UK homes are colder than European homes, even when factoring in outside temperatures, according to research from smart home thermostat company Tado.
The company compared the efficiency of over 80,000 homes between Dec 2019 and Jan 2020 and found that a UK home with an indoor temperature of 20°C and an outside temperature of 0°C lost an average 3°C after five hours. This means that British heating systems have to work harder to maintain the warmth.
Compared with Germany, UK homes lost heat up to three times as fast, and Tado has called for new technology to be widely integrated into new homes to ensure better energy efficiency.
“The UK is a leader in smart technology adoption but is lagging behind Europe when it comes to energy efficient homes”, says Tado co-founder Christian Deilmann.
“The good news is that there are lots of great solutions available and a huge opportunity for energy savings to be made.”
Heating Your Self Build
Choosing a heating system for your self build or renovation project is a key decision, and will depend on your budget. Ultimately though, ensuring your home’s heating is energy efficient will help to save your long-term costs.
Underfloor heating is an increasingly popular option for self builders, and air source heat pumps provide an alternative to gas boilers (which will be banned from new builds from 2025) that are renewable and can make a home more energy efficient.
Home insulation and energy efficiency are also key challenges for the government. New build homes built to cut carbon emissions could have saved over £200 a year on energy bills, the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit revealed last year, yet the Committee on Climate Change reports that only 2% of UK homes have top energy efficiency ratings.
Energy efficiency has improved in homes during the last 20 years, according to last month’s English Housing Survey, although the improvement has slowed in recent years.