Energy Saving Ideas

crosstownk

Hi All,

I'm just wondering if any of you have energy saving tips for the home that you could post here for others to see and implement for themselves as necessary. I got the idea from reading the recent "Attic Door" post where a poster was looking for info on getting a better seal for the attic door to prevent heat loss.

Any ideas at all that you might have from insulating the attic itself to fitting a draught excluder to your letter box. If you think it will save a few euros then share it with all of us. Any idea that can save money on heating/energy costs given the impending energy price increases would be welcome.

If the thread gathers enough momentum it might get stickied.

I'll start the ball rolling with a few simple, more obvious ideas.

When the weather begins to get colder I make it a point of closing both blinds and curtains in all rooms (even those that are unused) as curtains and blinds offer some insulation. I also fitted a draught excluder to the letter box - the postmen hate them but you'd be surprised at the cold draught that comes through this small opening. Obviously having the attic insulated is a big energy saver along with lagging your hot water cylinder. Fitting thermostats to heating systems can also save quite a few quid.

There are plenty more ideas - some obvious and some not so obvious and it would be great to hear from both home onwers and professionals alike. Remember, that in the case of gas, something that saved €1 last year will save you €1.34 this year!!

Seán.

prospect

Wow, good idea and there are lots of tips...

In no particular order:

- Rather than turn the heat up full blast, put on a sweater.
- Dont turn off the heat in unused rooms, esp upstairs, as the heat in the other rooms of the house will move to that room. Keep the heat on in all rooms, at all times, you can turn it down in unused rooms.
- Keep doors closed, internall & externally
- Buy A rated appliances, where possible.
- Keep the fridge door closed as much as possible. If it is open 10 seconds, it takes 10 minutes to drop back to temperature.
- Do not have your fridge or freezer in a very warm area, as it will use more power trying to keep cool
- Take advantage of sunlight, open all curtains/blinds during the dunny weather to get natural heat into the house
- Switch off TV's, DVD's, Radio's etc. Even with the little red 'stand-by' light, they are using power.
- Use energy saving light bulbs.
- Don't fill the kettle with water to make one mug of tea, just boil as much as you need.
- Immersions (electrical) eat electricity. Carefuly work out your timing to ensure it is on as little as possible.
- Shower rather than bath.
- Turn off the water when brushing your teeth.
- If possible, collect rainwater for watering plants, washing pets, etc.
- Segregate rubbish as much as possible, for recycling.
- Compost as much as possible.
- Dont take the car if you can walk/cycle.

Thats all I can think of at the moment.

the-lad

1.Fill the washing machine, no mini loads.
2.use a clothes line as much as possible not a dryer.
3. use a brush and pan insted of the hoover on solid floors.
4. Do all the ironing in one go rather then having to keep reheating the iron.
5. Log off boards, switch off your pc and walk around your house and look and see where improvements can be made

apolo

Place an extra time switch between the time switch and the boiler.

New socket on cable - plug in time switch - new plug on cable to boiler. DON'T FORGET TO TURN OFF THE ELECTRICITY

The new time switch should be a manual 24 hour time switch. With segments divided into quarter-hours. These can be bought for 5 euro in tesco. Then use half hours for the 24 clock. This allows half hour on, half hour off. If the house gets cold in bad weather, just remove the new time switch and plug in old plug into old socket. Using this system will allow some savings when it is not too
cold. The old time switch should be set as usual. If in doubt consult an electrician. The boiler may be a delayed coming on and may go off early sometimes but if it saves money what about it.

gsxr1

Keep your beer in the back garden instead of the fridge

apolo

apolo wrote: »

Place an extra time switch between the time switch and the boiler.

Gas boilers require a permanent live to allow for pump/fan over run to help dissipate heat and to allow the built in frost stat to fire.

apolo

This may well be true as I know very little about gas boilers but it works on my oil boiler(non condensing).

bbam

apolo wrote: »

This may well be true as I know very little about gas boilers but it works on my oil boiler(non condensing).

We put a programmable stat to run our heating rather than the 24x7 it was fitted with.
Keeps house from getting cold and saves the boiler from coming on if the stove is lit already. Reckon it saves us up to a quarter tank of oil a year. Bought it on e-bay for about €90

cnocbui

apolo wrote: »

Place an extra time switch between the time switch and the boiler.

....

