Additional Radiator to Save Energy!

Saving money by installing an extra radiator seems a strange thing to do. The reason I'm doing it is to improve comfort through better control and overall supply of heat around the house.

The living room was the main area problem area because it didn't have a radiator even though the room included a large bay window. As the main relaxation area the result of this omission was to rely on heat from the adjacent dining room. However, to do this meant that the dining room was often over heated in order to 'spill heat into the living room. A wasteful situation so the decision was made to install an additional radiator in the living room.

Obviously only time will tell on the net result but I'm optimistic it will result in lower heating demands and greater comfort downstairs.

A Low Cost DIY Insulated Radiator Panel

If you have radiators on outside walls and want to save heat loss through the wall then insulation behind the radiator is well worth fitting. However, my criteria is they need to be inexpensive, easy to fit, remove and unobtrusive. For a solution that I think ticks most of those boxes have a look at the DIY section at www.conserveandsave.co.uk.

The Green Deal

The Green Deal is the government's latest initiative to encourage us to save energy. It's a comprehensive process that enables consumers to save energy at no additional cost. This is how I understand it will work.

A consumer (private householder or business) wanting to save money and use the scheme will engage an accredited advisor who will survey their property, prepare a report and make costed proposals. If accepted the proposals will be entered onto a register and a scheme of payment drawn up.

The scheme of payment and management of the financing is the clever part of the process as it employs the services of the energy providers. Again, as I currently understand it the upgrade work (which must also be carried out by an accredited contractor) will be paid for by the energy provider who will then include repayments in the consumers energy bill. Critically, the repayments shouldn't exceed the savings made by the work! (The cynic in me sees anticipates some very lively discussions taking place in the future between consumer, advisor and energy supplier!).

The One Show - Energy Saving Feature

Last night the One Show included an article on energy saving at home and was part of the discussion on the governments energy tariff initiative. It featured two families who had been set the challenge of saving energy. Both lived in the same street, in similar properties etc.

At the end of the feature the families had indeed saved a significant amount of energy. If memory serves each family would save the equivalent to approximately £500 a year if they lived as they had been doing over the course of the challenge. However, the over riding impression it left me with was of savings made at the expense of comfort. For example, living in a dimly lit, cool house.

Although these are certainly ways that will save energy, my work at www.conserveandsave.co.uk indicate that this is not the only way. Many homes are still as they were originally designed when energy bills weren't a consideration. Fortunately, we now have modern systems, materials and products to help significantly without loss of standards.

Insulated Radiator Panels

The house audit, documented on the web site www.conserveandsave.co.uk, identifies that radiators on external walls can be a source of significant heat loss. Insulated radiator panels can be purchased to reduce this loss. However, as with all energy conservation improvements, the key question is "will the investment show a significant return". For the project house the calculated saving was £22 per annum although it has to be said the most conservative estimates were used for insulation effectiveness etc.

Although the figure is quite modest it would be worth doing if the insulated radiator panel products were both very inexpensive and easy to fit. After conducting a very quick survey, I'm not altogether convinced that they meet my criteria which is

• Rapid payback.
• Unobtrusive. 
• Easy to fit. i.e. No glueing etc

So I wondered if it were possible to manufacture some from readily available materials. I think I was successful and details will be posted on www.conserveandsave.co.uk

Back Boiler Replacement Estimated Saving £170 per annum.

The most recent work on www.conserveandsave.co.uk has been on the heating system which, including cooking, accounts for approximately 50% of the project houses energy cost. One of the key components of this is the central heating boiler which is definitely of low efficiency because its age and obsolete design. For example, it

1. Has a continually lit pilot - Modern boilers don't.
2. A simple heat exchanger of approx 70% efficiency - 90% or higher can now be expected
3. Draws its combustion air from inside the house - Modern systems have an integrated intake with flue.

If the boiler could be replaced with a more modern design the estimated saving is approximately £170/year. This is an attractive project to consider although if the replacement cost was £1000 including labour, the payback would be 5 - 6 years. However, this doesn't take into account fuel price increases so the payback time would probably be further reduced.

It's a pity the government have replaced the boiler scrappage scheme because it's still a large sum to find!

