When the cold weather sets in there is nothing better than having a warm home to seek solace in. With the help of your home heating system you can keep yourself warm and snug on the chilliest of days but you might be surprised to know that over half of your heat could be escaping through the walls and roof of your residential retreat.

The amount of heat lost annually in British homes through uninsulated lofts and cavity walls is enough to heat over 1.6 million households for a year.

In an uninsulated house around 26% of heat is lost through the roof, 33% is lost through the walls, 18% is lost through the windows, 11% is lost through the floor and doors and another 12% is lost due to draughts and essential ventilation.

These figures amount to a substantial amount of heat loss and resultingly your heating bills could add up to much more than they need to. With a helping hand from home insulation you can heat your home for less meaning you save money as well as the environment.

Starting at the top, the roof of your home is a good pace to insulate and could save the average household around £150 per year in heating bills. Unless you insulate your ceiling and roof hot air will find its way out of you house quickly and in the colder months this means you will have the heating on far longer than you need to, increasing your bills.

You can easily have your roof insulated so shop around to find a competitive deal. In the United Kingdom if you are over 70 years of age or in receipt of certain income or disability benefits you could even get your home insulated for free.

Cavity wall insulation is one of the most cost-effective energy efficiency measures you can take in the home and could save you around £115 each year on heating bills.

If everyone in the UK who could possibly install cavity wall insulation did so, CO2 emissions would be cut by nearly 4 million tonnes, the money saved would equate to £700 million a year and the energy saved would be enough to heat 900,000 homes for the same period.

Another easy way to save energy [http://wallaceandgromit.npower.com] is to install double glazing. Double-glazing cuts heat loss and also reduces noise and condensation problems with savings on annual heating bills amounting to around £135. Whether you have double glazing or not you can save energy simply by closing your curtains at dusk to stop heat escaping.

Last but not least you could invest in draught excluders for doors, windows and letterboxes opening onto the outside to reduce the amount of warm air escaping. Gaps between skirting boards and floorboards are also worth tackling.

Entry points of pipes and vents are common culprits for lost heat so check these points on the exterior and interior of your house and seal any offending gaps with spray insulating foam.