Hi Guys,

I hope that you have had a good day.

As follow up to my previous two posts here are some more ways to reduce our energy consumption.

Remember every reduction has to pay for itself in the long run and that every reduction in my energy consumption that I can make reduces my future energy storage requirements when I finally go off grid.

And so without any further ado lets get on with it.

Today we are going to talk about keeping temperature loss to a minimum as well as temperature control.

Thermostatic Radiator Valves

Thermostatic Radiator Valves (TRVs) have to be fitted by Law on all new systems. TRV’s are cheap to buy and simple for a plumber to fit. The valves will soon pay for themselves in savings made on heating costs.

TRV’s let you control the temperature of individual rooms, so each room can be it’s optimal temperature and no more. TRV’s can sense the air temperature around them and regulate the flow of hot water entering the radiators to keep a set temperature within a room. They do not control the boiler – your thermostat does that.

They can help you save money and energy by allowing lower temperatures in some rooms than in others, and to provide background heating in rooms that are not used regularly or to even turn off the heating in rooms that aren’t used.

TRV’s, in the main, cannot turn off the boiler when the whole house has reached the right temperature. A room thermostat is normally used to control the boiler.

Radiators in the room containing the room thermostat do not normally have TRVs. But if they do, you should keep the TRVs on their highest possible settings, and set the room thermostat to the required temperature instead.

Prices for TRV’s, including VAT, vary between £9.00 to £23.00 per valve. And unless you can do the job yourself you will have to include the cost of a plumber.

Reflective Radiator Panels

Did you know that we loose nearly 70% of a radiator’s heat on warming the wall behind it. Reflective radiator panels are an ideal solution to help you to reduce your heating bills.

Reflective radiator panels consist of reflective material installed behind radiators to reduce heat loss through external walls. They generally come in two forms; rolls of foam approximately 3mm thick with a metallic film or more rigid profiled units shaped to provide turbulence to push air into the room rather than be absorbed into exterior walls.

If you have uninsulated exterior walls, the heat that would otherwise be lost through the walls, will be conserved within the property and will subsequently reduce your energy requirement.

The rolls of thin foam with a metallic coating need to be fitted with the radiator off the wall. The more rigid profiled variety can be fitted with the radiator in-situ. The panels are most effective when fitted behind radiators that are mounted on un-insulated external walls.

Each panel is 688mm high x 444mm wide. In general a standard sized radiator will require two panels. A pack of 10-panels will set you back approximately £40.00.

Homemade Fuel

An open fire is something I really enjoy during a cold winters evening. There is something magical in a fire, the red glow of embers, the crackling of the wood as it burns and a glass of wine.

A great way to quickly turn a portion of your household and garden waste into free fuel for your open fire or wood burning stove is through using a Logmaker. The Logmaker will produce compact newspaper encased logs in minutes. These can easily burn for up to 1-hour depending on their content.

You can turn up to 30% of your household waste and most of your garden waste into homemade fuel using the Logmaker. These include shredded paper, ripped up junk mail, ripped cardboard such as: cereal packets, egg boxes, toilet roll tubes (rip into small pieces first), teabags, nut shells, wood shavings and sawdust, dried leaves and twigs). The logmaker helps you recycle your waste while producing free bio-fuel for your fireplace.

A Logmaker will set you back an approximate £20.00.

Chimney Balloons

In winter, open chimneys, when not in use are a source of heat loss. A quick and effective way of reducing this heat loss is through the use of a chimney balloon.

Chimney balloons are a simple and effective way of blocking chimneys when not in use.

A room with a blocked chimney needs only about half the heat when compared with a similar room with an open chimney, so it makes sense to fit a chimney balloon in every chimney which is not in everyday use.

The balloon effectively stops cold draughts coming down your chimney and warm air escaping up your chimney.

The balloons are made in a special laminate to make them airtight, tear-resistant and long-lasting. It also has a special shape that allows a little ventilation on two corners to keep your chimney dry.

Using a chimney balloon is completely safe: if it is accidentally heated, it shrivels and deflates.

