Featured Article

 

Heating your property with gas is three to four times cheaper than heating it with electricity, but during winter months, your gas bill can easily skyrocket. With winter rolling in and the weather getting colder, we asked our most experienced gas engineers for advice. Follow these 5 tips from our experts to reduce your gas bills this winter.

 More...

READ ARTICLE

Heating costs can be a major expense during the winter months, but there are a number of things you can do to reduce them. Whilst most of these can be done by the general public, you may need additional help with others.

More...

 

Heating your property with gas is three to four times cheaper than heating it with electricity, but during winter months, your gas bill can easily skyrocket. With winter rolling in and the weather getting colder, we asked our most experienced gas engineers for advice. Follow these 5 tips from our experts to reduce your gas bills this winter.

 More...

 

As a society, our energy output is excessive. Electricity and natural gas are the most-used energy sources within homes, and they create greenhouse gases and air pollutants that are extremely harmful to the environment. To combat this, energy efficiency is essential. It helps consumers to reduce their energy consumption, utility costs and the impact of the carbon footprint.

Energy efficiency should be practiced by all households - it is an integral part of building a cleaner future. The UK have committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050. By being energy efficient, there is a chance that we will be able to achieve this target.

 

Does Energy Efficiency Reduce Bills? 

Yes! By lowering and prioritising your energy use, you'll see a reduction in your monthly bills. There are energy-efficient products on the market which may initially cost more, but they will undoubtedly save you more money over time. 

Interestingly, according to the Department of Energy & Climate Change, small and medium sized businesses could reduce their energy bills by up to 25% by installing energy efficient measures and practicing behavioural change.

 

What is Energy Efficiency? 

Energy efficiency, in its simplest form, is using less energy to perform the same task, thus eliminating energy waste.

A good example of this would be energy-efficient LED light bulbs - they are able to produce the same amount of light as incandescent light bulbs, but they use up to 80% less electricity. 

 

How To Be Energy Efficient 

If you'd like to start implementing energy efficient practices, then these small changes from the Energy Saving Trust are a good place to start.

Install a smart meter 

Smart meters are able to give you real-time information on your energy use. This way, you'll be able to manage your usage better so you can save money and reduce harmful emissions

Draught-proof windows and doors

Naturally, your home will lose heat through draughts around entryways, gaps and windows. With the winter months creeping in, there's no doubt that homes will suddenly get a lot colder. 

To combat this, you could invest in professional draught-proofing. This can cost around £225 on average, but the long-term benefits outweigh the upfront cost. You could save up to £125 every year on energy bills if you take the plunge and draught-proof your property. 

Second guess your washing routine

By putting more thought into your weekly clothes wash, you could save yourself around £34 a year. Avoid using higher temperatures as this uses up more energy, and try to limit your clothes wash to once a week.

Lights out!

Start a habit of turning off a light when you leave an area within a home. We're all guilty of it, but you could save almost £20 a year!

If you want to go the extra mile, swap all of your bulbs for energy efficient LEDS along with integrated sensors and timers for lights to ensure they're only on when they need to be. 

 

What Are the Benefits of Energy Efficiency? 

There are no disadvantages to being energy efficient - so it's a win-win situation! 

  • Reduce air pollution

Air pollution is one of the world's single biggest environmental risks to human health. Energy efficiency can reduce both indoor and outdoor concentrations of air pollutions. 

  • Improve health and wellbeing

Energy efficiency supports good mental and physical health by creating a healthy living environment for society. Recent evidence from the World Health Organisation (WHO) shows that chronic thermal issues and fuel poverty also have negative mental health effects such as increased anxiety, stress and depression.

  • Lower your own energy prices

By using less energy, your monthly energy bill will reduce. You can also lower energy prices in general by reducing the need to add expensive power generation through reducing the pressure on energy resources. 

  • Improve energy access

Continuing from the point above, if you do this, energy will become a more accessible source due to the lack of pressurised demand. 


At Access Training, we train our Gas and Electric Engineers for a sustainable future

We believe in quality trade education that lasts, for the peace of mind of our students and any customers that they work for in the future. Take a look at our range of electric and gas courses and get in touch at 0800 345 7492 to contribute to a more energy-efficient future.

Gas Courses     Electrical Courses

 

The Green Deal has just had its first birthday, and unfortunately it hasn't been such a great year for the UK Government's flagship energy efficiency programme. 

