With the government’s Green Deal set to launch next year, it’s a perfect time to invest in renewable energy and earn more for your money.
The Green Deal will offer loans for homeowners to insulate their properties with energy saving measures, such as double glazing and loft lagging.
These improvements have a big effect, reducing heat loss in the home, lowering your energy bills and cutting carbon dioxide emissions.
So, as this is just around the corner why not look into renewable energy and you’ll save even more on your monthly fuel bills.
Once installed, renewable energy provides free electricity or heat to your home at no further expense. Most products, like solar panels, also require little maintenance.
What’s more, you can even earn through generating your own electricity through a government scheme known as the feed-in tariff.
Each unit of electricity produced will be paid for at a set rate, and any energy left over can be sold back to the National Grid.
Every year you could make a nice saving with renewable energy. Combining an installation with the Green Deal means your home will be more energy efficient and you’ll use less, so more can be sold to the grid.
Energy and Climate Secretary Chris Huhne believes this is the first scheme of its kind anywhere in the world. He says it’s a great way to protect you against rising energy prices, and families will be able to escape fuel poverty.
Mr Huhne said: “The bulk of the Bill is about energy efficiency, which is about energy saving, which of course actually means we will need fewer types of electricity generation, including windmills.
“There are provisions within the Bill for new energy company obligations … and this is critical for delivering carbon savings in homes which are hard to treat and it will protect the most vulnerable groups and those on the lowest incomes, focusing on households which cannot adequately afford to heat their homes.”
The Green Deal comes as part of the Coalition’s new Energy Bill, which will also incorporate other energy saving measures.
From 2016, landlords can’t refuse tenant’s requests for improvements to the property.
Landlords will also be banned from renting buildings with less than an ‘E’ efficiency rating from 2018. There are 682,000 properties in the UK that fall under this bracket and they’ll all have to improved ion the next seven years.
Smart meters will also be issued to homeowners, so they can keep track of how much energy they’re using at one particular time.