Eco Friendly Living
How Energy Efficiency Can Save You Money

One of the main ways to reduce your carbon footprint, and to save money (and energy!) in your eco friendly house, is to to look at what energy saving improvements and energy efficient products and appliances you can build into your eco friendly life.

If you have an older home though, you shouldn’t assume that changing to eco friendly living will be difficult or expensive…

Changes can be made gradually, as and when older items are coming to the end of their natural lives…

You may find, though, that you can actually save money fairly quickly, by improving your energy efficiency.

Take a look at these short video clips for more information and ideas on how you can do energy efficiency in your own home...

Just click on an image to start the video player...

Here are some more eco friendly living tips you might like to try…

Insulation
Gaps and Draughts
Double Glazing
Pipes
Boilers
Ground Source Heat Pumps
Solar Panels
Kitchen Appliances

Insulation

• Adequate insulation is one of the most important factors in the energy efficiency of your eco friendly home.
• Did you know that half of all energy lost in the home is through inadequate insulation of the loft and walls.
• Cavity Walls:
  • If you have cavity walls, you can make considerable savings, by fitting cavity wall insulation.
  • This can account for up to a third of all heat lost in the home.
  • Cavity wall insulation is cheap, and works very well. Sometimes you can even get grants to fit cavity wall insulation. Check with your local council, to see if you and your home are eligible.
• Solid Walls:
  • If you don’t have cavity walls, your options will be slightly more costly…
  • Internal Wall Insulation:
    • A kind of plaster board, with added insulation.
    • This can still save over 2 tonnes of CO2 per year.
  • External Wall Insulation:
    • This is a special insulation for the outside of the house.
    • This also saves over 2 tonnes of CO2 per year, but you won’t recoup the costs for around 12 years.









• Loft Insulation:
  • Everyone should fit insulation in their loft. It makes a big difference to the heat lost from your home.
  • Loft insulation can save up to 15% on your heating and energy lost through the loft, and can save 1 tonne of CO2 per year.
  • You can recoup the costs of loft insulation in as little as three years.
• Floor Insulation:
  • Gaps in your flooring and skirting boards can leak a surprising amount of heat, so try and fill these in, in your eco friendly home.
  • You can fit proper insulation under timber floorboards, or easily do it yourself by filling any gaps with a tube of sealant.
  • This is worth doing, as you can recoup the costs in only 1 year, and will save up to half a tonne of CO2 per year.

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Gaps and Draughts

• Gaps and Draughts in your home can account for up to 20% of your total heat loss.
• You can save considerably by filling in any gaps in your eco friendly house.
• Think about fitting sealant strips, foams or brushes, to doors and windows, and special brushes to your letterbox – a huge source of heat loss!
• Do remember though, that it is important to make sure that your home still has some form of ventilation - especially in rooms with fires, heaters and boilers, and kitchens and bathrooms.

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Double Glazing

• I can still remember winters as a child – the frosted patterns on the inside and outside of the single pane windows…
• Double glazed windows are a fantastic solution to eco friendly living, and can save up to half of your heat and energy loss.
• You can fit:
  • modern, plastic windows
  • double panes of glass in wooden frames
  • secondary double glazing

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Pipes

• Insulating your hot water tank and hot water pipes can save you a huge amount on your hot water bills.
• Up to 75% of heat lost can be reduced.
• You can recoup your costs in as little as a year.

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Boilers

• As well as improving your insulation, which makes your home much more energy efficient, you can improve your eco friendly living credentials by gradually replacing your household and kitchen appliances with more energy efficient models.
• If you don’t want to buy brand new appliances, you can considerably reduce your energy usage by fitting a magnetic conditioner to your existing boiler.






• These are actually pretty cheap, and you can make savings of around 5 - 20% on your fuel bills – so will recoup your costs very quickly – especially with oil costs rising as they are at the moment..!
• The magnet fits over the incoming fuel line – you don’t even usually need to cut the pipe – it usually just straps on! They condition the oil or gas to burn more efficiently.
• You can fit them to:
  • oil or gas boilers
  • heaters
  • ovens
  to save even more money in your eco friendly home.
• Fit heating controls and thermostats to your boiler – this can save up to 17% on your heating costs.
• If you are thinking of fitting a new boiler choose an energy efficient condensing boiler.
• Another option is a new style biomass boiler. This burns a mix of plants and wood.
• A biomass boiler is thought to be carbon neutral - it produces CO2 when the fuel is burnt, but the plants and wood do absorb CO2 in their lifetime.
• Using a biomass boiler can reduce your carbon footprint by up to 8 tonnes a year.

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Ground Source Heat Pumps

• Another new technology, to take advantage of, for your eco friendly living plan, are ground source heat pumps.
• Pipes are buried underground, and use natural heat from the earth itself, to pump into your home. This is used for your heating and hot water.
• Of course, this is quite pricey to fit new, but can save up to 8 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

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Solar Panels

• Solar panels on the roof of your home are becoming more and more popular for eco friendly living – especially if you live in a sunny spot - or at least are able to fit them in a south facing position.
• This can save you up to a third of your water heating costs.

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Kitchen Appliances

• Choose energy efficient appliances for your kitchen.
• Many countries have an efficiency rating scale, so that you can identify which appliances are the most efficient, especially:
  • fridge
  • freezer
  • tumble drier
  • washing machine
  • dishwasher
• In the U.K. choose appliances which are rated A or B on the energy efficiency scale.

Although you should reduce any unnecessary use of such electrical appliances, you might be pleasantly surprised to discover that it is actually more energy efficient to use a high-rated dishwasher, than fill a sink full of hot water, to wash the dishes.

• I was very pleased to discover that a modern life can fit very well with eco friendly living!

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Further Reading for Eco Friendly Living

Get more information on decorating with eco-friendly products.

...and on choosing eco-friendly products in the interior design of your home.

Return to the main page for more information on the Eco Friendly House

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