Energy Efficiency In The Home

There are a variety of reasons why being energy efficient in our home makes a lot of sense. To start with, there are a lot of cost savings that can be made by using the sun, insulating your home or using more energy efficient appliances. 

And in addition to this, there are also many types of planetary benefits that are gained by us being more energy efficient and with the understanding that the world has now hit (and past) the peek oil period, we are starting to see the renewable energy sector being opened up and utilised more effectively.

On this page, we wish to introduce you to some of the main issues that you may wish to think about in making your home more energy efficient so that you can save costs, help our planet and live in a healthier and happier home.  

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Average Energy Use In The Home

Using The Sun

The sun is an incredibly powerful and abundant source of energy that is free for all of us to enjoy. And whilst we all may marvel at its beauty at sunrise and sunset and love it when it comes out on a cool day, many of us now are starting to wake up to the idea that we can also use the sun's powerful energy within our homes, farms & gardens.

Generating Electricity

One of the simplest and easiest ways to harness the power of the sun (and therefore create a more energy efficient home) is to invest in solar panels. This is a wonderful way for you to access clean energy within your home and at the same time, reduce you power bills from the electricity company.

And as each year passes, the idea of installing solar panels becomes easier and easier with panels becoming cheaper and more efficient (as demand rises). Here is a short video to help you understand the  basic concepts about using how to use solar panels in your home.

Heating The House

For those of us who live in cooler climates, we can spend a lot of money and resource just to keep our house warm. And it is during this worldwide eco movement, that we are now re-discovering how to utilise the sun as part of our overall heating system. Houses that do this extremely well are referred to as passive solar houses. 
"In passive solar building design, windows, walls, and floors are made to collect, store, and distribute solar energy in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer. This is called passive solar design because, unlike active solar heating systems, it does not involve the use of mechanical and electrical devices."  wikipedia.org

For those of you who are interested in this concept, this video here helps to explain all of the key concepts about how you can start implementing a solar passive house design for yourself. You may also be able to use some of these principles in tailoring your existing structure to help harness the sun's warmth.

Hot Water Systems

There are so many wonderful kinds of solar hot water systems being designed and installed within homes all over the world that this is now becoming a very realistic option for all kinds of house owners.

And again, these hot water systems rely on our wonderfully powerful sun to generate the heat in your water systems. Depending on where you live, there may be a slightly different kind of solar hot system available to you. 

In this short video, we aim to help share a basic understanding about how a solar hot water system can work in your home. 

Insulating Your Home

The benefits of having good insulation in your home are usually quite well known. It is said that a good level of insulation will help your house to stay warmer in winter, by keeping the warm air in and your insulation will also work for you in summer, by keeping the warm air out of your house, thereby helping to keep it cooler.

But where some people seem to get stuck with insulation is in the implementation side of things. We all know that insulating the entire house is a massive job but many of us don't realise that there are lots of small things we can do round the house to help provide added insulation e.g. around each of the windows and doors, skirting boards and even insulating our hot water cylinder.
The following video provides you with a series of small, easy and manageable tasks 
that can help you to better insulate your home for a very small amount of cost.

Energy Efficient Appliances

As part of this movement towards a more eco-friendly way of life, we are now starting to see a greater range of energy efficient appliances being introduced into the market place. And in most countries also, we can see a range of government sponsored, independent agencies who are now providing a labelling system or energy rating system for our appliances. 

Our appliances can account for up to 30% of our electricity bill so it is often through wise energy efficient choices when purchasing appliances that we can save a lot of money and resources in the longer term. Please just ask someone about the 'energy star rating' at your local appliance store when buying your next appliance. You can also use the energy star rating website to find out how efficient your existing appliances are.
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