What Should You Do First to Make a Home More Energy Efficient?

The first step in making a home more energy efficient is not buying anything. It is finding out where the home stands today, and the tool for that already exists: the Energy Performance Certificate, or EPC. An EPC provides an assessment of your home's energy efficiency¹, and official guidance is blunt about where to begin: looking at your EPC is a good starting point to help improve the energy efficiency of your property². EPCs explain how energy efficient a building is and how it could be improved³.

The reason the order matters is simple. A home that loses a third of its heat through uninsulated walls and a further quarter through the roof⁴ will waste any money spent on a new heating system, because the heat that system produces escapes before it does any good. Assessment first, fabric second, equipment last: that sequence is the backbone of every credible piece of official guidance on the subject, and it is the sequence this page follows.

Alongside the EPC, the second free first step is getting a clear picture of how much energy the home actually uses. A smart meter, which is free of charge⁵, sends readings automatically to your supplier⁶ and comes with an in-home display that shows how much energy you are using during the day⁵. Between the certificate and the meter readings, you have the two pieces of information every later decision depends on: where the home is losing heat, and what it costs you.

Begin with the EPC: the survey that reveals your home's current rating

The Energy Performance Certificate is the one document that exists for nearly every home in the country and is built for exactly this question. An EPC gives you useful information about the energy efficiency of a property, as well as its heating source, estimated carbon emissions and estimated energy cost¹¹. It is not a marketing document or a surveyor's opinion: it is a standardised assessment produced under a national framework, which is why it carries weight with lenders, landlords and government schemes alike.

That standardisation is also why the EPC is the right first port of call rather than a private assessment or a contractor's free survey. EPCs are the basis of many energy efficiency policies in the domestic built environment¹², so the rating on your certificate is the same rating that grant schemes, minimum standards for rented homes and future regulations will be measured against. A private opinion may be more detailed, but it will not open doors to funding or tell you where you stand legally.

There is a practical point worth knowing about how much attention people pay to this document. In the government's Winter 2025 public attitudes tracker, among people aware of EPCs, only 32% recalled seeing the section in their home's EPC that recommends ways to improve energy efficiency¹³. Most householders have the certificate and never read the most useful part of it. If that describes your home, the first step costs nothing: find the certificate and read past the coloured chart to the recommendations.

If your home has never been assessed, or the certificate is a decade old, commissioning a new one is the entry point. The cost varies from one company to another and depends on the size, location and age of the building¹⁰, so it is installer-quoted with no standard price. What you get for it is a document that is valid for ten years¹⁰ and that every subsequent step in this page can be built on.

Inside the EPC: ratings, running costs and the recommendations list

The headline of the certificate is the rating. EPCs rate how energy efficient a building is, with ratings from band A (very efficient) to band G (inefficient)¹⁴. The Energy Efficiency Rating is the first rating to appear on the EPC, and it is well-known and recognisable to most people; it is required in adverts for the sale or rental of properties and shows both the current and the potential rating¹⁵. That gap between current and potential is the most useful thing on the page: it tells you how far the assessor believes the home can be moved with standard improvements.

The certificate also carries the part most people skip: the Recommendations Report. With each EPC is a report that sets out the cost effective measures homeowners or businesses can take to improve their energy efficiency and energy rating, such as low energy bulbs or upgrading insulation¹⁸. Information is also provided on measures which could improve energy efficiency, with an indication of cost and typical savings for each improvement over 3 years¹⁵. In other words, the certificate does not just grade the home; it prices and sequences the work.

What the bands mean in money terms is documented. In 2024, the estimated average cost to improve dwellings to at least an energy efficiency band C was £7,480 across all tenures in England⁸. That figure is an average across the whole housing stock, so an individual home can sit well above or below it depending on its construction and starting band, but it gives an honest sense of scale: reaching band C is typically a four-figure project, not a weekend job.

