Home Removal Services Blog

With all the talk of energy saving measures that we should all be taking, what can be done around the home to reduce fuel consumption and lower carbon emissions?

During the last 5 years some huge leaps forward have been made with regard to the efficiency of domestic boilers as well as insulation in the home. It makes sense to preserve as much energy as possible rather than let it disappear through your roof, walls and windows.

Heating your home in winter is expensive, so everything you can do in order to save money should be done. To begin with, make sure you have adequate roof insulation to prevent heat from escaping through the ceiling. Additionally, by using room thermostats you can only heat the rooms that you need to heat, rather than the whole house. This will also offer you big savings.

If you have a boiler that is over five or six years old, then it is unlikely to be up to the latest in energy efficiency standards. Massive advancements have been made in boilers and so in order to save on your long term energy consumption, it may be well worth considering upgrading your boiler.

There are different types of boilers, combination boilers which heat water on demand and conventional which heat water to an insulated cylinder. For smaller house holds, it is well worth using a combination boiler as you will only be heating the water that you need, but for larger homes with more occupants you will more than likely want to use a conventional boiler and storage cylinder where your water will normally be heated overnight via Economy 7 or via your boiler.

The savings you stand to make over 10 years if you choose the right boiler for your circumstances are monumental. Another money / energy saving measure you could take is to just lower your thermostat by one degree in your house, not only will this save you a surprising amount over just 1 year, but you are highly unlikely to notice a 1 degree drop.

The right kind of boiler, when used along with energy saving light bulbs, double glazing, draft excluders and wall insulation, your energy usage will be minimally low. You can buy energy meters to keep track of exactly how much energy you use, and by simply monitoring your energy usage for a couple of months, you will be able to pick up on where you are using the most and therefore be able to reduce your energy consumption as much as possible.

The appliances found in most households that we commonly refer to as radiators, in my humble opinion, should not be called radiators as they do not technically radiate. In fact, radiators transfer heat using convection.

The term radiation applies to when heat or energy of some kind is emitted outwards in all directions to ultimately be absorbed by whatever body happens to get in its way, this could be a person or anything really.

Convection is the process of heating liquid, which then passes the heat on to the matter around it, in the case of a house hold heater, the water inside a radiator would be heated, then circulated round the (usually white) iron casing, which would then transfer the heat to the surrounding air. There is very little difference in the end results of radiation and convection (at least not in terms of household heating in the short term) but the way the heat is transferred that makes them different.

So despite the fact that the most common household heaters all (or at least mostly) use convection, they are referred to as radiators.

However convection is far less harmful than radiation. This is because convection is simply the air getting warmer whereas radiation is energy travelling in electromagnetic waves which if youre regularly exposed to, can be dangerous.

The two most common types of radiation are alpha and beta radiation. Beta is stronger than alpha but it wont take all that much to block either of them. A sheet of aluminium would take care of both of these radiation types, but if your household heaters were emitting these waves throughout your life, then that could cause some serious health issues such as microscopic damage to your inner tissue, tumours, cancer and possibly damage to the skin.

So all in all, we should really be calling radiators convectors as that is technically how they function, but considering the potential health risks that are presented with radiation, Id personally rather have it the way it is than the other way around!