6 Smart Ways To Insulate Your Home (That Don't Require Opening Up Walls)

Governments like the idea of pumping foam or other materials into cavity walls to improve home insulation. And while it is highly effective, it’s also extremely disruptive. You have to put up with noisy machinery whirring away in the background for days at a time while you try to get on with normal life.

The good news, though, is that there are actually a bunch of alternative ways to improve home insulation that don’t require ripping out walls. Here are your options:

Thermal Curtains

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Around 35 percent of home heat is lost through windows. For that reason, many homeowners and families invest in thermal curtains.

There are exactly what they sound like -- special curtains designed to keep windows and rooms warm in the winter and cooler in the summer. Yes, that’s right, they work for you year-round.

The magic is in their weave. Fibres are much closer together which means that air cannot pass freely from one side to the other. Instead, it gets stuck, similar to how a woolly jumper works.

Electrical Outlet Insulation

Believe it or not, electrical outlets are actually a major source of heat loss in your home. That’s because air can easily flow through the cavity at the back of them and out into the surrounding brickwork. It just goes through the holes in the front fascia and flows away.

Fortunately, you can prevent this with electrical outlet insulation. These are essentially foam pieces, designed to conform to the shape of your outlets. You place them behind the outlets and then refit them to the wall.

Insulate The Attic

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Around 30 to 50 percent of heat in your home is lost through the attic. That’s because heat rises.

When it comes to attic insulation, you want to put it on the floor. This way, you avoid creating a pocket of unused warm air in your loft every time you turn on the central heating.

These days, adding insulation to the attic is easy. It comes in rolls which you can unfurl on the floor. If DIY isn’t your forté, you can get fitters to do it for you. It usually only takes a few minutes.

Install Shutters

While plantation shutters look beautiful, they’re also a great tool for keeping heat in your home -- and out. Shutters provide an extra layer of material to prevent heat loss through windows, and they can deflect the sun’s rays in the summer, reducing HVAC energy usage.

Seal Your Doors And Windows

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If you move close to your windows on a windy day, you’ll sometimes feel tiny gusts of air coming through. This usually happens because there is a gap in the seal that runs around the edge of the window.

Fortunately, you can resolve these with weatherstipping, a product which looks a bit like foam tape. Just place it around winders or under doors to stop air from getting through.

Seal Your Recessed Lighting

Lastly, you might want to seal your recessed lighting. Just make sure that if you do insulate, that you leave at least three inches between the light and the insulating material to prevent fire risk.