The policy context explains why band C keeps appearing. Government strategy is for as many homes as possible to achieve EPC band C by 2035 where cost-effective, practical and affordable¹⁶, and Parliament has recorded the same aspiration¹⁹. Social housing funding follows the same line: under the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund Wave 3, grant recipients must improve their social homes to at least EPC band C, with homes starting at band E to G that cannot reasonably reach band C within the cost cap exempt²⁰. For owner-occupiers, a consultation on a proposed legally-binding standard for owner-occupied homes asked whether EPC band C should be the standard required to be met by homeowners, and a small majority of respondents, 54%, agreed that it should²¹. None of that binds a private owner today, but it tells you which direction the paperwork, the grants and the resale market are moving.

Prioritise insulation: walls and roofs lose the most heat

Once you know the home's band, the physics points to the same first target almost every time: the fabric. The Energy Saving Trust estimates that an un-insulated dwelling loses a third of all its heat through the walls and a further quarter through the roof⁴. Independent guidance repeats the wall figure: around a third of all the heat lost in an uninsulated home escapes through the walls⁷. Add the two together and roughly three-fifths of the heat a household pays for is leaving through two surfaces that insulation can treat.

This is why the order of work matters, and it is the point the fabric first approach exists to make. Insulating walls, roof and floors reduces heat loss²², and reducing heat loss reduces the size of every problem downstream: a better-insulated home needs less heat, so a smaller boiler, a smaller heat pump or fewer solar panels will do the same job. Buying the equipment first inverts that logic and leaves you paying for capacity the house then throws away.

The practical first move is to check what insulation the home already has, and the EPC is again the place to look: the certificate records wall and roof insulation as part of the assessment, and the Recommendations Report will say whether loft, cavity wall or floor insulation appears on the cost-effective list¹⁸. For homes with cavity walls, cavity insulation is among the measures local advice schemes most commonly refer households for²³. For solid-wall homes the work is bigger and dearer, which is exactly why it belongs in a whole house plan rather than a snap decision.

For a household thinking about energy independence, this is the foundation everything else stands on. Insulation is passive: it needs no electricity, no supplier, no maintenance contract and no internet connection, and it keeps working in a power cut. It is also the one measure that reduces dependence rather than rearranging it, because every unit of heat the walls stop leaking is a unit you do not have to buy from anyone.

You cannot manage what you do not measure: smart meter insights

The second free first step is knowing what the home actually uses. A smart meter automatically sends your electricity and gas meter readings to your supplier⁵, and the meter's in-home display also shows you how much energy you're using during the day⁵. Smart meters measure your gas and electricity usage and send the data directly to your energy supplier⁹, and they come with an In-Home Display so consumers can see and manage energy use²⁴.

What the display gives you is visibility, and visibility is what turns a vague worry about bills into a list of specific things to change. The data provided by your smart meter puts you in control of your energy usage, meaning you can take energy-saving steps to reduce your CO2 emissions²⁵. When you have a smart meter installed, all the readings are automatically sent via the DCC's secure network to your energy supplier, ensuring you only pay for the energy you've used, not the approximate costs of an estimated bill²⁶.

The data also has uses beyond your own kitchen. The data you share through your smart meter is used to bill you for the energy you use; to offer you new products and services, for example new tariffs, if you have given permission for this to happen; and to help make the energy system more efficient by recording demand more accurately⁶. That third use is the national-interest one: better demand data is part of how the grid decarbonises²⁵.

For baselining purposes, the meter is the tool the baseline your energy use step depends on. Before spending on anything, a few weeks of watching the display tells you when the home uses energy, which appliances drive it and what a normal day looks like. That record is what you will measure any improvement against later, and without it you will never know whether the insulation or the new heating actually paid off.

Smart meters cost nothing to install, yet they will not cut bills alone

The meter itself costs nothing. There's no direct cost for a smart meter; any expenses are recouped through your energy bills over time⁹. Contact your energy provider to arrange installation, which typically takes about 90 minutes and is free of charge⁹. Contact your supplier to get a smart meter for free²⁷. Whatever the wording, the position is consistent across official sources: the householder does not pay an installation fee.

