The Green Deal and Insulation   by Russell Strider

in Home    (submitted 2012-02-01)

With continued stress on the environment and a pressing need to severely reduce carbon emissions throughout the world, governments are creating new schemes to enable homes to improve their energy usage. One such scheme is the Green Deal.

This deal and similar schemes in other countries, aim to improve buildings' energy efficiency in a number of ways through the provision of financial support. This support enables the installation of a number of methods by which heat can be better retained in a home and therefore without the need to resort to excessive energy usage.

As this overview is aimed at individuals within the UK, it will therefore focus mainly on the Green Deal, and we'll also take a brief look at how insulation plays a key role in the process.

In a nutshell, the Green Deal is an initiative created by the Conservative/Liberal Democrat government which offers assistance and support to homeowners to make their properties more energy efficient.

This incentive takes the form of financial support up to ten thousand pounds available as a loan which will cover home improvements such as the installation of insulation, double glazing and a new more efficient boiler.

To benefit from the scheme, a homeowner will be visited by an assessor who will examine a property and its suitability for assistance. They will then create a plan based on the state of the building and a company who is then accredited to deliver the Green Deal and will then produce a quote based on the previously created assessment.

Criticisms of the Green Deal are generally aimed at its repayment system that could be potentially confusing to many consumers. For more information on these criticisms, take a look at the "Which Report" which is available online.

Ultimately, the UK has committed to reducing carbon emissions by 80% by the year 2050. Stunningly, although this will take forty years to achieve, it will only bring us back in line with the levels we experienced in 1990!

As mentioned earlier, one of the main ways in which The Green Deal is delivered is through better implementation of insulation in homes.

Insulation can be retrofitted to homes without excessive expense and upheaval and for this reason it is easy to see why it's an intrinsic element of the Green Deal. Whether through the insulation of lofts or external walls, heat loss can be dramatically reduced for a relatively low spend and with quick and dramatic results.

As 70% of home energy usage is spent on heating a building, it's not surprising that retention of this heat is key to energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions.

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