Energy Saving Measures - very basic

Telegraph_Sam

It's no doubt horses for courses. As you say there can be a greater or lesser amount of work involved in fitting secondary glazing. It comes down to deciding on the trade-off between cost and hassle on the one hand, and efficiency on the other. If this could be measured my point is that curtains would rate highly on the scale.

SAC2334

Bubble wrap on the widows works better than the cellophane you can buy to line windows  .It seems to stick itself to the glass fairly well. Take it down in the spring .best is fitting perspex  cut to size but it's quite pricey stuff .

EssexHebridean

We frequently advise curtains on here as an additional energy saving option either once the big ticket items have been dealt with, or in place of those if they cannot be afforded. Even the simple action of hanging a lightweight fleece blanket behind a standard light cotton curtain makes a big difference too, it doesn’t need to involve the expense of someone purchasing expensive curtains or adding “proper” linings. 

As for keeping them drawn whenever possible - this is not exactly the right advice. Drawing curtains and closing blinds at dusk, yes, but particularly where someone has windows that are exposed to sunlight, they are better to have curtains and blinds open during the day - as Qriz has already said the solar/thermal gain can be extensive. The other aspect from a psychological point of view is that it’s far more mentally positive for most people to live with natural daylight where possible. Of course the (albeit small) cost of needing to put lights on because curtains are drawn during the day would also offset any small savings from the closing of the curtains during daylight hours, too! 

On a different aspect I have just applied flexible plastic sealing tape to our front door closing edge - there has been a draught there since we moved in and sadly adjusting hinges etc made no difference. I can feel an instant difference having applied the tape - it will be interesting to see how much of a change we see in the temperature drop in the hallway now. Next mission is to track down the foam strip I know we have and deal with the front room window draughts. 

subjecttocontract

My granny always had a great tip for energy saving during the cold winter months. She would turn the heating down to tick over (just to make sure the pipes didn't freeze) then pack herself off to southern Spain for 3 months. It seemed to work for her......and she didn't need any thick lined curtains.

Telegraph_Sam

Slight misunderstanding in the foregoing over the meaning of drawn = closed and drawn = open, might lead to misunderstandings

zxzxzx

subjecttocontract said:

My granny always had a great tip for energy saving during the cold winter months. She would turn the heating down to tick over (just to make sure the pipes didn't freeze) then pack herself off to southern Spain for 3 months. It seemed to work for her......and she didn't need any thick lined curtains.

😂🤣😂 Like your granny I have mine on tick over, while I am in Cyprus - went swimming in the med yesterday….water 17c!

QrizB

pseudodox said:

Two hours later my room is still at 19C, whilst the thermometer between curtains & window has dropped to 13C.  Pretty effective for lightweight fabric.

I can do some maths with that

If we assume that your patio doors were installed last decade and are still performing as intended, they should have a U-value of 2.2. I'm also going to assume that it was 0C outside when you did the measurement.

If your window is 14' long and 7' tall, that's 98 square feet - 9 square metres.

Without the curtain, the temperature drop across the window is 19C. With a temperature difference of 19C, your heat loss through the bare U=2.2 window would be (2.2*19*9) 376 watts.

Adding the curtain, your temperature difference is 13C. Heat loss becomes (2.2*13*9) 257 watts.

You've saved 119 watts of heat loss by fitting (and closing) the curtain. Over 8 hours, that's one kWh saved.

pseudodox

@QrizB
Appreciate you doing the maths.  Yes doors are actually 3 years old & when they were fitted I immediately noticed an improvement on the previous 20 year old ones.  But still kept the curtains.  Habit of a lifetime for me to keep heat in - my Mum always closed curtains at sunset in cold months.  My neighbours never close the patio curtains (we are not in a location where anyone can see in) because they like to see the view 24/7.  They also have laminate flooring whilst I have cosy carpet.  Their boiler is roaring away for hours & they wonder why their energy bills are astronomical.  But some people put aesthetics over comfort & cost!

One day last week I was out all day & before I got home the CH kicked in whilst the curtains were still open when it was almost dark - maybe I need to get remote control ones!

jvjack

Telegraph_Sam  said  "I feel "cold" when I go into a heated room with "bare" windows" and "The psychological comfort aspect: I can go into a room with double glazing. I can "feel" several degrees warmer depending on whether the curtains are drawn or not, with the same thermostat setting."
That reminded me of an article i'd read on heating the home. Can't find it anymore. But It sort of said that there is a warmth or otherwise that we feel called the 'comfort heat' and it can't be measured. It said that our bodies loose heat via radiation to colder surfaces around us and that effects how we feel. So even if the air is say 21 degrees but surfaces around us are lower we feel that radiation heat loss to the colder surfaces. I remember having a thermometer in the post from i think help the aged that said don't live below 18 degrees. But if those walls and windows and furniture are colder then we are loosing heat to them and feel colder. 

Telegraph_Sam

I couldn't have put it - comfort heat - better myself. I've also got one of those HTA type thermometers on the kitchen wall. But it's not smart enough to base its recommendations on with or without drawn curtains. I've often pondered on the difference between radiated and convected heat as far as "comfort" is concerned. There ought to be a measure of subjective / psychological warmth or comfort (but I doubt it)