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.