The objectives of www.conserveandsave.co.uk

Life has a tendency to get in the way of even the best intentions so there has been little in the way of blog activity. However, more progress has been made at www.conserveandsave.co.uk so its worth a visit. A new look and more focussed content.

The last posts were on monitoring and logging such things as fuel usage and temperature to help with analysis. In fact two XBees were purchased and a start made on developing the equipment. Having said that, on reflection, I felt that much more could and should be extracted from the basic information before getting absorbed in other disciplines such as software development. Consequently, useful work has been included on the site such as analysing energy consumption from meter readings with the theoretical calculations.

First and foremost the objective of this work is to be practical. Although energy costs a lot - £1000 pounds a year for my project house, it is just as costly to make improvements and so difficult to justify. So many 'problem areas' are intrinsic to the house design and the era in which it was constructed. Compared with much of the equipment we now use our homes are crude. They don't help us to save. They don't tell us how much energy they are using or adapt to our needs. Its all possible now but again, costly to retrofit and justify.

Therefore, another key objective is to quantify areas of saving and estimate the financial return rather than spend money on the basis of what a company says in an advertising claim. Hence the work on  www.conserveandsave.co.uk to analyse theoretical to actual energy consumption. If the calculated results prove reasonably accurate it is an approach available to all on which decisions can be made.  Money is too hard come by for most at the moment and its important to know that every penny spent is earning good interest better than the bank etc.

Zigbee, XBee and Arduino

There exists a range of products based on an open wireless communications standard called Zigbee.

In particular there is a hardware device called Xbee which can be used to interface with devices such as thermocouples and switches to name but a few.

The next stage is to buy some XBees and develop a sensor network.

Surprising discoveries

Just to recap, the reason for the seemingly strange excursion into wireless technologies is to find solutions for two reasons. The first and immediate one is to find an affordable method of automatically collecting data such as outside temperature etc. The second is to explore the feasibility of implementing controls for heating and lighting.

Happily, since the last blog, the outlook is optimistic! There exists a substantial community who are producing systems for just these purposes.

Interestingly the community comprises mostly of non commercial members producing standards based, open source solutions with cost a key objective.

More later.......

The Internet of Things

Over 10 years ago I remember attending an IBM presentation on the internet of 'things'. Although 10 years is a long time in computing it seems like there has been more talk than progress.The technology to communicate with wireless devices in order to measure or control is still some way off if my research is accurate. Zigbee looks exciting but products are hard to find. Xbee is the most interesting implementation.

Monitoring Systems

Until smart meters become a reality then reading gas consumption is a problem. Somehow a way of reading mechanical numerals and/or a rotating pointer had to be found. Previously, I'd seen discussion on the CurrentCost forum but drew the conclusion it was mostly work in progress. A search of the web revealed a device for reading the meter via the pointer and much more. In brief a wealth of technology was found by the name of Zigbee, Xbee, Arduino to name a few. These encompass both commercial and amateur solutions for monitoring and control. More research on this to come.

Comparing Estimated to Actual Energy Loss

Having estimated heat loss by calculation it seemed a good idea to see if the results compared well to actual heat loss. To do this required measuring gas consumption. A series of manual readings were taken but it became obvious that these were not accurate enough for the one hour test intervals.  An automated solution such as the Current Cost device used on the electricity meter would be ideal. Some investigation was required.

The results of the gas readings plotted against outside temperature can be found on www.conserveandsave.co.uk. As can be seen there is no discernable correlation and hence the need for finer measurement over the time period.

House energy survey

Priorities have been set by 2 main influences; cost and comfort. Perhaps the most urgent being comfort and this manifests itself as draughts. Surprisingly the major culprit are the double glazed windows. Replacement seals were purchased from Screwfix but with little improvement. The problem is in the frames. Whether this was during manufacture or fitting is hard to know but they are well out of any warranty. A problem to be resolved.

Survey, Estimate, Measure and Controls

Work to date has been in four areas.
Survey - To identify obvious areas of energy inefficiency such as draughts.
Estimate - To quantify loss to determine where money and effort will be best invested.
Measure - To obtain actual consumption figures to compare against estimates and investigate how consumption is influenced by such factors as wind.
Control - To evaluate how well the current controls e.g. lighht switches, thermostats contribute to inefficiency and discomfort.

More information on the first two can be found at the companion site www.conserveandsave.co.uk