If you are buying a flat or house, check its energy efficiency
Find out how
energy-efficient your future home is by undertaking a
home energy
audit or by asking your surveyor to check the extent
of loft
insulation and other energy-saving measures.
If you are a local government tenant, ask your local authority
for an energy audit
Government-owned property should be designed for maximum energy
conservation. An energy audit will reveal whether or not this is the
case. Both you and the local authority will benefit from energy
savings.
If such measures were standard, heating bills would be
reduced and
there would be less default on rents — putting a
priority on heating
payments is often a major
cause.
Insulate your home
You can gain a lot by properly insulating lofts, walls, windows,
doors
water pipes, hot water tanks and floors. Did you know that if
British
homes were insulated to Danish standards, carbon dioxide
emissions
could be reduced by over half a million tonnes a year?
Lagging a hot
-water tank with a thick jacket can reduce heat loss by
three-quarters,
covering the initial outlay in just weeks. About
half the houses in the
United Kingdom, for instance, have cavity
walls — insulating these
walls can reduce heat loss by 50 per cent.
(There are a number of
different materials used in cavity wall
insulation. Do be sure to avoid
urea formaldehyde (UF) and
polystyrene because of the toxins and
other harmful pollutants they
contain.)
Insulate windows and
doors and think about double glazing
Draughts through windows and doors can
account for as much as
fifteen per cent of the total heat loss in a
typical British home.
Single-glazed windows alone are responsible
for up to a quarter of
the heat lost. Double-glazing can halve this
loss. Double-glazing
with low-emissivity glass can halve it again!
There are other benefits,
too — double glazing reduces both
condensation and external noise.
Do make sure you use a reputable
firm, though, and that you still
have good ventilation and can leave
the house through a window
in an emergency.
Keep heating to a minimum
If possible, have thermostats fitted to all your radiators — or
make
sure that the radiators are off in rooms you don't use. Check
all your
thermostats for maximum sensitivity, and replace them if
necessary.
You should also fit a thermostat to your hot water
cylinder. Keep it
at 120°F or 50°C.
If you have central heating, use a time switch
A lot of energy can be
saved by making sure heating is off when the
house is empty. If you
work away from home, make sure that your
heating comes on only in
the mornings and evenings. Remember, too,
that your heating system
will work best when regularly serviced.
Whenever possible, use cold water rather than hot
Try using cold water to
rinse dishes and floors — you'll save a lot of
energy! Do not do the
washing until you have a full load and use
economy/cool settings. If
you have very dirty laundry, try pre-soaking
it rather than washing
it twice or using a very hot setting.
Avoid using automatic dryers and limit ironing to necessities
Hang clothes outside
whenever you can rather than tumble drying.
If you need to iron,
plan your ironing sessions: start with cooler
settings, working up
to the hotter ones to save energy.
Don't buy unnecessary electric appliances
Dishwashers, electric
carving knives, hairdryers, electric coffee
machines, electric
mixers and so on are rarely essential. Think hard
before you buy
and, if you do buy, then think hard before you use.
A typical
dishwasher uses as much as fourteen gallons of hot water
a load. And
are they really labour-saving? Many household jobs can
be done as
efficiently if hands are used.
Buy the most energy-efficient appliances available
If your local dealer
cannot advise you as to the most energy-efficient
washing machine,
freezer or fridge, tell them they should be able to!
Consumer guides
can be invaluable here — so research before you
go shopping. Gas
cookers can use as little as a third the amount of
energy used by
electric cookers. Insist that your local council collects
and
recycles the CFCs in old fridges. Washing machines are available
which are weight-sensitive. They select the right amount of water
for
the weight of clothes in the load.
Substitute energy-efficient lighting for traditional bulbs
These are more expensive
initially, but the total cost of energy-efficient
lighting is about
half that of traditional lighting. Not only do energy-
efficient
bulbs consume a fraction of the electricity — they last five
times
longer. Simply changing one traditional bulb for an energy-efficient
one can keep half a tonne of carbon dioxide out of the
air.
Reducing lighting and heating levels and switch off what
you're not using
Beware of wasted energy. Turn off lights when you are not using
a room — and train your children and visitors to do the same. Reduce
overall lighting by using desk or side lamps rather than overhead
lighting. Fit dimmer switches and replace existing bulbs with lower
wattage ones if possible. Turn the thermostat on your heating system
down — at least 1°C — and wear a sweater. Don't leave appliances
on — even on stand-by — when they are not in
use.
Whatever your appliance,
maximise its efficiency
Use a kettle rather than a pan to boil water and
only boil the amount
of water you need. Descale kettles regularly —
they'll work more
efficiently. Put lids on pans when cooking. Avoid
keeping your fridge
too cold and remember to defrost it regularly.
Do not use a larger fridge-
freezer than you need. For maximum
efficiency, keep your freezer
section three-quarters full and stuff
empty spaces with newspaper.
Learn more about saving energy
Electricity and gas showrooms should be good
sources of information
on home energy conservation, stocking
pamphlets containing practical
ideas for saving energy and money. If
they're not, ask why not. The
more people ask for information, the
more likely they are to respond
to demand.
Further
Resources:
Energy Information Portal:
A
gateway to hundreds of Web sites and thousands of online documents
on energy efficiency and renewable energy
http://www.eere.energy.gov/
How to Save-Energy - UK Government Energy Saving Advice
Site:
Good useful site with useful info on conducting a DIY
home energy efficiency
test. Also features valuable tips on saving
energy and recommends energy
efficient appliances.
http://www.saveenergy.co.uk/howto/
We Are What We Do - Actions To Change
Lives!
We Are What We Do is a new movement which inspires
people to use their every day actions to change the world. This is a
wonderful, inspiring site - do check it out!
http://www.wearewhatwedo.org/
