How To Save Heat Energy-Now Is The Time For You To Know The Truth

How To Save Heat Energy?-In Cold climates, like in all European countries, including England, and the USA, energy is a necessity to keep our homes well heated, insulated, and warm. As the months get closer to the beautiful and vibrant Autumn and fall season, with the surroundings, with the trees bathed in their rich and a fantastic kaleidoscope of colors spun in gold orange, reds, yellows, and rich browns it is a beautiful sight indeed, to behold. Family gatherings, joyful laughter and holidays all come together during the autumn season, while somewhere down the line, winter is also looming not far off, when we have to think of those high fuel and energy costs, and where we have to cut down on some energy, but at the same time balance it properly, in order to keep ourselves warm, and the house well heated, during the long and cold winter months ahead.

Here are some cost-effective and energy-saving tips that you can take and make use off. Remember, for these tips and tricks to work, we must stick to it and follow up. Don’t make it into another New Year resolution, and then breaking it off in a couple of days. Conserving energy and saving on your bills is a must, so stick to it. You will be surprised at how much money you can save on little things in your home to save on power and energy.

Dishwasher

 If you are using a dishwasher (I am sure you use one), try washing the dishes by hand and let them dry naturally. Or you can still use the dishwasher, but try not to use the dryer. Let it dry on its own. Just leave the door open and let Mother Nature take over and dry them for you. This will help save your energy and power when the drying cycle is switched off. You can save about 15% less influence on this.

Water Heater 

 Lower the thermostat on your water heater to 120◦F. At night, you can lower it to 55 degrees. This will save you 13% on your power bill. During the day, wear lots of warm clothing to keep yourself helpful and friendly as toast, then you won’t need to use the heater so many times. Get a Programmable Thermostat to make temperature regulation easier and save money.

Roof Chimney 

Don’t be lazy, get up that roof, and check your chimney. Very vital. When the chimney is not in use, and the flue is open, it will be like one of your bedroom or living room windows left open. This is where all that cold air will get in and drag out all that heat in the cozy living room out. So make sure that all vents, windows, and door slits are well blocked and sealed to prevent outside elements from coming in. Insulate all kaleidoscope and letterbox slits, as these are the places from which air comes through, and you will lose the heat inside the house.

Ceiling fan 

Use and regulate your ceiling fan to spin in reverse to prevent air from above creeping down, leaving the house warm.

Radiator 

See that furniture and carpets do not block the Radiators. Do not put your clothes on top of the radiator to get dry; this will only lower the heat released by the radiator and will use more fuel. Keep furniture with foam cushions away from the radiator as this is heat effective and will prevent heat from getting in your room.

Hot Water Bottle

Before going to bed, put in a hot water bottle at the end of the bed under the eiderdown. This will help keep the bed warm until you come up to sleep. You can save on switching on the electric blanket.

Sunlight 

If there is any sun peeking in through the windows and doors leave the windows open to let in the sun. This will heat up the room and give some light.

Curtains 

Keep curtains closed at night; this will help keep the inside of the house warm and cozy. Make sure that some curtains are behind the radiator. Having more curtains, the better, use them in any entryway or doorways. 

Fireplace 

If your fireplace is open and not in use, fit a balloon across it to prevent all the cold air from coming down from it. Or else you can use it to light up a roaring fire with logs that you so painstakingly collected from the garden.

Loft/roof 

Check the insulation on your roof/loft. If a house is not insulated, you will lose about 20% of heat through the roof. The loft is a cold place to live in, but if properly insulated, you can use it as an extra bedsitter. There should be about 11.5” of insulation up in the loft or roof.  

Walls 

Your home and the walls should be well insulated. Otherwise, the heat inside will be all lost if not appropriately protected. If there holes and crevices in the walls, see that they are all covered up. Solid walls can be insulated too. Either inside or outside.

Windows 

Windows should be sealed with double and treble glazing or replace them. You can also triple glaze them as well. Fitting in another glass in an existing window can be very useful, and a sealed replacement units cost less.

Radiator

If your radiator is fixed onto the wall, you will lose the heat, so get it insulated. You can also fix up some Reflector panels to help reflect the heat back into the room. Once you fit the Reflector panels, there will be no necessity to remove the radiator from the wall elsewhere.

Radiator Booster 

It will be a good idea if you can fix a radiator booster. This will be fitted on top of the promoter, or more likely sit atop the booster. This will help to suck up the heat that comes from behind. It uses a small electric fan, which will circulate the warm air into the room. This will allow you to save power/energy by lowering the thermostat down.

Electricity bills

Pay your bills on time and keep an accurate count of the meter readings.