Better than that is to replace the time switch with a programmable thermostat. You set the air temperature you want for different time periods of the day, even allowing a different pattern on weekends.

The heating will then only be on when really needed, instead of just slavishly obeying a time switch. I think mine cost me about €70 and easily paid for itself on the first tank load of fuel.

Use a decent dehumidifier to dry clothes in a closed room instead of a dryer. Uses a fraction of the amount of electricity even a condensing dryer uses.

A 200w dehumidifier running 25% of the time equals 50w average. Run for an 9 hour overnight drying cycle that's 0.45kWh, and that will dry a few tumble loads in one go, so about 0.15kWh per 5kg load. If you're only drying one load the energy consumption per load is similar, the machine running less of the time.

New condensor tumble dryers consume in the region of 4kWh per 5kg load.

Non-condenser venting dryers use a fair bit more energy per cycle.

The John Lewis heat pump tumble dryer claims 2.1kWh per 5kg cycle.

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?title=Clothes_dryer#Energy_Use


Insulate the boiler house/room if you have one.

Vote for any political party that promises to repeal all CO2 taxes and renege on all 'global warming' inspired agreements.

JaneyMacker

I buy the oil for my parents every year.
For 10 or so years they used almost exactly 1500 liters of oil a year.
3 Years ago we got thermostatic valves put on all the radiators for them, nothing else. Since then they are using well less than 1000 liters a year, even last year, which was very cold.
This year im going to insulate the attic and the inside of the walls for them.

deandean

Energy saving tip?: Don't have children.

My kids come in and
- turn thermostats up full
- turn all lights on, don't realise that a switch has an OFF position too
- turn the immersion on permanently
- turn up all TRVs full
- open windows when the house is too hot
- turn on the oven to 200DegC for 1 hour to heat a bread roll
- etc etc etc
:pac:

gsxr1

deandean wrote: »

Energy saving tip?: Don't have children.

My kids come in and
- turn thermostats up full
- turn all lights on, don't realise that a switch has an OFF position too
- turn the immersion on permanently
- turn up all TRVs full
- open windows when the house is too hot
- turn on the oven to 200DegC for 1 hour to heat a bread roll
- etc etc etc
:pac:

moving out would be the best energy saving tip in this case.:D

cnocbui

deandean wrote: »

Energy saving tip?: Don't have children.

My kids come in and
- turn thermostats up full
- turn all lights on, don't realise that a switch has an OFF position too
- turn the immersion on permanently
- turn up all TRVs full
- open windows when the house is too hot
- turn on the oven to 200DegC for 1 hour to heat a bread roll
- etc etc etc
:pac:

I started taking it out of their pocket money.

Soon sorted.

breffni666

A 200w dehumidifier running 25% of the time equals 50w average. Run for an 9 hour overnight drying cycle that's 0.45kWh, and that will dry a few tumble loads in one go, so about 0.15kWh per 5kg load. If you're only drying one load the energy consumption per load is similar, the machine running less of the time.

New condensor tumble dryers consume in the region of 4kWh per 5kg load.

Non-condenser venting dryers use a fair bit more energy per cycle.

The John Lewis heat pump tumble dryer claims 2.1kWh per 5kg cycle.


The dehumidifier instead of tumble drying is one I hear again and again and makes perfect sense if you have the room inside to hang clothes. Tumble dryers shrink the clothes over time so even if you just used the dryer to take out creases instead of just drying you will make a good saving.

desolate sun

I live in a very old house with only an open fire for heat. One tip I have is, if you have storage, to buy fuel weekly in the summer months, even on hot days. You will have a nice stockpile of fuel in the winter months for when it's needed.

I started collecting firewood out the woods. It's amazing what gets blown down on windy days. I never cut down wood, I only take what's on the ground. You can often find driftwood on shores too. It would take loads of men to clear the woods of all the fallen branches.

My house is very draughtey and often a good fire doesn't warm it, so on colder days I have a hot water bottle at my feet and a blanket watching TV - snug as a bug!!

apolo

Caulk under all skirting boards, if you had new windows fitted ever, caulk under
them on the outside (making sure the drain holes are kept clear if you have them) have seen expandable foam used for this purpose. The one that only fills the space and no more;-green can. Plastic straws will help to keep drain doles open. Don't forget under presses in kitchens, as skirting boards are often removed when a new kitchen is fitted.