talking about energy usage, I keep spread sheets regards consumption. Anyway besides the first full year of consumption ending mid June 06. I have three years of comparison results ending mid June 09.
Year ending June 07: Elec +3.13% Gas -14.38%
Year ending June 08: Elec + 2.41% Gas -8.53%
Year ending June 09: Elec -10.04% Gas-21.64%
I put the reversals down to the following:
Electric, in the 09 year I went mostly over to energy saving lamps on the ones that you have on for a long time. Its a waste of time having energy lamps in the likes of hallways, landings and stairs, or under stairs cupboards as you want instant light, and not for a long time.
Gas: on buying the rental pad, I moved the central heating wall stat into the living room, from the hallway by just drilling a hole through the wall. From being an apprentice electrician, I could never figure out why heating engineers stipulated that the wall stat was placed in the hallway. I always thought you would want the control in the room where your less mobile, and spend most time. And I reckon doing that brought about the most savings.
But I also increased the loft insulation, and I reduced the garage to the depth required just to open the up and over garage door. Making it into an second TV/occasional bedroom seemed a better use of space to me. I added insulation to the exterior walls prior to plaster boarding in this new room. And the partition between the reduced garage/store part I did with a 2"x4" stud wall with 100m of Kingspan insulation. My office is down stairs next to the what was once was the integral garage, and you did not half get draughts in that lower part of the house, whipping cold draughts up the stairs to the living room.
So considering the loss of heating from my tungsten lamps and the three CRT monitors [swapped to LCD's] in my office last year, I'm pleased with the savings.
Topic: Why eco-light bulbs aren't what they seem (Read 13808 times)