Keeping your home cosy

With temperatures dropping and electricity costs rising, heating your home in an energy-efficient way becomes a hot topic. Those in the know say that decreasing your home’s heat demand is the way to go.

The effectiveness and cost implications of all heating methods are affected by certain factors inherent in the house to which they are applied. While experts agree that it is easier to incorporate heating methods while building a house, this needn’t leave existing homeowners out in the cold. There are many innovative options, from harnessing the abundance of solar power to the primal allure of the wood-burning fireplace, and every modern and traditional method in between.

When decreasing your home’s heat demand, containing existing heat is better that generating additional heat. To harness nature, you need to arrange rooms, furniture, and curtains to make optimal use of the sun’s warming rays on the northern side of your house. Consider natural tiles and stone walls, which absorb heat during the day and keep your home warm at night.

Heat can also be effectively retained by insulating the house’s ceiling (and roof) and windows. Cellulose fibre ceiling insulation is an eco-friendly insulation made locally from recycled paper and milled to optimum density. After installation, warm air is trapped inside the house, minimising the transfer of heat or cold by conduction. Double-glazed windows are another effective way of controlling heat and cold transfer, with the added bonus of reducing sound transmission.

To generate additional heat in your home, solar heating devices can be used to heat either air or fluid. Solar air-heating is a very efficient way of keeping the inside of your house toasty. Solar fluid-heating devices can be used to warm the water inside your home or even a pool.

Air-conditioning units use roughly a third of the electricity necessary for conventional electric heaters and are more eco-friendly than gas devices. Unlike most other central heating systems, air conditioners provide immediate heat.

If immediate heat is not a concern, a more traditional approach is wood-burning fireplaces and stoves. Designs and materials used today are almost endless. Combustion stoves are an excellent option. They have a long lifespan (more than 25 years) and most of the heat generated remains inside the home, because a low chimney draw minimises the need to suck cold air in from outside. Units can keep burning on one or two pieces of wood per hour which makes it a very cost-efficient solution.

If you prefer not working up a sweat by chopping wood but want to enjoy the same benefits, gas-burning and electric fireplaces are available in an assortment of designs. A wide selection of gas heaters are now made with safety measures such as flame-failure protection, oxygen-out flame cut-off, electric-safe ignition and infrared ceramic heating plates. Oil heaters are equally effective, plus often more manoeuvrable than the average gas heater.

If you want to incorporate heating devices into the décor of your home, consider panel heaters or under-floor heating. Wall panel heaters such as e-heaters are both energy efficient and eco-friendly. Underfloor heating is a highly effective and convenient solution to even the most daunting home-heating challenge. However, an inferior quality underfloor heating system can cause problems such as a circular draft in a room, circulating dust particles and germs, and excessive electricity consumption. Only products and service providers that adhere to international standards such as ISO and IEC and IC (safety standards) should be used.

The key to the safe and effective use of all these devices and systems is timely maintenance, which will extend their lifespan, ultimately reducing your home’s energy needs. Planned, preventative maintenance is an integral part of energy efficiency in any home.

The information contained in this article is of a general nature and intended for information purposes only.