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Insulate and innovate: Saving energy in the home
photo by Alex Parks (Flickr CC)
A lot of money and resources go into making our homes warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. How can we minimize the amount of power we use for climate control?
For example, 1/3 of all energy consumed in Germany is used to heat or cool homes. This can be quite an expense and is a significant source of climate change driving greenhouse gases.
People have been insulating their homes for thousands of years with grass, mud and other natural materials. Now we use fiberglass, foam insulation, special glass in more developed areas, while houses in poorer, hotter places are sometimes still insulated (and quite effectively) with loam – typically a sand/silt/clay mixture.
Some architects are working on glass houses that would be suitable in all climates and require neither heating nor cooling. The only requirement would be that those who live in them don’t throw stones.
Other ways to decrease your home’s energy bills include installing solar panels, energy-efficient light bulbs and replacing old appliances with Energy Star-rated ones.
Another thing to consider is what to do with your home while you’re not living in it. For example if you are away on vacation or for work, switch off your appliances and electronic devices. This means not just setting them to standby, but switching the power point off (if you life in the UK or Ireland, for example) or simply unplugging them from their electrical outlets.
In the kitchen, the most obvious targets are the kettle, toaster, coffee machine and microwave. After emptying the fridge and freezer, you can switch off these appliances, too. The oven, dishwasher and washing machine can also be unplugged but may require a little more effort: in most kitchens, these appliances have to be pulled away from the fixtures to reach the plug.
–The Ecologist
For more on this topic read the entire article in The Ecologist and for some general energy-saving tips for the home, see this report from My Fox Detroit.
The following short video from Deutsche Welle’s Global Ideas looks into past, present and future ways of insulating homes around the world:
Tags: climate, energy, home, house, insulation
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Finding ways of a more efficient, eco -friendly and most of all economical in insulating our homes is a must.. Here because we’re tropical country, summer is definitely unbearable, the two main options of people are air conditions and industrial fan. Be ready for a sky rocketing high not only with electric bills but with water bills too, coz instead of bathing just for twice a day definitely it would be tripled. My own version of cooling our home is I’ve suggested to be made the roof up higher than the usual. Then we made sure there’s window at every wind blows direction. I have 4 shady trees in front and plants hanging and surrounding the house…
thanx for the article, i had fun reading it!