* RodWarnock.com *

Hi,
I am sure that many of us are reeling form the high energy bills we have received following the recent artic spell of weather. Many of you like me probably had to turn up your heating to keep warm with the resulting higher energy bills.

hopefully some people will have decided that they have had enough of paying through the nose for energy and will have resolved to do something about it. What should we do and where do we start?
Well the sensible first step is to try to reduce the energy we waste in our homes. This does not mean doing without things or spending any money, but rather developing good habits.

We should close doors behind us, turn off lights when we leave a room, turn off equipment such as TV’s at the socket rather than leave on standby, make sure we have a full load before operating washing machines or spin dryers. If we have any appliances that need replacing we should do so with energy efficient appliances.

Having completed the no cost measures we can then consider low cost measures like replacing our light bulbs with energy efficient ones. They cost a little more but they do last longer and will reduce your electricity bill and your carbon footprint.

Another important area to look at is insulation. Is your roof space properly insulated? The current UK recommendation is for 270mm of insulation. You should check to see that your doors and windows are insulated. If any of your appliances need replacing make sure to replace them with energy efficient appliances.

Once you have taken care of these low cost measures to improve the energy efficiency of your home, you can then consider how you might generate your own energy at home. How do you decide on what approach to take? Much will depend on the location of your home. Solar panels to generate electricity can be used almost anywhere provided that there is sufficient exposure to the sun with out obstructions such as tall buildings or trees.

Wind turbines however require a wind speed of 5-6metres per second in order to be viable. Solar panels only need daylight to generate electricity and are normally erected on the roof of your house.
Why not check now how you can generate your own electricity and save 50% or more on your electricity bill.

Hi,

I am sure lovers of Scotch whisky would consider it sacrilidge to use the waste products from distilling whisky to produce methane gas to generate electricity. However this is exactly what is about to be done in some of Scotlands whisky distilleries.

It is great to see companies taking the initiative to try and generate their own electricity to run their operations. Apparently the waste products from the distilling process is converted into methane gas using an anaerobic digester. The methane gas is then used to run a gas turbine for electricity.

I am sure that if this scheme is a success more companies will adopt this system and so cut their electricity bills. this of course is going to be more and more important as the price of electricity increases over the coming years.

Hi,

the UK government has just announced that it has granted licences for energy companies to build up to 6,400 giant wind turbines around the coast of Britain. This of course is great news for jobs as it will create thousands of new jobs, however it will be paid for by increased energy bills for consumers as the cost is likely to be £75 billion.

This is part of the agreement for Britain to produce 15% of its energy on renewables by 2020. There are those that are sceptical as to whether there will be enough wind during a big freeze when wind speed is really low to turn the blades of these giant wind turbines.

The key point here for consumers is that energy bills are going to continue to rise. However there are ways in which we can protect ourselves from rising energy bills. Firstly by reducing waste of energy in our homes, like not leaving appliances on standby, switching off lights and other inexpensive measures as indicated in my FREE report to the right of this post.

What else can we do? Well you can generate your own electricity with a micro wind turbine that you build yourself. Just check the wind speed in your location ( it needs to be 4-6metres per second). You can also build your own solar panels to generate electricity, and remember you only need daylight to generate electricity with solar panels.

The choices are to pay for installation of solar panels or windmills, which will be thousands of dollars, or you can build solar panels yourself for less than $100 and a wind turbine for less than $150. If you employ energy efficiency in your home and also build one of these natural energy generating devices you will make a signigficant reduction on those ever increasing energy bills.

Learn how to build your own solar and wind power systems

Hi,

       This is an important message for those of you who are considering changing your old boiler to a modern energy efficient condensing boiler. Perhaps you have set some money aside and are now ready to spend anywhere from £1,500 to £3,000 on a new boiler. STOP! before you do please read this story and learn from it. eighteen months ago I decided to replace my old Potterton boiler (it was 30 years old) for a modern efficient condensing boiler. I should add that my house was built in the 1970’s.

The reason I am telling this story now is that the UK Government has just announced that they are providing a grant of £400 to 250,000 people to encourage them to change their old boilers for modern efficient condensing boilers. To get back to my story, I duly replaced my old Potterton boiler which I might add worked very well and heated all but one of my radiators very well ( the remaining one had a leak). What I discovered having also replaced six of the twelve old radiators, was that this new efficient condensing boiler barely heated my radiators.

Good Heating engineers are unfortunately like hen’s teeth, and I have had a number to look at my system. Some told me that because I had small microbore pipes I would have to replace all the pipes in the system. I eventually by recommendation got a good heating engineer who told me that I should have my heating system power flushed. He did it twice and still the heat from the radiators is at best adequate in some rooms and really poor in others.

Th conclusion I draw from all this following discussions with others who have had the same problems is that these modern condensing boilers may be efficient at burning the gas and so are more environmentally friendly, but they are not powerful enough to heat a microbore system efficiently. Manufacturers deny that this is the case, but lets face it these modern boilers only last for ten years anyway.

So I urge you to think very carefully before throwing out your old boiler if it still works well, because you may well be sitting in the cold for the rest of the winter or using secondary heating as I have to do. Fortunately I have solar panels which heat my water from April to September and this is the best investment I have made in my home to date. I would love to hear from others about their views on this subject. I suspect nothing will change until there is a design change in these boilers.

I should add that the cost of replacing your microbore pipes could be £5,000 or more. OOUCH! 

Hi Everyone,

Happy New Year! Whatever you may think about global warming climate change is a reality. I happen to believe that we missed an opportunity at the recent Copenhagen Climate change summit to change things for the better for our children and grand children by not agreeing to binding figures on emissions.

All reports suggest that this year of 2010 is going to be another difficult one for most economies throughout the world. Many countries are still in recession or only just emerging from recession, so surely it is time for each of us not just to help save the environemt as individuals, but to save ourselves some money and protect ourselves from rising energy costs.

I am not just talking about things like building our own solar panels or wind turbines or even magnetic power generators, but about the simple inexpensive things we can do to save money on energy costs. Simple things like not leaving electrical equipment on standby, closing doors behind us, turning off lights in rooms when we leave them.  We could also start to change our light bulbs for energy efficient ones, replace any domestic appliances that have expired with eco-friendly appliances.

We can also draught proof our doors and windows, and generally improve insulation in our properties. Why not make it a new years resolution to reduce your electricity bill by conserving energy in your home. There are many simple things you can do . Have a look at my free report on energy saving in the home to the right of this post. I wish you all a happy, healthy, prosperous and money saving 2010.