What the meter does is remove friction and estimates. You get bills based on accurate meter readings and not estimates⁶, you do not need to submit meter readings yourself⁵, and in prepayment mode you can add credit automatically or without having to visit a shop⁶. You can also access more flexible tariffs, including dual-rate tariffs⁶, which is where the meter starts to matter to a household thinking about time-shifting demand or, later, pairing with solar and a battery.

But the saving is not automatic. A meter that measures perfectly in a house that wastes heat still measures a wasteful house. The savings come from what you do with the information: you could find ways to save money using up-to-date information on your energy use⁵. The meter is the instrument, not the intervention, and any claim that the box alone cuts bills should be treated with caution.

There are practical limits worth knowing. Your smart meter may stop recording the energy you use, or may no longer send readings to your supplier⁶; if that happens, you go back to submitting readings manually until it is fixed. If your supplier goes out of business, your meter may not work in smart mode when you move to the new supplier, and you may need to take meter readings manually and submit them to your new supplier instead; your meter may work in smart mode again if you change tariffs or suppliers²⁸. On switching generally: you can switch energy supplier with a smart meter, and with a second-generation meter you will be able to switch and keep all smart functions, while a first-generation meter may lose some smart functionality²⁹. If you have solar panels, or generate renewable electricity, you could still have a smart meter installed, but some suppliers are not yet ready to supply smart meters to customers with solar panels²⁹.

Free changes: thermostat settings and everyday habits

While the paperwork and the meter are being sorted, there are adjustments that cost nothing at all. The clearest documented figure is the thermostat: turning it down one degree, from 22 to 21 degrees, can save around £120 a year in GB or £80 in Northern Ireland⁷. One dial, one degree, no purchase, no installer.

That figure is worth pausing on because it is the purest example of the order of operations this page is about. A one-degree adjustment saves the same money in any home, but it saves more energy, and more comfort per pound, in a home that is not leaking heat through bare walls. In a well-insulated house, a lower thermostat setting can feel barely different, because the heat you generate stays in the rooms rather than leaving through the fabric.

The same logic covers household habits, which cost nothing and are covered in detail on behaviour change and household habits and no-cost and low-cost measures. The smart meter's in-home display is the natural companion here: it shows what each change actually does to consumption during the day⁵, so a household can test a habit, see the result the same evening and keep or discard it on evidence rather than guesswork.

The honest limit of this step is that habits and settings cap out. They reduce waste; they do not repair the building. A house losing three-fifths of its heat through walls and roof⁴ cannot be thermostat'd into efficiency, and a household that stops at free measures has done the easy fifth of the job. The free steps are the start of the sequence, not a substitute for it.

Funding and guidance available in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

None of this has to be worked out alone, and in every nation there is a free advice service whose entire purpose is this question. Home Energy Scotland can offer free advice on improving the energy efficiency of your home³⁰, and its Funding Finder searches for funding and support on improving your home's energy efficiency, reducing energy bills and making your home warmer³⁰. In Scotland there is also funding attached: if you live in Scotland, you might be able to get an interest-free loan or a grant to make your home more energy efficient³¹.

In England, advice is organised more locally. Local authority schemes, such as Tameside's energy saving service, can refer you for further energy efficiency improvements such as loft or cavity wall insulation and in some instances a new boiler²³. The pattern to expect is advice first, then referral into funded work where the household and the property qualify, and the eligibility rules differ from scheme to scheme and nation to nation, which is covered in finding grants before you start and the nation-by-nation advice pages for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Independent guidance is also available from the Energy Saving Trust, which offers advice on energy at home and a guide to green renovation to help you put energy efficiency first room by room³⁰. The Scottish Government's relationship with the Trust is itself documented: EST were awarded a new contract as part of a competitive tender exercise to administer and manage Scottish Government heat and energy efficiency grant and loan schemes, with the contract starting on 1 December 2023 and its initial term running until November 2026³².

