Eco House 1, Heat In And Heat Out
In my previous article 'Help Save The Environment and Save Yourself Money!' I introduced the idea that we can all effectively contribute to helping reduce CO2 emissions while also saving money.
The home is the area in which we have the greatest opportunity to save energy and the key to understanding how to do it is understanding energy in and energy out.
The first thing we have to understand about balancing heat in and heat out in a house is that our strategy will get reversed depending on whether it is winter or summer.
In the winter, heat escapes (flows out) through the walls, windows and roof and we have to put more heat into the house in the form of heaters to keep ourselves warm.
In the summer, heat leaks in through the walls, windows and roof and we have to remove heat from the house using air conditioning systems to keep ourselves cool.
The common factor for both reducing heat escaping in the winter and heat leaking in the summer is the use of insulation.
Modern houses are built today with good levels of insulation in the external walls, roof and good double glazing for the windows.
In terms of long term energy savings we can say that the use of insulation is a 'no brainer'.
If you have an older house it is really easy to lay insulation material in the roofto give yourself better insulation.
You can also consider having an insulation contractor, spray insulation in the walls and investing in replacing your windows with double glazed units.
All these measures can result in significant fuel savings in both winter and summer.
The next area to tackle in reducing your energy consumption is to reduce the energy used for heating in the winter.
The simple ways to do this are as follows: 1.
Keep the house cooler in winter by reducing the temperature setting for the temperature controller.
Wear more clothes than you would in summer.
2.
Use a lower temperature setting at night than in the daytime.
3.
Don't run the heating when you are not in the house, or for very cold days set the temperature setting much lower than you would when you are in the house.
Finally in the summer everything is turned on its head: 1.
Keep the house warmer by increasing the temperature setting for the temperature controller.
Wear less clothes than in winter.
2.
If it cools off late at night open some windows to let more heat escape.
3.
Don't run the air conditioning when you are not in the house.
Simple isn't it, these are the simple things that we can all do and the effects are easy to understand.
There are other ways to reduce energy use in the house and I will discuss them in future articles in my 'Eco House' series.
Happy saving, Simon
The home is the area in which we have the greatest opportunity to save energy and the key to understanding how to do it is understanding energy in and energy out.
The first thing we have to understand about balancing heat in and heat out in a house is that our strategy will get reversed depending on whether it is winter or summer.
In the winter, heat escapes (flows out) through the walls, windows and roof and we have to put more heat into the house in the form of heaters to keep ourselves warm.
In the summer, heat leaks in through the walls, windows and roof and we have to remove heat from the house using air conditioning systems to keep ourselves cool.
The common factor for both reducing heat escaping in the winter and heat leaking in the summer is the use of insulation.
Modern houses are built today with good levels of insulation in the external walls, roof and good double glazing for the windows.
In terms of long term energy savings we can say that the use of insulation is a 'no brainer'.
If you have an older house it is really easy to lay insulation material in the roofto give yourself better insulation.
You can also consider having an insulation contractor, spray insulation in the walls and investing in replacing your windows with double glazed units.
All these measures can result in significant fuel savings in both winter and summer.
The next area to tackle in reducing your energy consumption is to reduce the energy used for heating in the winter.
The simple ways to do this are as follows: 1.
Keep the house cooler in winter by reducing the temperature setting for the temperature controller.
Wear more clothes than you would in summer.
2.
Use a lower temperature setting at night than in the daytime.
3.
Don't run the heating when you are not in the house, or for very cold days set the temperature setting much lower than you would when you are in the house.
Finally in the summer everything is turned on its head: 1.
Keep the house warmer by increasing the temperature setting for the temperature controller.
Wear less clothes than in winter.
2.
If it cools off late at night open some windows to let more heat escape.
3.
Don't run the air conditioning when you are not in the house.
Simple isn't it, these are the simple things that we can all do and the effects are easy to understand.
There are other ways to reduce energy use in the house and I will discuss them in future articles in my 'Eco House' series.
Happy saving, Simon
