Hot spots: how thermal imaging can help find where your home is leaking cash

To really get to grips with where your home is needlessly costing you energy a thermal imaging camera is a great tool: it shows up exactly where the hotspots for heat loss are, in multicolour.

In some parts of Britain it is possible to borrow one for free so you can find where to target your energy-saving efforts without any upfront cost.

To use a thermal imaging camera effectively you need about a 10-degree difference between the temperatures indoors and outdoors, so the schemes typically operate only through the winter months.

In the Peak District, Transition Belper runs a scheme for the DE56 area with one camera and a volunteer who carries out a handful of surveys each winter. These are done for free but people can donate to the group if they wish.

A project called CHEESE (Cold Homes Energy Efficiency Survey Experts), currently running in Bristol but soon to go nationwide, offers paid-for surveys to those who can afford them, and free surveys to those in fuel poverty.

A survey of a 10-room house will take about three hours, and the person doing it will make suggestions for energy-saving measures as they go.

For those who are struggling to even afford to put the heating on, the survey can alleviate some of the difficulty, she says, if they can get the work done. One in three of the surveys carried out by the organisation is done for free for a household in fuel poverty. They can show the results to their landlord or see if they qualify for grants.