Top Energy Saving Tips

It has been said that a penny saved is a penny earned. One easy way to save pennies is by reducing your energy consumption. Whether that entails squeaking out better gas mileage or reducing the electric bill, it still adds up to more money in your pocket at the end of the month. Saving energy doesn’t have to entail sitting in the dark, either. Here are some of the best energy saving tips you can use around your home, without having to make serious sacrifices in your lifestyle.

Lower the Water Temperature
Keeping that huge tank of water heated to 140 degrees can become costly. Lower your setting just a few degrees to watch your utility bill start dropping. An added bonus is that your family will be less likely to scald themselves on hot tap water, and you’ll use less water as you won’t have to mix as much cold water with it to achieve the right temperature.

Low-Flow Fixtures
You can switch to a low-flow showerhead to drastically lower your water usage. You won’t notice a difference in pressure, but you will send less water down the drain. Not only will your water bill drop, but you also won’t have to heat as much hot water, saving you money on that utility.

Cold Water Wash
Hot water may feel good on your hands when cleaning or washing, but your washing machine really doesn’t care about water temperature. Your clothes will be just as clean after a wash with cold water as they are with hot. The exceptions are whites you are washing with bleach or heavily soiled items. Otherwise, save the hot water and watch your bills drop.

Electronic Thermostat
A programmable thermostat is convenient, easy to use and a great way to save some energy. Set it to automatically start warming or cooling the house at the time you normally get up or go to bed. Avoid making temperature changes of more than a few degrees to see savings on your heating and cooling bill.

Free Energy
Pay attention to the sun’s movements over your home. When the weather is warm, keep curtains closed when the sun might stream in. When the temperature is cooler, open the curtains during those times to warm the house naturally.

Maintenance
Keep your appliances running in top condition by keeping up with regular maintenance. Furnace filters should be replaced every month, and regular tune-ups will make your HVAC system more efficient. Clean the lint filter on the washing machine every time you put a load in the dryer, and have machines serviced if they show signs of poor performance.

Good Habits
Good habits are tough to develop, but they have the highest rewards. Teach kids to close the refrigerator as soon as possible to avoid losing hot water. Get everyone in the habit of closing doors behind them when entering and exiting the house. Shut off water whenever possible to conserve energy. Turn lights off when you leave a room. These can be the most difficult changes to put in place, but over the long-term, they offer the greatest benefits.

You can lower your energy cost by making some simple changes. Some of these are extremely easy; others will take a little time to get used to. In the end, none of these changes requires a huge sacrifice in lifestyle or a substantial investment, yet they will reward you richly with lower bills.

Guest Post

Can Solar Power Still Offer Good Returns?

This is the question that we, and many others, have been pondering in recent months given the huge drop in feed-in tariffs from either the 12th December 2011 or the 3rd March 2012, depending on the outcome of the government's next court appeal!  But it seems like the outlook isn't as gloomy as feared, and hopefully the solar industry will see a pick-up in installations if this word can get out.

In a nutshell, it appears that, because of big drops in the price of solar panels, the payback on the investment needed to install solar photovoltaic panels is actually similar with the new feed-in tariff to the payback expected back in the first half of 2011.

We've pulled together some interesting articles below which offer more of an insight into this and we hope you'll find them useful if you are making a decision about whether solar power is right for you.

Solar Power Portal - Guest Blog Post - A look at some of the facts and figures
YouGen Blog - What the EPC requirement means for people who want to install solar PV
Energy Saving Trust - the latest information on feed-in tariffs
Solar Trade Association - Finding the FIT discussions confusing?

If you'd like a free no-obligation quote for solar panels, please complete our solar enquiry form and you'll be contacted by an installer.

And if you do decide to go ahead...
YouGen Blog - Making the most of your solar generated electricity

Read our press release on this topic at one of the links below:
PRLog
PRNewsDistribution

Diary of a Wood Burning Stove!

Check out this blog post from Stoves Are Us which talks about our Diary of a Wood Burning Stove.

