12 Steps to Help You on Your Way to a Greener Life
- Go paperless. Ask for us to email your invoices, receipts or quotes to cut down on unnecessary paper waste.
- Check your light bulbs. 60 or 75 watts can be used instead of 100-watt or larger bulbs. You should also consider compact fluorescent lamps for areas where lights are on for hours at a time.
- Install a high-efficiency boiler. Typically, around 95% of the energy the boiler requires to run is converted to heat. With the right tweaking, we have even managed to achieve 99% efficiency on a Vaillant.
- Have your boiler serviced. Regular servicing maintains the high-efficiency of your boiler.
- Put a zone valve in. Soon, it will become mandatory for installers to offer heating zones to their customers. In the mean-time, this is a good way to save on heating and, ultimately, cost by only heating the rooms you're in.
Thermal view of the heat loss of a house
- Seal the leaks. Good insulation will keep the warmth in in Winter and the heat out in Summer. For gaps around windows, plumbing, cables, doors and fireplaces, light an incense stick on a windy day to find them. Door sweeps are a good idea for gaps under doors.
- Double glaze your house. Double glazing can reduce the heat loss by up to 50%. Triple glazing is even better.
- Heat wisely. Each degree you turn your thermostat down is 10% less energy you're consuming, so throw a comfy sweater on and lower the temperature. Also, remember to turn your thermostat down at night. Studies show most people sleep best in a slightly cool room (around 18°C).
- Close the curtains at night. Most of your heat loss occurs through windows, so closing the curtains or blinds helps keep it in, meaning you can turn your thermostat down a notch further over night. Lining curtains with old bed sheets or buying insulating curtains will help even more.
- Don't light a fire. Typically a fireplace is only 10% efficient, meaning 90% of its energy is lost through the chimney. Keeping the damper closed when not in use, opening the window closest to the fire and closing doors to the room will prevent it sucking too much of your warm air up the chimney.
- Water heating accounts for 13% of your bill, on average. There are four ways to cut your water heating bill: use less hot water, turn down the thermostat on your hot water heater (boiler, cylinder or water heater), insulate it, or buy a new, more efficient heater.
Vaillant UniSTOR cylinders are so well designed, their heat loss is so low, it exceeds CHeSS Best Practice. - Go alternative. Solar, ground source, air to air... With alternative energies at our fingertips, providing you with ever improving ways to heat your home and water for free and with the implementation of Feed-in Tariffs, there is now more incentive than ever before to make this last and final leap into a greener world.
