From Guest Blogger "Sustainafreak": Easily Reduce Your Home’s Heating Usage
Everyone wants to make spending cuts these days, from the government to the average homeowner. Whereas the bills passed through in Parliament may or may not have a direct impact upon your life, making significant changes to your home certainly will.
Reducing the amount of energy used to heat your home will lower your carbon footprint, encouraging a more eco-friendly lifestyle and slashing heating bill costs. Whatever the size and shape of your house there are a number of simple changes you can make that reduce your energy usage while maintaining its current décor.
Insulate All Areas
Insulating walls, floors, windows and lofts will significantly reduce the amount of energy wasted as heating escapes. Most houses have double glazed windows already, which provide the added benefit of reducing exterior noise as well. In older houses with more traditional windows it can be less tempting to replace them, but appropriate options do exist.
Loft insulation can be installed manually but must be done efficiently, while cavity wall insulation requires expert installation. Affording to make such changes puts a lot of people off. A number of government grants exist to help reduce or eliminate energy saving costs. This makes it affordable for many to cut their carbon footprint.
Draught Proof Gaps
If you want to keep the traditional style of some older single glazed windows, fitting draught excluders around their edges will stop as much heat escaping without damaging the aesthetics. Other gaps that let heat escape, such as letterboxes and doors, can also be improved by using trendy, cushioned draught excluders for example.
Check the feng shui of your rooms too, as this can have an effect on wasted heat. Sofas, sideboards and other bits of furniture will absorb the heat coming out of radiators, so leave a gap between them.
Utilise Solar Power
Don’t rely on the authorities and instead generate your own, clean energy to heat your home. Install solar panels which supply a sustainable and cheaper method for heating water and powering electricity. The initial cost can be fairly high although there are certain schemes which provide funds for installing them.
Solar panels are silent and require little maintenance, so when they’re up they won’t cause many problems. More energy will be created throughout summer which can be stored for later use in winter, providing a constant, clean and cheap energy source.
Turn Down Heating and Adapt
Simple actions can reduce your heating usage. Turning down the thermostat by just one degree will make little difference to you but cut a decent chunk off your bill. Take it down by another degree and wear an extra layer, you’re bound to have plenty of clothes lying around doing nothing useful.
Sit near the heat source in living and bedrooms rather than the other end of the room too. Don’t cover them with other items, such as wet washing, as this too stops as much heat being radiated to warm up the room. These easy steps will lead to lower energy use and heating bills but still provide a warm home.
