With the trend for homes to become more environmentally-friendly – whether they feature solar panels or are made from green materials, like locally-sourced timber – increasing over the years, you may be considering what action you can take in implementing a greater level of energy efficiency in your property.
British Gas’ Generation Green campaign has seen the utility firm work alongside schools in teaching children about sustainability issues, such as saving energy and how to create eco-friendly homes and schools.
And as people – both young and old – become ever more aware of the dangers of climate change and what action they can take to combat it, the trend for eco-friendly homes is increasing.
There are several green home improvement projects that can be carried out, so no matter what your budget is you should be able to find that you can hire tradesmen to carry out energy-saving improvements on your home.
However, the choice of eco-friendly work that can be done can be a little daunting, so bringing in professionals for advice on what improvements should be made – as well as getting them to actually carry out such work – may be advisable.
The success of Generation Green
Generation Green appears to have some significant success in schools, so you may find yourself inspired to bring in tradesmen in order to build an eco-friendly home for you. More than 10,000 schools across the country – accounting for more than four million pupils – have signed up to the environmental programme to date, with some 500,000 green activities in classrooms being completed.
The programme allows children to earn ‘leaves’ each time a green activity is carried out – whether this is recycling or using energy-efficient lightbulbs – which can be stored and used to purchase eco-friendly products for use in their school.
And as these range from solar panels to tables made from green materials children may well find themselves looking at ways of how they can make their homes kinder to the environment.
What are the benefits of eco-friendly homes?
If the success of Generation Green has encouraged you to consider the benefits of having an energy-efficient property, you may be keen to take steps to introduce green materials and other elements of sustainability into your residence.
While your main motivation for energy-efficiency may lie in your concerns about doing what’s best for the environment, there can be other benefits to having an eco-friendly home.
Having such work carried out can significantly lower your energy usage, which in turn could result in a drastic fall in utility bills, sometimes by as much as hundreds of pounds.
As part of the Generation Green initiative, British Gas points out that having cavity wall insulation could save you around £115 a year.
Meanwhile, the installation of a hot water cylinder jacket can result in annual energy bill savings of some £40 per annum, while loft insulation could see you £150 better off each year. The Energy Saving Trust notes that this kind of home improvement can also cut a residence’s carbon emissions by 800 kg and within the space of two years will have paid for itself.
It may be possible for you to do some of these improvements yourself. However, if you are keen to get the most out of green materials when making a home more energy-efficient, bringing in expert tradesmen may be best.
Other improvements you may want to look into include fitting a new energy-efficient boiler. However you cannot legally carry out such work yourself, as it must be done by a professional certified under the Gas Safe Register.
Using Rated People for eco friendly home improvement jobs
Rated People provides a simple way for you to get in touch with tradespeople who can help to make your home more energy efficient.
Simply post details of the work you require doing online before going on to search for builders and other professionals capable of carrying out such a project in your area. Up to three recommended tradespeople will then get in touch to provide you with a quote for the job.
You can use the comments that other Rated People users have made about them to decide who to hire and once the job is complete you can go back to the site and rate them based on the work they have done on your eco friendly home.
