Home heating energy saving tips. By MyZero Carbon, the best time to act is now. Please remember to like and share this video and subscribe to my channel. With gas prices going through the roof in 2021, many people are asking, how can I save energy on heating my home? This is a great question as it will help to save energy, save money and save carbon dioxide emissions helping to save the planet. So the following actions are really climate actions. About half of these you can take during the cold months. The other actions you can take any time. Having done most of the actions in this video myself, our household is saving 587 pounds based on the national average energy bill of 1277 pounds. It's cold outside so let's get going. Step 1 is about heating less. So here my top tip that would work for every home, it takes zero time and saves up to 24 percent or about 300 pounds on energy bills. Turn the thermostat down, that's right, every one degree saves you about 6% in heating costs. You may have to change your dress code from this to this. A small change in lifestyle that makes a massive difference to your money and the planet. So you can go from heating like this to this. Other ways to avoid wasting heat are don't heat your home when you're not in. If you're away for longer, for example a Christmas holiday, turn the thermostat right down to 5 or 10 degree celgis. You may have the heating running for the first 24 hours after you return but I guarantee you it will take less energy in total. For empty rooms or as people leave the house, turn the thermostatic radiator valves down or turn the radiator valves completely off. So you only heat the rooms you need. If you're just using one room, for example a study, it may be more economic to have an electric heater running rather than the gas boiler. When I am first to start working, early in the morning on a cold winter's day, I often put a little blanket over my legs to keep warm. Whether you use electricity for heating or not, switching to a 100% renewable electricity provider is always a great way to reduce your carbon emissions. The big clean switch is a not for profit organisation that helps you do that. Link in description below. In my household we are fortunate enough to have solar panels on the roof. So on a sunny day in winter, between 10am and 2pm we try and turn the gas boiler off and the electric heater on. Step 2. To make further savings we need to understand where we lose heat in our home and what is most effective in reducing heat loss. For the average house, for the average house, heat loss is about 35% through the walls, 25% through the roof, 15% through the floor, 15% through cracks and gaps around doors and windows and 10% through the window frames and glass panes. So let's look at climate actions you can take to avoid heat loss. Cavity wall insulation National government, UK local authorities and some energy companies in the UK may offer free or highly subsidised cavity wall insulation schemes, sometimes just receiving child benefit may qualify you. A commercial provider will charge several hundred pounds. Depending on your circumstances you will be able to save about 100 to 300 pounds each year and save between 300kg and 1.1 tonne of carbon dioxide emissions each year. Next up, loft insulation. You need to make sure it is the full recommended height of 270mm. Again, you may get this done for free or highly subsidised, DIY is also an option. Commercial cost is about 300 to 400 pounds. You'll get your investment back in just one or two years so economically this is the best of all options and a bit of a no-brainer. At the same time you save between 500kg and 1.3 tonne of carbon dioxide each year. Floor insulation To tackle a further 15% heat loss will cost you between 400 and 1,300 pounds depending on circumstances and if you're doing a DIY or buy a commercial installer. It will save you between 35 and 85 pounds each year and reduce carbon emissions by 120 to 300kg each year. Stopping drafts and filling cracks This is a lot of small DIY tasks costing you a few hundred pounds. You could save 35 to 85 pounds each year and save 120 to 300kg carbon dioxide each year. More detail on this later. And finally for comparison. If you replace single glazed windows with A++ rated PVC windows, it will put you back about 4,000 to 5,000 pounds. Both carbon savings and energy build savings are relatively modest. Economically, this hardly makes sense but it may add comfort and save about 330kg carbon dioxide each year. To stay well clear of any online scams, always check with your local authority and energy advice charities. This is not a DIY video but please check out my home insulation DIY playlist on YouTube. Links to these and other energy saving options in the description. Okay, so the next 10 years are critical in reducing our global carbon emissions. So in summary, let's check which measure is more effective in reducing carbon emissions and which is most cost effective. At number 5, floor insulation reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 2 tons in 10 years. Achieving a similar amount by the fair bit cheaper, drafts