A STUDY by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors shows that the payback periods for energy technologies installed in the average home in England and Wales are lunatic.
The institute says that a simple solution such as installing solar panels to heat water would cost £5,000 to instal, but reduce average bills by only £24 a year and would take about 208 years to pay back.
To instal all eight energy enhancement measures in the home, including insulation, condenser boilers and double-glazing, would cost £23,547. This would knock only £486 off fuel bills and would take 48 years to recoup.
Even loft insulation would take 13 years to produce savings in utility bills.
Extrapolate the numbers to Scotland and the costs will be even higher.