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Category Archives: Energy Conservation
Immersion heater verses boiler to heat water at home
Did you ever wonder whether it was cheaper to heat your hot water tank with your immersion heater or your oil/gas boiler? Well we have done the sums so you don’t have to. Below is a comparison between various different ways of heating your hot water … Continue reading
Posted in Energy Conservation
Tagged Comparision, cost, Energy conservation, furnace, gas, hot water tank, immersion, Oil Boiler
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Winter is coming
As the actors in the excellent ‘Game of Thrones’ television series are forever saying “Winter is coming”……….in the Northern hemisphere at least. With that in mind remember to check out our previous articles on saving energy and reducing heat loss in your home. I … Continue reading
Posted in Energy Conservation
Tagged cold weather, energy efficiency, Energy saving tips, heating, winter weather
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How do heat recovery systems work? Thermal Wheels
Heat recovery systems are a great way to save energy, and therefore money, for building owners. They reduce energy bills by using the expelled air to heat (or cool) the incoming air, depending on the season. Most designs use a … Continue reading
Green energy options for Irish schools
Many schools in Ireland put a great deal of effort into making their buildings as environmentally friendly as possible. This helps to reduce their energy bills but perhaps more importantly in the longer term, it provides a good example to … Continue reading
How much does my immersion heater cost to heat my water?
Following on from my post about the cost of running an oil boiler to heat the average house, see here. A reader contacted me and asked how much it costs to heat the water in their immersion heater. They remembered when they were young that the biggest sin possible was to leave on the immersion heater by accident, thereby incurring unnecessary costs. The answer is approximately €0.54 or 54 cent if left on for an hour to initially heat the water. Continue reading
Posted in Energy Conservation
Tagged Cost of, Energy conservation, Energy saving tips, hot water tank, immersion heater, Water heaters
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The advantages of stoves
If you have an open fire in your home, you should consider replacing it with an enclosed stove (aka closed flue appliance). The saving in fuel to produce the same heat output is incredible. An open fire has an efficiency of around 18%, as the vast majority of the heat simply goes up the chimney. By comparison a quality stove has an efficiency of around 80%. So a stove uses 4 times less fuel to achieve the same heat output. There are other ways the stove saves energy. Continue reading
Posted in Energy Conservation
Tagged energy conservative, energy efficiency, Energy saving tips, flue, heat loss, open fire, stoves
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The relative costs using different fuels to heat your home
In this post the relative costs of using different fuels to heat an average house during an average winters day are compared to see which is the most economical. Based on this process it would seem that the most economical is a wood pellet boiler, if initial capital costs are excluded. Continue reading
The cost of oil fired central heating per hour
In our house we have a boost button on our heating control panel. By hitting this button the boiler will come on immediately for one hour only. This got me thinking, how much does this button cost me every time I push it, or putting it another way how much does your home oil boiler cost in fuel to run every hour? Well it is relatively easy to calculate; I worked it out to be €1.20 per hour or €1.20 every push of the boost button! Continue reading
Make your fire last longer. Light it upside down.
I love burning timber in our stove; timber is clean to handle, there is very little ash left afterwards, it is good for the environment and the ash can be spread on the garden afterwards, unlike coal ash. However, one of the difficulties with using wood in our small stove is that it burns quickly and as a result a lot of tending is required to avoid it going out. We usually have to add logs every 30 or 40mins. So I decided to try the unusual and counter intuitive upside down method of fire starting. Continue reading
Posted in Energy Conservation
Tagged ash, cheapest fuel, Energy conservation, Energy saving tips, fire last longer, stove, timber fire, upside down fire, wood fire
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10 ways to reduce your home energy bills
Tips to help reduce your home energy usage and bills. Typically around 80 % of a buildings energy usage is to heat the building and to provide hot water. Continue reading
