Everything you need to know about insulating your home

Britain's homes are the oldest in Europe, with 38 per cent built before 1946. This has left many homeowners struggling to decide how best to insulate their draughty properties to increase energy efficiency, cut bills and help to fight climate change.

This was the dilemma facing Eleanor Watts, 70, and Chris Jacques, 77, in their 1930s end-of-terrace brick house in Oxford. Last year Watts, who writes textbooks, received a £50,000 lump sum from her pension pot. "Money is losing its value, so I decided to invest the whole lot in insulating the house," she says. "It's because of my grandson [Benji, 7]. I’ll be dead when climate change really wreaks havoc, but he’ll be alive."

Watts is no stranger to energy-efficiency measures. Over the past