Review Comparison Tables

We now have so many reviews on our website (about 140) that we are aware that it can often be difficult to compare similar products to each other.  We've therefore put together some review comparison tables to make this easier!

Each section of our green product reviews has been broken down further into categories and the tables then show the score breakdown for each product as well as the date the review was undertaken.  If there are products you'd like to find out more about you can click through as each product name is hyperlinked to the full review.

We hope our visitors will find this a useful feature, and we'll of course keep the list up to date with the latest reviews as they're added to our site.

Check out our press release on this at one of the links below:
UK Energy Saving
PRLog
PRNewsDistribution
Pressbox
SanePR

Diary of a Wood Burning Stove!

If you read our post last week or have been following us on one of the social networking sites, you'll know that we have been asking our readers for some of their comments and tips on using their wood burning stoves.  We hope this will be interesting for our readers so thank you to all who responded.

We've taken the most interesting responses as well as some great previous comments and pulled together the following list.  If you'd like to add your own thoughts, do feel free to comment on this post and share your experiences with other readers.

Lighting the fire
"We installed a [Morso Squirrel] 1430 a few weeks ago as well. I've found it considerably more difficult to light than our other stove - a Clearview." ANONYMOUS

"The key is to make sure you add a few smaller logs with the kindling and leave to build the flame for about 5-10 mins before putting on some bigger logs. The secret is plenty of air spaces between the logs and disturb the build up as little as possible. i.e dont keep opening the door to fiddle!!" NIC

Efficiency/Effectiveness
"We like the idea but having it but as the sole means of heating our place which is not insulated, it's not very efficient." LEAH

"We've found our wood burning stove to be really efficient, especially at the weekend. We can turn off the central heating and just have the stove on. We can also source a supply of free wood so it's definitely a win win situation." ANONYMOUS

"It heats all our hot water and radiators and best of all it costs us nothing to run as the wood we burn is waste.  Slightly less attractive at 6am having to go out and break kindling and middle of summer when we have to have it going to heat the water but small price to pay considering how much we save on oil." CLARE

"The efficiency of the stove is reduced when you burn damp or green wood, so you get an increase in tar and soot build-up on the door glass, the insides of the stoves and also the flue system...If you find it [soot on door glass] still happens when burning dry seasoned wood try playing with the airwash - it often takes a few weeks of regular use to learn how to get the best performance from a new woodburner." LUCY

Maintenance
"...damp wood - this is probably the cause of the stove glass blackening up." LUCY

"To clean black marks off of stove glass, try using a piece of damp kitchen towel dipped in soft wood ash from your stove." CORINIUM FLUE SYSTEMS [Editor's note: we use newspaper in this way which also works well]

"You'd be surprised how common it is for birds to get stuck in stoves. There's an easy way to prevent it - just fit a bird guard to your existing chimney pot." LUCY

"I would recommend that it [wood] is seasoned for more than one complete year....But when you cut wood make sure you are safe, chainsaws are dangerous and large axes are too. Make a good saw bench for the logs and have a stable chopping block." HENRY

PREVIOUS DIARY ENTRIES

21st February - Running low on wood
6th February - Keeping the fire in overnight
31st January - Disadvantages? Not really!
18th January - Fireguards

5th January 2012 - Too much draught!

21st December - Christmas Eve plans

13th December - Cleaning blackened glass

5th December - Laundry drying!

21st November - More fuel types and a feathery visitor!

14th November - Trying out some different fuel

7th November - Warming the house

31st October - Cosy living room

12th October - Where to keep all that wood...

19th September 2011 - The first lighting of the season!

Green Product of the Month

As you'll know if you've been reading our Diary of a Wood Burning Stove (see below), we're loving our wood burner!  This month's Green Product of the Month links in with that and you may recall us mentioning it in one of our recent diary entries.  We've chosen the Eko-Mania Dry Paper Log Maker - read our review to find out what we like about it!

Energy Watch

Have you heard of Original Stitch?  They offer beautiful handmade items made from recycled and vintage fabrics, from products for children to household items.  If you'd like to find out more, read this month's Energy Watch page where we have put together a profile of the company.