Insulate Your House

Heat will always try to escape from a warm area to colder spaces. The bigger the temperature between inside and out, the faster the heat will transfer. Insulation is one way to slow this process down by adding thermal barriers to areas commonly associated with heat escape.
 
Common insulation methods work by trapping small pockets of air which trap the heat inside, much like a knitted hat. The efficiency of how it does this is called the U value, the lower the U value is, the slower it releases energy and the less energy you need to keep your home warm.
 
Typically the addition of suitable loft insulation to the recommended thickness will reduce the U value of your loft from about 2.3 to 0.16, a reduction of about 95%.
 
The other method of rating insulation is to measure the opposite value or the heat resistance known as the R value. Being the measure of resistance to temperature change, the higher the number is the better.
 
If you are installing your own insulation, most products specify the R value on the packaging. It is recommended that loft spaces are insulated to an R value above 6.1. Different materials can be combined to achieve this number although you should consult the manufacturers as condensation can occur at the point of contact where two different materials are used.

Areas to consider insulating: