How your local credit union can save you money on your energy bills

With electricity and gas prices rising rapidly in recent weeks, householders across the country have been feeling the financial effects. While the solution for some people will be to turn off or down the heating, this is often not practical given the Irish climate. The only effective, long term solution to have a warmer home and to minimise energy bills is to upgrade the home to become more energy efficient.

So how can home energy upgrades make a home more comfortable, whilst also reducing energy bills? Insulating your home is a really good place to start.

Think of insulation as a blanket keeping your home warm. If your home is not properly insulated, your heating system has to work extra hard to replace the heat that is escaping.

Insulation can come in a variety of different formats

Attic Insulation

On average, a home can lose between 20% and 30% of its heat through its roof, if it is not properly insulated. A home that is under-insulated is more vulnerable to outside temperature as heat naturally flows from hot to cold. By insulating your attic, you can significantly reduce your energy usage. Grants of up to 80% of the cost of attic insulation are available from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland

Wall Insulation

On average, a home loses 20-30% of its heat through its external walls if they are not sufficiently insulated. This loss of heat not only costs you money (you’ll likely have higher heating bills), but it also harms the environment by increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

The first step in getting wall insulation is establishing the wall type of your home. The three main wall types are cavity walls, solid walls and hollow block walls. The type of wall will help to determine whether the best option for the home is external wall insulation, internal wall insulation (also called dry lining) or possible cavity wall insulation.

Floor Insulation

Up to 10% of a home’s heat can be lost through its floors. This heat loss can be significantly reduced by insulating the floors.

The type of floor will determine if or what type of insulation is practical. It may be possible to lay insulation on top of the existing construction or if a home has a suspended floor, it may be possible to insulate underneath the structure.

While a home energy upgrade might be the solution for those who want to significantly reduce their energy bills, many people simply don’t know where to start.

To help their members to get all of the support they need for a home energy upgrade, We have partnered with Energia and House2Home to develop cugreenerhomes.ie. CU Greener Homes provides support from start to finish for all types of home energy upgrades, including solar panels, attic insulation, boiler & heating controls, exterior and interior wall insulation, double/ glazed windows and heat pumps.

A key feature of the CU Greener Homes website is the bespoke Energy Upgrade Calculator. By inputting a few basic details about their home, in just 3 minutes, the calculator enables people to find out:

  • the cost of proposed home energy upgrades for their home,
  • the grant support which may be available,
  • the cost of credit union finance, and
  • the impact of the work on the energy efficiency of their home.

To find out the costs for your home and the low cost finance available to support you, visit www.cugreenerhomes.ie and get a quick quote today.

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