The reason to make this call early, before rather than after deciding what to buy, is that grants are attached to specific measures, property types and sometimes tenure. Knowing what help exists changes what the first purchase should be, and in some cases removes the need for a purchase at all. A household that asks first can be referred straight into funded insulation²³; a household that buys first may find it has paid for something a scheme would have covered.

How letting or selling your property alters the requirements

For some households the first step is not a choice but a legal requirement, and it is worth knowing which side of that line you stand on. For landlords, the baseline is already law: guidance exists for landlords of domestic, private rented property on how to comply with the 2018 Minimum Level of Energy Efficiency standard, which sets EPC band E as the minimum¹⁷. A property cannot lawfully be let below that standard in most cases.

That floor is set to rise. A 2025 UK Government consultation proposed raising the minimum energy efficiency standard required of privately rented homes in England and Wales to the equivalent of EPC C by 2030, and would allow for properties with a current EPC C to be recognised as compliant under the future standard until the EPC expires³². For a landlord, the first step is therefore not optional: check the property's current certificate, read the Recommendations Report and work out what stands between the present band and band C.

For buyers and tenants, the certificate is something you are entitled to see. The EPC should be made available to buyers or prospective tenants at no cost, and buyers receive a copy from the seller that can be reused within the period of validity¹⁸. An EPC is valid for a maximum of ten years or until another EPC is commissioned for the same building, whichever is sooner¹⁰. A prospective buyer reading the EPC before committing is doing exactly the assessment-first work this page describes, on someone else's house: the certificate shows the heating source, estimated carbon emissions and estimated energy cost¹¹, which is a fair preview of the bills to come, and is covered in more detail on energy checks when buying a house.

For renters who do not own the fabric, the starting point shifts to what can be changed without the landlord: behaviour, settings, and the smart meter. Where the householder pays for the energy, whether the home is owned or rented, a smart meter can be installed free of charge where it is expected to work in the property²⁴, and the installation comes with minimal disruption, key safety checks during the appointment, and an In-Home Display offered and demonstrated²⁴. The bigger measures belong to the landlord and, increasingly, the law is pushing the landlord towards them³².

Beyond the basics: develop a whole plan instead of buying gadgets

Once the EPC has been read, the meter is in and the free advice line has been called, the household has what it actually needs to plan: a rating, a list of costed recommendations, a measured baseline of consumption and a picture of what help exists. The next move is to turn those into a sequence, and the guidance on how to do that is consistent: put energy efficiency first room by room³⁰.

That is the substance of a whole house plan: every measure considered against every other, in an order that respects the physics, insulation before heating, heating before generation, rather than the order in which a salesperson happens to knock. The order of energy improvements and the cost of a whole-house retrofit pages carry that planning forward in detail, and setting a target for your home turns the EPC band into a concrete goal.

The independence lens on all of this is worth stating plainly. The first steps in this page reduce dependence: insulation reduces the amount of energy bought from anyone, a smart meter ends dependence on estimated billing and opens tariffs that reward shifting demand, and free advice reduces dependence on salespeople for information. What remains is real: the home is still connected to the grid, still buys gas or electricity from a supplier, and still depends on that supplier staying in business for the meter to keep working in smart mode²⁸. The first steps do not make a home self-sustaining; they make it knowable, and a knowable home is the only kind that can be planned towards independence.

The common failure at this stage is skipping it. A household that moves straight from curiosity to a quote for a heat pump, solar panels or a new boiler has bought a product before understanding the building it goes into, and the average £7,480 cost of reaching band C in England⁸ is a reminder of how much work typically sits between an average home and a good one. The assessment is cheap, the fabric work is the biggest lever, and everything expensive comes last, when it can be sized to a house that no longer wastes what it is given.