, Home Upgrade Grant, the Affordable Warmth Scheme, and others can all subsidise these improvements. While the nature of the grants can vary, they all offer some form of insulation as a means of improving energy performance. A lot of them are subject to means-testing and inspection.

Some of these are loans while others like the ECO4 cover the cost entirely. They can be region-dependent so it’s best to check with your local authority or an insulation installer whether you are eligible for any of these.

As always, there are some caveats for eligibility that apply all around. Most of the window improvement grants will pay for double glazing but not any other types. They also are often geared towards improving glazing from single glazed windows to double glazing.

With these things in mind, these policies can be a solid solution that is most affordable. In many cases, a grant can pay for all of the insulation you might need (assuming the inspection goes well and you qualify past the means-testing).

Luckily, this resource can help you live more comfortably amidst these tumultuous times.