Official figures have revealed that only 626 houses have live Green Deal plans in place, which is nowhere near the 10,000 figures minsters were expecting to be in place. As of December, only a total of 1,612 houses had made plans overall.

While assessments had never really been on the rise, they notably declined by 21% during December, which the government attributed to the Christmas holidays. However several leading green energy groups have spoken out against the Green Deal's poor statistics, stressing that the Government needs to try a lot hard in order for it to succeed.

The Federation of Master Builders has given the first year of the Green Deal a "report card" rating of two out of five, commenting that is has "not achieved the desired results in its first full year, with the majority of SME installers and home owners failing to engage". Chief Executive Brian Berry called the financial package "unattractive to most consumers". He also went on to say how the programme simply doesn't stack up against other high-street money saving alternatives such as loans and credit cards available at more competitive rates. His suggestions to improve the Green Deal were:

"The single most effective measure to kick-start demand would be to reduce the rate of VAT from 20% to 5% on all domestic repair and maintenance work, including energy-efficiency improvements. This would be a real incentive to home owners across the board to think about getting a professional tradesperson in to quote on a variety of repair and maintenance projects."

Meanwhile the UK Green Building Council also had things to say about the figures, calling it a "a wake-up call to the Government" that it is not delivering. Chief Excutive Paul King suggested that the Government must "recognise energy efficiency as a national infrastructure priority and be prepared to delve into its purse to make its flagship policy more appealing through stronger incentives and more attractive finance options"

But despite its failings, the Government have announced that they plan to stick by the Green Deal, and believe that although its hard a slow start (to put it lightly) 2014 will definitely be the year it takes off. Climate Change minister Greg Barker "acknowledged" that things hadn't developed the way the government had anticipated at a conference yesterday, he still though its first year had been an "encouraging start".

He also commented that the supply chain was now in place, with more than 125 Green Deal providers at the ready along with 2900 individual advisers and 2300 organistations officially approved to carry out installations. Procedures are also set to be simplified by the newly established Green Deal Working Group, with further alterations and improvements to be announced over the coming weeks.

So will 2014 fare better for the Green Deal? It's too early to say, but if these numbers are anything to go by then it doesn't look like it can do much worse.

Last month the Government announced that they would be making amendments to Part L of the Building Regulations, which deals with energy efficiency in both domestic dwellings and commercial properties. These changes, which will come into effect in April 2014, are designed to bring about a 6% improvement on new-homes compared with the original 2010 standard and a 9% improvement for non-domestic buildings.

So what exactly does Part L cover? The answer is essentially ANY method of providing heat and energy to your household or commercial building. This includes electricity, hot water, heating, wall/loft insulation, lighting and more. The last revision to these regulations was made in 2010, and have since made it so that every dwelling started after the 1st October 2010 must adhere to these new rules. This also stretches to new installations which are moved even slightly after this time.

An example to give it some context: Since 2010 all central heating systems and hot water outlets must be fitted with a thermostatic mixing valve (TMV) to regulate hot water temperatures and keep them no higher than 45°C. A bath fitting before October 2010 would not need one of these, and should the homeowner choose to refurbish their bath without it moving in the room this would continue to apply. HOWEVER if he or she then decided to get a new bath a move where in the bathroom it is fitted, it would then be subject to these new requirements.

Of course the Government's flagship method to bring down the carbon footprint is the Green Deal, which is pushing for more households to adopt renewable energy methods such as solar photovoltatic, solar thermal and underfloor heating. However one other method they are trying is through ECO, which stands for Energy Company Obligation. If you're on certain benefits (visit here for the full list), are retired/disabled/have children and own or rent your home, you could find you are entitled to all or part of the cost towards boiler repair/replacements and loft/cavity wall insulation.

What will play a significant part in these new changes however is lighting efficacy. The revised Part L will include a new method for measuring lighting efficiency, which takes into account the whole installation rather than the individual components. This is called LENI - the Lighting Efficiency Numeric Indicator. The Lighting Industry Association have put together a mini guide to these new requirements, including the formula and calculations to work out luminaire efficacy the LENI, which can be viewed here

Make no mistake, there is A LOT of information and statistics surrounding Part L but hopefully this post has made things a little clearer for you and given you a better idea of what is required to help reduce Britain's carbon footprint.

Get in touch to learn more about our training courses!

First Name *
Surname *
Telephone Number *
E-mail address *
Ask A Question *
 
Security Character Security Character Security Character Security Character Security Character Security Character
Enter Letters (No Spaces) *