Here’s a very nice project I stumbled upon, called Creating a Greener House. It’s about the restoration of a 1928 house where great attention was given to energy efficiency. The site contains details about insulation, energy efficient heating and cooling and ventilation. A heat reclamation device is also installed in the form of a shower heat recovery mechanism. Measurements of the actual energy savings have also been made.
Energy efficient heating is, in many countries, not as highly emphasized as it should be. The energy losses due to poor insulation and wrong heating choices can be huge. According to David MacKay’s excellent Sustainable Energy – without the hot air book, heating and cooling accounts for almost 20% of every developed country citizen’s energy consumption (37 kilowatt hours per day out of an estimated total of 195 kilowatt hours per day per person). Admittedly, this percentage is a mean number for the UK and in other areas more air conditioning would be needed, but in this areas less heating is also needed thus keeping things slightly balanced. As 20% is a rather big percentage and 37 kilowatt hours is a lot of energy, it is very reasonable to try to increase the efficiency of heating solutions (and air conditioning for warmer countries like the one I live in). This can be achieved by using more energy efficient heating devices, as well as improve insulation and using heating a bit more wisely.
