Energy/Money Saving until Jan-14

ChrisGardner81

Hi all,

New to the forums - I'm a student based in the West Midlands (originally from Norwich) and I'm studying Retail Advertising. I'm always looking to save a few pennies here and there, so in combination with my studies; I've been working on a money saving guide for the winter/festive season. It's also quite relevant to those of us looking to save energy - so I thought I'd paraphrase some of my findings into bullet points. I'm sure you all know most of them, but if one person learns one new thing then I'll consider these 15 minutes a success! :beer:

• Commercial solar panels have been around since the early 1980s - though most people couldn't afford it until very recently. With the big argument now that LED bulbs are the way to go forward, economically and ecologically - I did some digging and uncovered the McKinsey Long Range Curve study. It showed that when using both methods to remove a ton of carbon dioxide form the atmosphere in saved energy - solar will do it at a cost of around £25. LED lighting, however, will perform the same feat for -£85. Minus eighty five. You actually save money (!)

• My mum has always nagged me to be a bit more conservative on the thermostat - but it wasn't until recently that I knew what difference it can make. Between 16 and 22 degrees - every degree costs you 5% more. Making use of your timer - you can save a shed load of money by having the heating come on for an hour in the morning and when you come home from work/school. If your average heating bill sets you back around £300 per year - you can looking at a sub-£200 number if you pay attention to the thermostat.

• If you could enlist the help of The Incredible Hulk and move your entire house into a wind tunnel - you could do some impressive and eye-opening experiments. Using coloured smoke, and yes this has been done, scientists pumped air through a house and noted where most of it escaped from. By the end of the two hour experiment - less than 30% of the original smoke pumped in was still present. This means that in 120 minutes - the vast majority of heat from heating sources is lost, in the average house. Single-glazed windows were responsible for the highest proportion of loss, whilst poor loft/wall insulation came second and poorly fitted or warped doors came third. The study indicated that by making small improvements to all areas - you could recover the spending within 7 years on saved energy bills, not to mention the money you would actually be saving in all the years following. (Test was on a three bedroom semi)

Those were the three main points I uncovered, I hope they've been of some inspiration. Please find below some links to the some of the websites you might want to purchase wallet/energy friendly items from in the coming months. I've omitted the Amazons, eBays etc.

1. Greenfingers (garden solar lights)
2. Earlsmann (commercial LED)
3. UK Christmas World (solar & LED)
4. Spray (insulation)
5. Honeywell (timed thermostats)
6. 3M (window insulation)
7. Refab (draught snakes!!)

EDIT - As I'm a new user, it won't let me add links in! Please Google the brands above to find their websites and hopefully I can come back and edit this post when I'm allowed to add links.