Human Behaviour

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No matter what the efficiency level of the heating system is in your home, it can be undermined completely by the human error, or simple bad habits adopted without correction by the occupants of the house.

Leaving windows and doors open, heating areas that you plan to work or relax in and then not doing it and a myriad of other things all contribute to heat loss and wastage in the home.

With Ireland now in a punishing recession, Irish households must take greater care over their heat costs. Constant attention and focus on heat savings needs to be uppermost in the minds of all occupants of the home, particularly teenagers and younger children who have no appreciation of the cost factor of heating the home.

Good habits should be introduced in the home to kids at an early age. Good habits in many cases are however lacking in the owners of the home.

Using energy more efficiently in your daily life comes easily once you get started. This site lists many ways to save energy and heat loss around the house, at work and on the road. Here, www.heating-ireland.com lists the overall top tips:

Turn your heating down to a comfortable 20ºC - lowering your thermostat by 1ºC will knock 10% off your heating bill.
Buy 'A' rated kitchen appliances - they cost less to run and over time will give you considerable savings on your electricity bill.
Use compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) instead of traditional bulbs - they use 20% of the energy and last up to 15 times as long.
If a room becomes too hot, open the door and allow heat out into other areas rather than opening the window and emptying the room of heat quickly and uselessly.
Make sure your boiler is lagged, as well as all approach point pipes going to it.
Keep doors in each room closed, particularly where you have zoned heating.
At night, pull the drapes and blinds on the window of the rooms you occupy as there are a great barrier against heat loss.
Put foil-covered polystyrene blocks behind your radiators as this will force the heat out into the room rather than allowing it to be drawn towards the window where a percentage of it will escape.
Avoid unnecessary electricity use between 5pm and 7pm - help reduce national CO 2 emissions.
Set your thermostat as low as is comfortable in the winter and as high as is comfortable in the summer
Clean or replace filters on furnaces once a month or as needed.
Clean warm-air registers, baseboard heaters, and radiators as needed; make sure they are not blocked by furniture, carpeting, or drapes.
Bleed trapped air from hot-water radiators once or twice a season; if in doubt about how to perform this task, call a professional.
Turn off kitchen, bath, and other exhaust fans within 20 minutes after you are done cooking or bathing; when replacing exhaust fans, consider installing high-efficiency, low-noise models.
During the heating season, keep the draperies and shades on your south-facing windows open during the day to allow the sunlight to enter your home and closed at night to reduce the chill you may feel from cold windows.