Living in a leasehold property can often mean that installing large-scale energy saving measures is complicated, a lot of hassle or prohibited. With home energy use responsible for 27% of UK carbon dioxide emissions, this is an area that needs improvement, and saving energy could save you money as well as helping the environment. It is possible to encourage your freeholder to cough up for, and possibly undertake, these energy saving measures for you – you just need to be persuasive!
How can your freeholder benefit?
Unfortunately, your freeholder is fairly unlikely to be concerned about the cost of your energy bills, so unless they are particularly environmentally friendly, you are going to have work on getting money out of him or her! Have a look at your lease to determine which parts of the building your freeholder has responsibility for, as installing double glazing and maintenance of windows etc. may actually be your responsibility.
- There are a variety of grants and discounts available for different energy saving measures such as loft insulation, wall insulation, heating and hot water. Do some research for what your property may be eligible for before you approach your freeholder.
- Play up the long term benefits. Improving the property should make the freehold more valuable, so it your freeholder may not be as difficult to persuade as you think. A good Energy Performance Certificate will make the property more attractive to potential future owners. Plus, they will receive fewer complaints from the current owners!
What can you do in the meantime?
While you’re waiting for your freeholder to install energy saving measures for you, make sure that you are doing the most you can. Simple actions can stop energy being wasted and save you money.
- Use energy saving bulbs as they can last up to 10 times longer than regular incandescent bulbs and can save you up to £45 over their lifetime. Make sure you always turn the lights off when you leave the room or when they are not needed.
- Try and reduce your room temperature by 1oC by turning down your thermostat. This will save you around 10% on your heating bills and save you up to £50 a year. Similarly, you may be heating your water too much. The Energy Saving Trust recommends setting your cylinder thermostat to 60oC/140oF to save energy.
- Save water in the kitchen. Only boil as much water as you need and wash up using a bowl rather than leaving the water running. Using a bowl to wash up twice a day could save you up to £25 a year on gas bills.
- Switch your appliances off. Standby wastes a significant amount of energy so make sure that you don’t leave laptops, televisions etc. on unnecessarily.
- Keep the heat in by preventing draughts. Close your curtains at dusk to keep the heat in and use draught excluders to prevent air coming in around the windows and doors.