Hot water tank

Keep your hot water tank insulated. You can buy the foam cloth/sheet to cover it from any Hardware store.

Thermostat Valves 

Buy some of these valves and install them in your thermostat heater. This will control the heating in a room by room basis. Then you can turn it off in the places that you are not using.

Pipe fittings 

Look into your pipe fittings in and around the house and non-heated places. Get some insulation and cover them up to prevent the water flowing through it; it does not get frozen.

Fix Draught Proofing 

You can buy some stick-on strips and apply these to your windows and doors, check for holes and gaps, loft hatches, floorboards, skirting boards, electrical fittings, and places where pipes go through external walls.

Boiler 

Replace your boiler with an energy-efficient condensing boiler. The boilers are more efficient than the old boilers and will use less fuel and can be used with main, gas oil or liquefied petroleum gas.

Computer

Your computer can be a scrooge if you don’t look out, we all need the computer for our work, but it would be better to go in for a laptop as this does not consume much power like the desktop computer.

Iron 

Don’t keep your iron on the whole day. If you have anything to be ironed, you should collect a load of clothes and roll them all at once. Instead of ironing one by one at given times of the day. Irons consume a lot of power.

Manual tools

Make use of the kitchen tools that you have, the manual ones like egg whisk, hand beater, and use your hands to knead the bread. Don’t always reach out for an electrical appliance in the cupboard, wherever you can, use your hands, and any manual tools when cooking.

Freezer and Refrigerator 

If you have a freezer, give it up. A freezer eats up lots of power and a lot of money in bills. So ditch the freezer, and use a refrigerator. Remember to clean the rear side of the fridge, always near the coils, as these become coated with dust and debris and prevent the efficient running of the fridge. When you need something from the fridge, don’t leave the door open for long, as an open door kept long, will take some time to get back to its temperature once open for too long. Always see that your fridge is full. Otherwise, it will be a needless waste of power and money. See that all seals are kept shut tight. On long winter months, you can switch off your fridge at night when you go to sleep and switch on the next morning once you get up. This will save some energy for you.

Microwave and Electric Cooker

If you are using the microwave to defrost food or warm up foods, fine! As this will cost less than when you use the oven. Using a cooker takes ages to cook but very much cheaper than in using the electric oven. When you use the oven and finish all your baking, leave the door open for the heat to get out. This will also keep your kitchen super warm, not to mention the lovely baking aromas that will fill through the house! Time for Christmas decorating!!!

Polly put that kettle on! 

The electric kettle is an energy eater, so use it if and when needed only. If you have an iron hook in the fireplace, you can boil a pot of water in the olden ways. Just saying…

Toaster

Want some hot buttered toast for breakfast? Use the Toaster rather than the grill. The grill consumes more power than the Toaster.

Replace all your bulbs

Use the LED kind or CFL, which is about 75- to 80% less energy. Don’t use the old fashion bulb or filament bulbs.

When cooking

When cooking meals, use small pans for cooking a small amount of food, and cut the items low, and use a lid when boiling or cooking. This will enable the food to get cooked more quickly and save a lot of energy as well.

Motion Detector or time delay lights

Get a couple of these mysterious lights and install them; these will automatically turn on and off, which will save your electricity. Super cool!

Energy Monitor

Invest in an Energy Monitor. This will help to monitor which appliances in your house consume the most electricity. Once that is done, you can use those appliances if and only when needed.

Use electricity sparingly

Switch off lights when not in use. When you leave a room, remember to switch off the light and turn off your PC when not in use. Do not leave it on hold. Same with your other items like the TV. Switch it off when not in use.

Don’t leave on Standby

Don’t leave any electrical appliances on Standby. Standby can use as much as 75% of the energy that it uses when it is entirely switched on. This could cost you an arm and a leg! So watch out!

Unplug Chargers – Believe it or not!! 

Don’t keep chargers plugged in. Some old models use energy, even if it is not plugged into a device! So as soon as your phone or any other electrical gadget is charged, remove the charger from its electrical socket.

Shower Timer

Get yourself a shower timer; this will enable you to take shorter showers, thereby reducing the energy that is needed. Also, it will help teenagers to get out of the bathroom more quickly when you need to use it! Bonus!

Change your showerhead to an eco-friendly version

This little eco-friendly showerhead will help to reduce the power that is needed to heat the water.

Energy Efficient Appliances

If you are replacing any of your appliances, go in for Energy-efficient Appliances. Look for the energy rating sticker.

Finally, do remember to bundle up this winter and enjoy your winter months without any stress and try to remember the above tips and tricks that will save you lots of energy and save on your electricity bills.  

Cheers! And Good Luck!