The cost of a chimney baloon is approximately £20.00

Loft Insulation

Loft insulation decreases the amount of heat escaping through the roof. It acts as a blanket, trapping rising heat from the house below. Without it, you could be losing as much as 15% of your heating costs through your roof. If you currently have no insulation and you install the recommended depth (270mm for mineral wool) you could save around £205 a year on your heating bills.

Installing loft insulation is relatively quick, clean and free or inexpensive to install. You can easily save money on a professional installation by doing it yourself.

It’s never been more important to think about insulating your loft. Without proper insulation a lot of the valuable, expensive energy you use to heat your home will be lost through the loft. The recommended depth for mineral wool insulation is 270mm however there are other materials which require different depths.

In fact, by not insulating your loft you could be wasting as much as 15% of your heating costs.

Loft insulation is an effective way to save energy and money at home. A well insulated house keeps warmth exactly where you need it – indoors.

So, insulating your loft – or topping up any insulation you have already – will help to heat your home more efficiently. By using less energy you automatically reduces save money on your heating bills.

Loft insulation is effective for at least 40 years, and it will pay for itself over and over again in that time. The better insulated your home, the less energy you need to keep it warm – the more money you’ll save in the long run.

Loft insulation generally comes in three types – blown material (mineral wool or cellulose fibre), mineral wool quilt, and loose fill. A specialist contractor must install blown material, but installing mineral wool quilt or loose fill is fairly easy to do yourself.

Spray applied foam insulation normally exceeds U-values (also known as the U-factor or coefficient of heat transmission, which is a measure of the rate of non-solar heat loss or gain through a material or assembly) and air leakages targets, is very cost effective and can can provides additional strength to your roof and increased sound insulation. Prices vary greatly between companies carrying out spray applied foam insulation. However, if you go the DIY route the lowest price I could find after a limited search was around £5.00 per meter.

Multi Foil Insulation products comprise a series of extremely thin low emissivity, metallic or metalized films inter layered with low thermal conductivity wadding, or foam of various types. The various layers are then welded, glued or, more usually, sewn together to form an insulating blanket. These include extruded polystyrene (XPS), expanded polystyrene (EPS), polyurethane (PUR), polyisocyanurate (PIR), multi-foil insulation and glass and rock fiber. The prices of multi foil insulation is approximately £5.00 per m2.

Glasswool, or glass mineral wool for thermal and acoustic insulation is manufactured from sand, lime and soda ash, with recycled glass added. Glass mineral wool is one of the most environmentally friendly, stable and sustainable insulants available. Its raw material is silica sand, the earth’s most abundantly occurring natural material. The prices of 270mm of Glasswool loft insulation comes to approximately £7.25 per m2.

Sheepswool insulation has a unique advantage, its breathability. That is it’s ability to absorb and release moisture from the surrounding air, without compromising it’s thermal efficiency. When wool fibres absorbs moisture, they generate tiny amounts of heat. This warmth acts to prevent condensation in construction cavities by maintaining the temperature above the dew-point in damp conditions. The prices of sheepswool varies considerably from approximately £6.30 per m2 to £14.50 per m2.

However when comparing loft insulation it is a bit like comparing apples with oranges. It is up to you to do your due diligence and decide what you want to spend to achieve a thermal conductivity value equal to, or better than, the recommended depth of 270mm for mineral wool.

In the UK, when comparing the thermal values of insulating materials i.e. U-values, U-factor or coefficient of heat transmission, it is important to remember that the best performing material is the one with the lowest thermal conductivity value

Draft proofing

If you can feel cold air coming in around the windows in your home it means warm air is escaping. In a typical home this heat loss can accounts for up to 20% of the total heat lost.

Draft proofing is an easy DIY task. Simply fill the gaps and use draft excluders for your external doors thereby decreasing the amount of cold air entering your home.

By draft proofing your home you could save around £30 a year on your heating bills.

I hope that I’ve given you something to think about. As I’ve said before, if your home consumes less energy you will be able to reduce the amount of energy you have to generate as well as store.

Save on your energy bills by generating your own power at home with solar and wind energy to reduce or eliminate your power bill. Get our complete guide at DIY Power System

As always, I wish you everything I wish myself.

Until the next time.

Alain

Check out my review of the top 3 products for renewable home enegy solution
Check out my review of the Home Made Power Plant product
Check out my review of DIY Power System product