Things you can do in just one minute:

1. Turn the thermostat down by 1°C.
2. Turn the lights off when you leave a room.
3. Re-use and recycle as much waste as you can.
4. Plug out electrical appliances when going to bed.
5. Keep curtains closed at night and ensure that the curtains don’t hang over the radiators.
6. Turn off the heating overnight and when you are out during the day.

…in 15 minutes:

1. Clean your windows; dirt on vertical windows can reduce performance by 10% and even more if the dirt is allowed to build up on roof-lights.
2. Furniture and other obstacles should not obstruct daylight penetration of the room. Net curtains hamper daylight penetration of a room.
3. Look out for the Energy Saving Recommended logo when you’re buying, for example, elec­trical goods and windows.
4. Choose heaters with thermostat controls and timers.
5. Rooms should be furnished to allow daylight in, and activities for which daylight or sunlight are essential should be positioned near windows.
6. Paint the surfaces of rooms, including ceilings, with colours of high reflectance to maximise the day lighting opportunities (and also the effectiveness of artificial light). Light colours can reflect up to 80% of incident light. While deep/dark colours might reflect less than 10% of incident light.

…in 30 minutes:

1. Buy your hot water tank a jacket; a lagging jacket on your hot water cylinder will keep water hotter for longer and pay for itself in 2-3 months.
2. Use the timer on immersion heaters. This should supply you with enough hot water as and when you need.
3. Buy energy-saving light bulbs.

…in one hour or more:

1. Replace your old windows. Choose double-glazed units when replacing windows. Much of the heat loss from a house occurs through the windows particularly if they are single glazed. Significant energy savings can be achieved if double glazing is filled with argon gas and  has low-emissivity glass.
2. Insulate your loft; insulate your attic well and save up to 20% on your home heating bill. If your attic insulation is currently less than 200 mm, then you should add further layers. There are a variety of suitable materials including mineral wool, rock wool, sheep’s wool, polystyrene, cellulose fibre and multi-layered foil.
3. Service your boiler; if your oil or gas boiler hasn’t been serviced recently, then you could be wasting money. In fact, by servicing your boiler, you could improve your overall efficiency by 10%–saving you up to €150 per year.
4. Insulate your walls; wall insulation can be increased in a number of ways— The pay-back period is dependent on a number of factors including type, thickness and quality of existing insulation. The most popular types of insulation systems are
   (i) insulated dry lining
   (ii) blown mineral or cellulose fibre or polystyrene beads into the cavity or
   (iii) rigid external insulation with render or brick finish. Specialist advice should be sought in all cases.

For more information on energy saving windows call us now on  1850 77 44 55