and gaps at number 4. At number 3, the quite expensive new double glazed windows option will save about 4 tons. At number 2, cavity wall insulation will save about 6 tons. And the top option loft insulation will save 8 tons. Okay, let's look at option 4, drafts and gaps and alternatives to the expensive option for the three new windows in a bit more detail. The nice thing about this is that these are all lots of small DIY actions. They are low cost, they cost little time, you can start today, combined you're tackling about 25% of heat loss and it makes economic sense after only 3 to 4 years. Probably the biggest gaps in your home are your garage door, your extractor fan, your letterbox, your cat flap or your fireplace if you got one. Consider two examples how you can use draft exclusives for your garage door and letterbox. We have the wind blowing through our extractor fan so we did this and then to make it look nicer this. On the outside remove the cover, you'll find an external and an internal plastic tube. After 30 years or so, our insulation between the inner and outer tube was pretty much gone so I filled it with some rock wool. And finally if you have gaps between the outer tube and the brick wall fill it with some filler. Depending on circumstances and size and nature of your gap as you have just seen you may need some rock wool or even some thin sheets of polystyrene. For filling cracks in your exterior wool you will often need a cartridge gun and a filler cartridge. Assemble like this, make sure it's for outdoor use and check if you can paint over it or not and think about the colour. Follow the instructions accordingly, what may seem like a very small gap at first, after removing old and adequate old insulation may actually turn out to be quite a substantial gap like here. I filled the depth of the gap with glass wool first and then topped it up with a flexible external sealant applied with a cartridge gun. Never close this gap immediately below the window, this has the purpose of draining water from the glazing unit and should not be filled. Moving on to doors, doors may benefit from a draft excluder, a rolled up blanket may do. Minotives are a DIY draft excluder or a draft excluder brush fixed at the bottom of the door. We use an old bean bag and an old blanket to stop heat escaping through our main house door. So in one spith move we have dealt with the cat flap, the letter box, the gaps around the door frame and the single pane glass. We put DIY heat reflector foil behind all radiators to reduce heat loss, it's thick cardboard covered in aluminium foil. You can also buy radiator heat reflector foil for a few pounds. Curtains, make sure that closed curtains do not cover over the radiator because if you do that all the heat from the radiator is going straight up and then out of the window. One option is to bunch up the curtains on the window sill so the heat goes up and into the room. You may be able to close the curtains behind the radiator, a deep windowsill covering the radiator does also help. Don't wait for dusk to close curtains in rooms you're not using, when you leave a room even just for a couple of hours close to curtains. If you have one heat barrier like blinds, add a second layer or even add a third heat barrier layer like this. The only exception for closing curtains are south facing windows on a sunny day opening the curtains will import free energy. Windows is your window sill cold to the touch, place a polystyrene sheet permanently into your window sill for a warm touch. Insulating doors and windows. You will need a wet cloth, some paper tissue, insulation tape and a pair of scissors. Actually, you will need several rolls of insulation tape. They come in different thickness and sizes so make sure you buy the right one. Clean and wipe the window frame, dry it, fix the insulation tape. All in three minutes real time job done. And here the same for a door connecting the living room and porch, job done. And to finish with, here my top tips again. Switching to 100% renewable electricity provider will save about 315kg carbon dioxide emissions. When your main thermostat down, and save up to 24% on gas bills, save up to 300 pounds and 1.1 tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year with a cavity wall insulation. And finally, a loft insulation will save you up to 400 pounds and up to 1.3 tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year. And always remember when many small people in many small places take many small steps they will change the face of the world. You can find out more about what you can do on this YouTube channel and its playlist on my blog and by following my zero carbon on Facebook or Twitter. If you would like to see more videos like Twitter, if you would like to see more videos like this, please support my zero carbon on Patreon or Libra Pay for a regular donation or coffee for one of the nation. Links to those donation pages in description below. Links to more information in the description below. Please remember to like and share this video and subscribe to my channel. My zero carbon, the best time to act is now.