Heating is the single biggest user of energy in a household (well, in cold countries, which includes most of the developed world). In places like northern Europe, it easily amounts to more than 2/3 of the energy bill. So saving on heating is a major concern.
Allow me to digress for a few lines.
When I was growing up, we lived in a house without any heating other than a wood fired stove in the kitchen, and an open fireplace, that we used virtually never since it used up way too much wood for the amount of heat it generated.
This might sound a bit strange for most of you living and having grown up in more northern latitudes. But around where I come from, heating has never really featured in houses. This has started changing about a decade ago but, even now, many new buildings come without heating. After all, temperatures rarely dip under freezing in the winter, and there are only about three properly cold months in the year.
That said, during those few months, temperatures inside an unheated house will run down to around 10-12 degrees Celsius. Sometimes even less.
Why am I telling you this? Well, because I clearly survived this. And still today millions of southern Europeans survive in virtually unheated houses without anybody thinking this implies that they are poor and miserable. Since we lack heating, when it gets cold we simply put on extra layers of clothes.
What I’m getting at is that the most basic and cheapest type of heating during winter is to simply put on a jacket or a woollen sweater.
And I guess what I’m really getting at is that even if you do have central heating, you should not rely exclusively on it to stay comfortably warm during winter.
Instead of burning energy you should try wearing an extra layer of clothes. This is cheaper, emits no greenhouse gases, and it will actually be healthier because heating your house or office excessively, will cause the air to be too dry for your sinuses, lungs, eyes and skin. I have some allergies so I know. Note that I emphasize the word excessive. Excessive cold and moisture is not good either.
Now, what does excessive mean?
It is perfectly possible to live comfortably throughout the winter without having springlike temperatures around the house. When I go back home for Christmas, the house temperature there is still running between 12 and 15 Celsius (my parents have reconverted our wood-fired stove to heat up the house in the evening while we cook, but that is too weak for much more than this type of temperatures :-| ). Yet, that does not mean I am freezing my butt off. Neither are the rest of the people there. We simply put on some extra clothes, and it becomes perfectly acceptable. Even those more liable to feel cold, simply hang out close to the kitchen where it is warmer. It becomes a sort of centre of gravity for the house.
Of course, in some countries heating up a house up is a clear necessity. But past a certain temperature, heating becomes a luxury. An expensive (money and environment wise) luxury. And as with all luxuries, that is something we can choose to live without, without suffering much from this choice. In the case of excessive heating, we actually would be better off doing avoiding it in fact because of the negative health effects.
I do not mean to say you should set your heating to 12 degrees, of course. But all specialists I’ve read in magazines or heard talk on the subject, for example, say the healthiest temperature during winter would be 20-21 Celsius during the day, and 17-18 (max) when you go to sleep.
The explanation goes that higher temperatures during the day are unhealthy for our skin, eyes, lungs and nose, like I mentioned before. But also, the higher the temperature inside the house, the larger the temperature shock coming out, and the more likely you are to get sick from it.
During the night, n the other hand, the brain will be more relaxed if the temperature decreases a few degrees, so that we get better sleep and better rest if we let the temperature drop somewhat.
Yet, it is not uncommon to visit someone and be greeted by a blast of hot air when you come in the front door. 24º is hardly uncommon. These are probably the same people in whose house you freeze during the summer because of over the top air conditioning.
Currently, the average temperature in houses in most of northern Europe already runs higher than 19º Celsius. This compares to the average in the 70s which even in a wealthy country like the UK was around only 13º. As heating has become more prevalent, people have also started having higher expectations in relation to the temperature they should have in their houses. This leads to a trend up for average temperatures. It was assumed by experts that this trend would reach a plateau at 21º. But this seems to have been overly optimistic. In countries like Sweden and Finland, the averages are already running higher than 21º, and still going up. So, it is unlikely to be the end of the story. How many people do you know with the temperature set for 24 and going around in a T-shirt when it is below freezing outside?
This is particularly worrying because each extra degree means an average increase of 10% in fuel consumption by the heating system. This means about 1/3 more fuel just to keep that thermometer at 22 instead of 19 degrees, the rough equivalent of going around with an extra light jacket or shirt. The simple increase of average house temperatures since the 70s in the UK, for example, meant 60% extra consumption. And that is excluding increased size of houses, the higher number of households (since we have smaller families but the same or a higher population), etc..
Consider also that each extra degree will be more expensive than the previous. Economists would call this the marginal cost. 10% more fuel for each extra degree Celsius is a handy rule of thumb. But the higher the temperature, the more the differential to the temperature outside will be. This means that more of your house’s heat will be transferred to the cold air and ground around it, since this flow of heat depends on temperature differential. As a result, you will need progressively more fuel to increase temperature, the higher your temperature is to start with. This will be more the case the worse insulated the house is, but even in well insulated houses it will still happen to a certain degree.
_____________________
So, first things first. Before thinking about what type of boiler, what level of insulation, what gadgets you should use to save on heating, adapt your own habits. Put on extra clothes, and set that temperature down a couple of notches and you’ll be going a long way to a more sustainable and cheaper lifestyle.
There are a couple of more things to do still before starting to look at catalogues and thinking of major investments.
Besides looking at the thermostat level you need to look at its other settings (by the way, if you have no programmable thermostat get one. The Consumer Energy Council of America calculates the returns on investing in one as being as high as 124%).
Some people keep the heating going throughout the day so they have their house warm when coming back for work. This is really, really bad. It means more than half of the energy used is simply wasted. Would you have a kettle boiling all day just so you could have a cup of tea immediately when getting back home? Surely not. And this is just the same.
So, set the heating to go on 20 minutes before you get in and before you get up. This will be enough to have your house nice and warm by the time you make use of it. In the same way, switch it off 30 minutes to 1 hour before you leave or go to sleep (depending on how fast your house cools down), so you make good use of the stored heat in your house.
Another important matter is to look at exactly what needs heating. Just like you should not leave a light on in a room not being used, it makes no sense heating up rooms that do not get used, like guest rooms or others.
Instead, shut down the heating there and close the doors. This will mean that you either save energy directly(if you have electrical heating for example), or that the water being pumped around to heat the house will lose less heat and require less energy to be reheated when it flows back to the central heating device, i.e., you save energy indirectly. Do not worry too much about the unheated room acting to cool down the surrounding rooms. It will still be more efficient than keeping it heated too.
Now, in relation to choosing heating systems, that will stay for the next post ^_^
