Ways to Save Energy

Electricity

You may now borrow one of these currentcost counter-top electricity dispaly monitors from any Eastleigh library at no cost.  The monitor is easy to use - just clip on to your mains wire, and plug the monitor in.  It will show you the amount of electricity you are using at any one time and has been shown to be very effective in reducing consumption - and bills!  Pop into your local library to find out more, or call Eastleigh Borough Council's Home Energy Conservation Officer on 023 8068 8274.

Heating

If your home is not insulated, you are wasting energy.  Heat is leaking to the outside through your walls, roof, floor, doors and windows.

New homes are built with high standards of insulation.  Older properties may have no insulation. Your loft insulation may have been put in many years ago when standards were much lower.  It is well worth adding an extra layer to keep your bills down.

Take steps to reduce heat loss from the roof and walls as this is where most heat escapes. The cost of these insulation measures means you quickly recoup your investment through savings on fuel bills.

As can be seen from the picture, quite a small amount of heat is lost through the windows. This means double glazing is not the most cost effective way of saving energy.        

• To calculate your carbon emissions you can use the Government's Emissions Calculator
• For more information about ways to save energy in the home, go to the  Energy Saving Trust website or call the local Energy Savings Trust Advice Centre on 0800 512 012

Further Information

• Loft insulation
• Cavity wall insulation
• Improving heating controls
• New boiler
• Low energy lighting
• Windows

Loft insulation

The majority of the houses in the Borough have some loft insulation fitted.  For many homeowners this was put in many years ago when standards of loft insulation were much lower.  As the current standard is now 10 inches of loft insulation, it is worth checking if yours was done some time ago.

There is a range of insulation materials available.  The most common, found in DIY stores or offered by installers under grant scheme, are:

• Blown mineral wool / blown mineral fibre (from professional installers only) - usually installed where access is limited
• Mineral wool quilt
• Loose fill e.g. warmcell (recycled newspaper)

There are more environmentally friendly alternatives, such as insulation made from sheep's wool, which are likely to cost you slightly more.

Visit our grants page to find out more.  If you do the work yourself, download our guide to DIY energy saving measures.

Cavity wall insulation

Over 5 million homes in this country have cavity wall insulation, with the potential for many more homes to have it installed.  The Energy Savings Trust have published a Information Guide   pdf to give you more information about this.

There are various ways that you may able to get financial help for cavity wall insulation and other heating works.  Visit our grants page to find out more.

Example: a typical 1970's semi detached house.

For this type of house investing £500 in energy efficiency measures would save £200 on the annual fuel bill. This means that the occupant would recoup their investment in just 2 1/2 years.

New central heating boiler

If you are looking to replace your boiler, it is now a legal requirement under Building Regulations that you install a condensing boiler, unless you can demonstrate that this is impracticable or unreasonably expensive in your particular case (download  "Advice to Householders"  pdf   published by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for further information).  These high efficiency boilers are typically 88% efficient, compared to standard new boilers which are around 72% efficient.

The Energy Savings Trust has published a Heating Guide , which includes information about condensing boilers, programmers and more.

When replacing a gas fired boiler, always use a Corgi registered installer to do the work. Visit http://www.corgi-gas-safety.com/ to find out more.

Improve heating controls

• Room temperature
• Temperature of stored hot water
• On/off times for heating and hot water
• Switching off the boiler when heating is no longer needed

	Full Controls (room thermostat, cylinder thermostat, timer, TRV's)	Thermostatic Radiator Valves	Room Thermostat
Cost of fitting by an installer	£125 - £250 (when fitted as part of boiler replacement)	£75 - £100 (when fitted as part of boiler replacement)	£110 - £140 (fitted on its own)
Annual saving	£50 - £60	£10 - £15	£20 - £25
Costs recovered in	2-5 years	5-10 years	4-7 years

Low energy lights

Windows

While windows themselves lose heat quickly through the glass, as the overall area of window is small compared to other surfaces of your house (such as the walls), they only account for 5-10% of the heat lost from your home.

Double glazing has become very popular in recent years.  As it is relatively expensive and the amount of heat saved fairly small, you may not wish to consider it for energy saving reasons alone.  Good draught proofing and thermally lined curtains can significantly cut heat loss and will cost much less.

Double glazing is popular for other reasons such as security, noise reduction and reduced maintenance.  You need to weigh up all these factors before replacing your windows.

Under current building regulations, when replacing windows they must be fitted with low emissivity glass (sometimes called 'low-E' or 'K-glass').  You should look for a FENSA registered installer to make sure the windows are fitted to building regulation standards.

Further things to consider:

• uPVC (plastic) windows do not last forever.  They represent a large waste disposal problem as they do not break down.  The manufacture of uPVC also uses large amounts of energy.
• A number of manufacturers offer timber framed double glazed windows which are a more sustainable alternative.