Energy saving tips at home

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dem_syhp

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Any one else doing anything to save energy at home? My bills are reasonable - Gas ~20 Euro a month, Electricity ~35 a month for a 1 bed apt. But I've just started watching it - I think within this I've a fair bit of waste (this is more an environmental versus cost drive)

Anyone got any interesting tips beyond the standard that have worked for them? We've all heard the obvious ones, use cfl light bulbs, switch off appliances, line dry clothes, insulation, etc... See , or SEI, etc... for the big hitters.

Less obvious ones:
- Use a remote socket - This allows you to switch off the sockets connected with the one remote controlled switch, will help where you can't reach them.

- If you have gas heating, can be used to heat water only instead of immersion, just a handle to switch on mine - may be obvious to some, but maybe not all.

- Are you heating too much water? I'm down to 15min in the am and pm for shower and dishes. I was leaving it 45 min to heat full tank.
 
dem_syhp said:
Less obvious ones:
- Use a remote socket - This allows you to switch off the sockets connected with the one remote controlled switch, will help where you can't reach them.
Click to expand...

Bear in mind that Remote sockets use current. I had one that consumes 5 watts of electricity, which is not much, but it adds up to around 1kw every 10 days, that's around 35kw every year, costing around 5 euros (all very rough calculations). Most of the electricity in Ireland is filthy (Coal and CO2). Better replace your remote socket with a manual on off switch (if you can reach it).

dem_syhp said:
- If you have gas heating, can be used to heat water only instead of immersion, just a handle to switch on mine - may be obvious to some, but maybe not all.
Click to expand...

For showers, better use electric shower, you only heat the water you use, a five minute shower uses about 1kw of electricity. 1kw of electricity is probably less hard on the environment than heating a cylinder of water with gas (even in Ireland)

dem_syhp said:
- Are you heating too much water? I'm down to 15min in the am and pm for shower and dishes. I was leaving it 45 min to heat full tank.
Click to expand...

One thing to consider is that heating it for 15mins does not heat less water than heating it for 45 minutes. The amount of water in the cylinder is constant (100 litres maybe).
If you are happy with the temp of the water after 15 mins, then heating it for an extra 30 minutes wont consume much extra energy (the gas will only have to maintain the temperature of the water for the next half hour. It'll make a little difference though.
 
NHG said:
Fit reflective panels behind your radiators
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Good one - just been reading up on this. Don't know how I never came across it before.
Looks like they can be made up - so theres hardly any expense involved!

Do you use them and did you notice much of a difference?
 
I got a guy who does the schools, nursing homes etc with them to do them for me. He has panels made up and it cost €450 to do 23 rads - very neat job and took him 2.5hrs non stop to put them up.

I know we could have bought the stuff in woodies and done it ourselves, but ... I am very fussy and as the radiators would be visable all the time did'nt want to take the chance. The guy was'nt pushy and offered to do a sample one free which I had done in the utility room in case they looked terrible which they did'nt so told him to go ahead and fit the rest.

I do think they work but to early to say for definate as I only got them done a month or so ago (and if it was a usual summer we would'nt have heating on at all!)
 
One thing to consider is that heating it for 15mins does not heat less water than heating it for 45 minutes.
Click to expand...

This is not strictly true - Heat rises so in fact hot water cylinders heat from the top down. this is why most imersion heaters have a sink and bath element, the sink element being much shorter than the bath one.

I have temperature probes at 3 heights in my cylinder (to monitor the performance of my solar HW system) and it is very obvuious how the hot water rises in the tank.

Gtec
 
I've my thermostat on water tank at lowest setting, still too hot. 15min seems to work well. But only using one 15 min slot now instead of two.

I hadn't considered the electric shower option - just never thought about it. But just as a matter of interest I've done some figures:
Electric shower (5 min shower) - 47 KwH over 2 months, approx 7 Euro
Electric emersion, 1 tank a day heated from cold to hot - 457 KwH, approx 69Euro
Gas boiler to heat hot water, on for 15 min (measured from my system, multiplied out over 60 days): 16.63 units ->190KwH, approx 12 Euro

Electric figures are based off the appliance calculator on www.esb.ie. The gas, I checked my meter before and after! Just basic calc's didn't look in to comparison of impact of electric versus gas from an environmental. From a cost perspective - not a huge difference between electric shower and gas. In winter, I've the heating on, so it's only a summer issue.

Great idea on the panels for the rad's - Must get them sorted now while the going's good.

Good point on the remote socket - maybe the right option is a power strip with an on/off switch - I've a couple of sockets behind furniture I just can't reach.
 
Gtec said:
This is not strictly true - Heat rises so in fact hot water cylinders heat from the top down. this is why most imersion heaters have a sink and bath element, the sink element being much shorter than the bath one.

I have temperature probes at 3 heights in my cylinder (to monitor the performance of my solar HW system) and it is very obvuious how the hot water rises in the tank.
Click to expand...

I'm about to install solar in my home and have got 4 quotes to compare, though all pretty much based on 2 panels of evacuated tubes and a 300 ltr tank but I'm not sure how many sensors the tank will have. Is this something you fitted or requested on install?
 
Here's some of the things I did...
+ top up the attic insulation (to about 250mm)
+ in the dead of night, when it's coldest, I felt for draughts around doors and windows and ended up
- Putting in a seal around the hall door
- Fitting a letter box backing inside (this made a HUGE difference!)
- Replacing putty seals on windows where appropriate
+ Switched ALL bedroom, bathroom, utility room, playroom, lighting to CFL.
+ Switched ALL kitchen lighting to CFL downlighters with reflective backing - they're not that bad! My wife wasn't crazy about them, but hey, it's all in a good cause.
+ Got rid of my plasma TV and switched to LCD (okay, this is an OTT thing!!!)

And even still, I interested in...
+ Radiator reflectors - awesome idea and will definitely be looking into it.
+ Thermostatic valves on all of the radiators
+ Solar water heating as mentioned above
+ Changing the 14 yr old gas boiler for a super high efficiency condensing unit
+ Cavity wall insulation

Of course, all of this stuff costs a bunch of money, but with Electricity prices having increased by 17.5% (and the same again to come this January) and gas prices going up 30+% real soon now, I figure that some capital outlay now gives me some level of protection in the future, given that I won't be moving house for the foreseeable future - well, unless interest rates with 12% :)
 
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