In March 2026 the UK Government launched the Warm Homes Plan, with the aim of "delivering the biggest public investment in home upgrades in British history to cut bills, tackle fuel poverty, create good jobs and get us off the rollercoaster of international fossil fuel markets."
The Plan intends to cut bills and offers to upgrade 5 million homes to clean heating, solar installation and flexible energy tariffs, among other things. The Future Homes and Buildings Standards mean that new homes being built will all have low-carbon heating, high levels of energy efficiency and solar panels; you can read more about this in our blog. As part of the target for reaching Net Zero by 2050, buildings must have highly efficient and low carbon heating systems in place.
But what about buildings that have restrictions on modifications, or older properties with different structural and aesthetic properties to modern buildings? Upgrading energy efficiency and heating systems in older building can come with its own challenges and limitations. Even if your property is not one of the around 400,000 listed sites in England, it may still require specific expertise and materials for work to be carried out.
So what can you do with an older property — and how can HeatingSave help achieve your goal?
Energy efficiency challenges for older properties
Some of the challenges that older properties have with heating efficiency are:
- Poor insulation — solid brick walls and limited or no roof insulation, which lead to significant heat loss
- Single glazing — allows heat to escape into the colder air outside (in summer, the reverse is true: the property is more difficult to cool because the hot air from outside can more easily enter through poor insulation and single glazed windows.)
- Old heating systems — very often these are less efficient than newer systems, and often require more maintenance
- Larger rooms — there's more air to heat so it takes longer
- Less effective seals on doors and windows, and more openings in the building itself (open fireplace flues, and drafty gaps between floorboards and roof tiles)
Historic England lists factors to consider when installing new services in old buildings, with the aim of "protecting the building and its setting with no loss of historic fabric." This includes, but is not limited to:
- Running new wiring, cabling and pipework:
- through existing service routes
- together with other services
- behind features such as mouldings and balustrades
- under floors or above ceilings
- through routes that are not necessarily the shortest or simplest
- Using wireless systems where possible
- Choosing easily accessible locations for easier future maintenance
- Limit or entirely remove permanent alterations to the building
- Limiting fixing in historic materials, including brickwork
- Ensuring installations do not cover important features or views
- Plan for the eventual potential removal of services
Pamela and Ian Wilkie faced some of these challenges when they wanted to improve the heating efficiency of their Grade 2 listed house from circa 1535: "Because we can't do anything to the house we wanted a system that didn't require modifying the home. For example, we aren't allowed double glazing as we can't do anything to the windows."
Also facing similar challenges was the Knight's seven-bedroom home from the 1780s: "As the house is quite large with seven bedrooms, there are often areas of the house that aren't occupied so it made sense to manage the heating more effectively to reduce heating costs and be more responsible with how we use energy."
How HeatingSave can help with energy efficiency
Historic England recommends that historic buildings have a building management system installed to manage larger or more complex buildings, or when it will provide a benefit to the cost or functionality. HeatingSave can provide that benefit.
HeatingSave allows rooms to be heated only when they need to be thanks to passive infrared (PIR) sensors used to detect movement in occupied rooms, and thermostatic radiator valves used to split rooms or areas into individual heating zones. This means those zones will only be heated if they are occupied, reducing the amount of energy used by not heating vacant rooms or areas.
The wires are small and unobtrusive, so they can be easily concealed, and wireless options are available to cut down on cabling. However, when considering wireless options make sure to check that the construction of the house won't interfere with the wireless signal, as thicker walls and flooring, and the materials used, may limit network connectivity.
The Wilkies found the sensors to be exactly what they needed: "They are very effective. Obviously it's saving us money. It's good that we're not heating the rooms if we don't need to when we are not using them. We hadn't been aware of how much money could be saved as we are able to heat specific rooms. It's doing its job very well."
The Knights were also pleased with the results of using the zoned heating: "We've managed to maintain a pretty steady cost because there are parts of the house that we don't heat that we would otherwise have been heating. The HeatingSave system can adjust our heating to very specific needs. For example, my wife likes to have her office warm and she is now delighted with the fact that she can do so without having to heat the rest of the house."
The HeatingSave building energy management system is government-approved and can be retrofitted to almost any heating system — gas, oil, solid fuel, electricity and renewable energy — and integrates seamlessly with boilers, radiators, and controls to boost efficiency without costly upgrades. It can also easily replace any outdated previous building management systems that may have been installed.
