Top energy saving upgrades to make if you’re renovating your home

Before we get into it, it’s worth saying that the best way to improve your home long-term is to have a ‘whole-house’ plan. This is where you work out how all your energy efficient improvements fit together over time. 

We’ve seen in our ‘house of the future’ that when each upgrade is designed to support the next, you get the best value. 

But we appreciate that things are rarely that organised. So, think of this guide as a set of ‘while you’re there’ opportunities. Combining jobs can cut costs and reduce disruption and work alongside, not instead of, a whole-house plan. 

If you’re upgrading or repairing your roof, you’ll probably need scaffolding. According to Checkatrade, scaffolding hire for a semi-detached house costs £875 a month, on average.  

As you’ve already got roof access sorted, why not use it as a chance to put in some solar panels and get free electricity?  

The actual installation usually takes a day or two to complete, so shouldn’t add much to how long you need the scaffolding.  

It’s worth mentioning the scaffolding to the solar panel installer beforehand. Some companies prefer to install their own or will make safety checks on your scaffolding before they start work.  

The average cost to install solar panels is around £6,100. But if you already have scaffolding put up, this cost should come down.  

Once your solar panel system is installed, you should see energy bills lower by around: 

• £360 a year in Great Britian (GB)
• £440 a year in Northern Ireland (NI). 

And if you sign up to the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG), you should get around £220 a year in GB and £130 in NI.

You’ll also cut your carbon footprint by 750kg a year in GB and 550kg in NI. 

Want to take it to the next level? Add in home battery storage to make even more use of the electricity from the solar panels.

Planning on ripping up flooring and floorboards or digging up your ground floor? Why not pack in some floor insulation first and make the room even cosier?  

If you have a suspended timber ground floor, you can lay insulation material between the joists after you take up the floorboards. This will save you £120 a year in GB and £120 in NI.   

Floor insulation also improves your carbon footprint by about 310kg a year in GB and 430kg in NI. 

If you’ve got a solid concrete floor, you can either:  

• Dig up the floor, lay the insulation and put down new concrete. You have to insulate under a replacement concrete floor to follow building regulations.  
• Lay insulation boards on top of the existing concrete, which will raise the height of your floor. You also need to adjust doors and sockets to accommodate the new floor height.  

A room renovation might be a good time to add internal solid wall insulation. Around a third of the heat in an uninsulated house is lost through the walls. So, adding some insulation to the room is a good way to keep it warm.  

Professional internal wall insulation involves adding insulation material or building a stud wall that’s full of insulation. This will slightly reduce the floor area of any rooms where it’s installed.   

Internal solid wall insulation for a whole house costs around £12,000, which usually includes redecoration. It should be fitted by a professional installer. The wall insulation cost might come down if you are already renovating.  

Installing solid wall insulation can save up to £330 in GB and £330 in NI. And your CO2 emissions could go down by 900kg a year in GB and 1,200kg a year in NI. 

If you have cavity walls, cavity wall insulation is installed by drilling small holes on the outside of your property to add the insulation. They fill the holes back in when they’re done, too, so there’s no redecoration or cleanup needed.

The cost is much less than internal solid wall insulation, costing around £2,700 in GB or £0 in NI. There wouldn’t normally be a saving if you’re already renovating.

Underfloor heating is designed to keep your home warm using water heated at lower temperatures compared to radiators. The flow temperature of underfloor heating tends to be around 45°C. This just so happens to be the kind of flow temperature of an efficient heat pump.  

Some of the more common renovations needed for a home to be ‘heat pump ready’ are either bigger radiators or underfloor heating. If you’re already upgrading your central heating system with underfloor heating, considering a heat pump is a good next step.  

The average cost of an air source heat pump is around £11,000, though there’s financial support available in Great Britain to bring the cost down. At the very least, make sure the UFH is able to integrate into a heat pump system in future. This includes:  

• Using larger pipes.  
• Placing the pipes closer together .
• Making sure you have good insulation under the pipes to reduce heat loss .

Compared to an average heating system, heat pumps could improve your carbon footprint by 2,300kg a year in GB and 3,500kg in NI.

No matter what work you’re having done to the house, it’s worth taking the time to compare qualified installers. We recommend getting quotes from at least three certified installers to make a fair comparison. You can find local, certified installers using:  

• TrustMark – a government-endorsed quality scheme for tradespeople.
• Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) – for installers of solar panels and heat pumps. 

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