Improving your home’s energy efficiency.
It doesn’t have to be complicated. On this page, we’ll show you the different things you can do to improve your home. Which could reduce your bills and carbon emissions.
The easiest way to check your home’s energy efficiency is by looking to see if it’s got an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). This’ll tell you how energy efficient your home is. It’ll even give you examples of how much it could cost to make improvements and the benefits of the changes.
You can check your EPC rating in the 'Energy efficiency' section of My Home Manager in our Mobile Banking app .
An EPC can help you to understand how you could make improvements to your home to boost your EER. For example, you could:
- add insulation
- install a new heating system
- get more energy-efficient windows and doors.
It could be smaller changes too like replacing any standard light bulbs you have with low energy ones.
Understanding your home’s EPC rating can help you figure out how much work your home needs to reduce its carbon emissions. It’ll give you an energy efficiency rating from A (very efficient) to G (inefficient).
An EPC lasts for 10 years. It’s a legal requirement when selling your home or renting out a property.
If you’re a homeowner in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, you can find your Energy Performance Certificate on the government’s website. If you’re in Scotland, you’ll need to visit the Scottish Energy Performance Register instead.
We’ve partnered with Vibrant to offer their EPC Plus service which could help you to carry out work to reduce your energy bills and carbon emissions.
If you’re one of our customers, you can check your EPC rating in My Home Manager in our Mobile Banking app
Small changes can help reduce the overall carbon emissions from your home while lowering your energy bills over time. Here are some examples of the changes you could make, and the potential impact they have.
- Reducing your thermostat by just 1 degree could save you up to £145 per year. Installing simple energy saving devices, such as a smart thermostat, could help you save even more.
- Switching to energy saving LED lights could save you up to £60 a year. That’s a bright idea the next time your bulb blows.
- You could save around £55 a year just by remembering to turn your appliances off standby.
- Lowering your washing machine temperature to 30 degrees could save you around £27 a year.
- Instead of using a tumble dryer to dry your clothes, you could put them on a clothes airer or pop them outside when it’s warm. Doing this could save £55 a year.
- Being savvy in the kitchen and not overfilling your kettle could save you £11 a year.
Source: Energy Saving Trust
Energy saving information
Energy Saving Trust is an independent organisation that shares information about a range of energy saving products, services and ideas that could help you make the right choice for you and your home
Upgrading the EPC rating of a property will take time, so you may want to get advice to see what you can do in the short term and what’s realistic for the future.
You can get in touch your nearest advice service to help you get a better understanding of what needs to be done and how to go about it.
- Simple Energy Advice: General advice on how to lower energy usage.
- NI Energy Advice: Offers free, independent, and impartial energy advice to domestic householders in Northern Ireland (includes energy grants and other sources of help).
- Energy Advice Scotland: Website offers practical advice and information on energy-related matters for those living in Scotland.
- Home Energy Scotland: Funded by the Scottish Government and managed by the Energy Savings Trust, Home Energy Scotland helps people in Scotland reduce their energy bills and carbon footprint. Includes advice on Scottish Government grants and interest-free loans.
- Nest Wales: Offers free advice for every homeowner and renters in Wales. If eligible, you can get a package of free home energy efficiency improvements such as a new boiler, central heating, insulation, or solar panels.
You can also pay an accredited energy assessor to evaluate your home. They’ll generally give you a list of recommendations, estimated costs, potential savings per year, and predict what the EPC rating will likely be after improvements have been made. Use the government's find an assessor tool to help you find an accredited assessor.
There are a lot of government incentives to help you improve the energy efficiency of your home and save money on your energy bills. Find out more on the Government website
If you need to borrow money to pay for energy-efficient home improvements, we offer an additional loan on your existing Santander mortgage or a personal loan.
Borrow more
You could apply for an additional loan on your existing Santander mortgage. The loan is secured against your home.
Get a loan
You could apply for a personal loan. The loan isn’t secured against your home. Rates from 6.2% APR representative on loans from £7,500 to £15,000. Credit subject to status.
Our mortgage and personal current account customers could get up to £500 home energy cashback when borrowing from us to make energy-efficient home improvements using one of our trusted suppliers. £250 home energy cashback if you borrow between £5,000 and £9,999. £500 home energy cashback if you borrow £10,000 or more.
Terms and conditions apply. Offer can be withdrawn at any time.
See if you qualify for the £500 Santander home energy cashback
THINK CAREFULLY BEFORE SECURING OTHER DEBTS AGAINST YOUR HOME. YOUR HOME MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON YOUR MORTGAGE.
Applications are subject to status and lending criteria.