Green Energy Becomes Priority for UK Households
UK energy regulator Ofgem recently made headlines by revising the national price cap, which spiked dramatically to 54%. The average UK household is not only eligible for, but likely to, experience a price pinch, as budgets will suffer over energy spending this Spring.
As prices surge around energy spending, alternatives will start to feel even more attractive to consumers, as economic and practical benefits will steer UK households away from a reliance on the National Grid.
Even living costs in the UK are compounding at an alarming pace, climbing at the fastest rate, it’s believed, in as many as 30 years. This is largely driven by the increasing energy rates and those for other commodities across the UK market. It’s predicted by the National Institute for Economic and Social Research, an economic think-tank, that inflation rates might even rise to a peak of 10% by Q3 in 2022 alone.
There has never been a more urgent moment to prioritise sustainability into our everyday living habits, especially for households on tight monthly budgets. A reliance on traditional energy sources, with price inflations that feel unpractical, could even price out different lifestyles. A focus on reducing carbon emissions not only has environmental advantages, but sustainability can empower households to unlock economic and social benefits too. In certain counties like the US, for example, these are measurable in a property’s green “credentials”, which is known to create a favourable reputation around corporations who act rather than react to sustainability demands.
Clean living is not without its trials and tribulations, where energy alternatives have now begun to truly unlock a rewarding future for households that invest in going green. Whether adopting solar technology or opting to replace windows and limit wasted energy, households should be to try to understand how sustainability can help keep costs down.
A Generation of Smarter Homes
A smart home is the concept for a space that uses technology creatively to optimise living standards. These improvements can be out of convenience, but are more often made to achieve sustainable living, improving the likes of energy performance.
Homes have become “smarter” with energy usage; this includes giving households the creativity and imagination to monitor everyday living habits (and the costs) and even to hone into unstainable and uneconomic practices. Empowered to create valuable change, smart homes can transform real estate into a hub of data points that work toward creating sweeping efficiencies in costs, energy spending, and more.
The modern household is an example of smarter living, using products like light sensors or temperature controls to regulate an environment. These tools have the power to improve energy performance, but uptake of green tech is also partly motivated by a desire to enhance a way of living by controlling a home through the convenience of a smart phone or a user’s voice.
Solar Panels Remain a Priority
House trends are constantly evolving over time, but sustainability, which may have felt no different at first, is now such a priority that it affects everything from architecture down to interior design.
Popularity in “tiny” or miniature homes, for example, has been a movement in housing trends that captures how compactness can be utilised to reduce wasteful living habits. Prefab buildings and “cargotecture”, as another example, are emerging as an alternative to the increasingly expensive housing market.
Solar panel technology, an alternative for energising a property, is taken seriously by housing developers and homeowners alike, which is understood to be a sustainable investment. In fact, solar panel technology is becoming inseparable from modern home construction, whereas many as 970,000 UK homes now utilise solar technology installations to farm energy naturally.
It’s even predicted that solar and wind could source as much as 50% of the UK’s energy in the next 25 years. Solar products are now more accessible to the market, where this technology is getting uptake by households looking to improve sustainable living practice.
Window Replacements
Energy waste is the common product of older windows, which are failing at offering thermal protection. Homes will need to reduce energy waste through creative design decisions. Energy loss, from windows alone, can be as high as 25% – 30%, which represents one of the biggest areas of waste.
Window replacements, on the other hand, will use thermally broken frames to seal in energy, preventing it from wasting and, therefore, costing more. A+10 metal windows, for example, won’t compromise on high levels of insulation.
Using the mentioned strategies, from harnessing solar energy to getting smarter with technology, can help reduce energy waste. The goal, ultimately, is to make sustainability accessible, economic and convenient for all.
Source: yougen.co.uk
