This may sound a bit nerdy, or just a bit weird, but I was taking my dog for a walk the other day with a friend, who had popped over to empty my fridge of beer and wine for the weekend. We had just had our first, and possibly only flurry of snow for the year.

It was a pretty bracing day, to put it mildly, but one thing that struck us both was the differing amounts of snow on the roofs as we wandered by.  It was just after lunchtime, and the snow was melting relatively quickly but even so.  Some houses looked like the snow has simply failed to fall on the roof of their house while others still looked like they had a big fluffy blanket.

As I am thinking of moving house soon, my friend suggested that I take photographs of the houses in the streets that I want to live in – just their roofs mind you.  When I asked why he simply said “bills”.  What he actually meant was that you see clearly which houses had good loft insulation and which were literally spending a fortune heating the sky.  See this thermal image to show how the heat is escaping through the roof of this house. The cold areas are in blue.

According to Which magazine insulating your loft could slash your energy bills by up to £240 year and lagging your hot water tank will save you almost as much according to www.moneysavingexpert.com.

For the first time in decades, or so it seems, energy costs are going down.  Or should I say, wholesale energy costs have gone down by nearly 40% in the past year, and our bills have been reduced by… hum, well not that much, which is why loft insulation is so important, unless you happen to be the queen or someone else who does not pay their own energy bills, it certainly does makes sense.

Hopefully most people are aware that hot air rises, so a chance to stop that hot air, created by your home heating system, escaping and thus keeping it in your home has got to be a good idea.

Now for the bit where I sound a little bit nerdy, because I ended up googling loft insulation after my dog walk! The recommended thickness for loft insulation is 270mm. The first thing to do is check whether you have any insulation at all in your loft and, if you do, how much. If you already have some insulation in your loft but it falls short of the recommended 270mm, then you could make further savings on your energy bills by topping it up.

While you are checking out the loft insulation in your own home, why not nip around to see your elderly relatives and save them a climb up a rickety ladder in to their loft.  You might end up saving them a fortune too, as well as avoiding them from a potential injury.