How to energy proof your home
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Phantom Power Consumption
We often do not realise that our homes have many connected electronic devices that continuously use electricity even when not in use. It might not be much, but day by day, device by device, it adds to significant and useless energy consumption you have to pay for.
Mobile phone chargers
Plugged chargers draw power even when no device is plugged in. Or even when the device is fully charged.
TV & Gadgets
Every TV on standby uses electricity. Especially with Chromecast, DVD player, playstation and other gadgets.
Wifi Box
Wifi box consumes anything from 2 to 20 watts per day. And often we only use it 4 to 6 hours out of 24.
9 Ways To Make Your Home More Energy Efficient
Here are the most important ways to save energy in your home. To achieve the largest improvements you would require to make some long term investments - but it is worth it in the long term. But, we also list some great ideas that only requires your time end
Insulate Walls & Roof
Wall insulations are the most important. It can come as a wall cavity insulation or put insulation on the inside or outside of the wall.
It is also essential to check the floor and especially the roof. Many houses lose much of their heat through inefficient or non-existent insulation in those areas.
Upgrade Windows
Depending on your window size and age, this could be one of the most prominent places where you lose heat.
Heat efficiency has come a long way; now, you can dedicate energy-efficient windows with triple glazing and argon gas.
PVC is the cheapest but can also be in wood and aluminium.
Upgrade Doors
Older doors tend to have little or no insulation. But it can still have a significant heat loss through its surface.
Furthermore, a lot of heat transfer happens through the frame and drafty gaps.
If you can't install a new door, consider padding it and installing additional seals.
Install A Heat Exchanger
Passive house heat exchanger operates by using latent heat already present in the air and transferring this energy to cooler incoming air. Through a system of fans, vents and ducting, and a heat exchanger, which is typically mounted in the roof cavity of the building, the air is circulated throughout the building.
Use Drying Line, Not The Dryer
Washing machine dryers use a lot of electricity for extended periods of time.
Hence, it is unsurprising that some households attribute 6% of their electricity bills to a clothes-drying function alone.
Hang a line on a balcony, spread one on the lawn or just use a hanging rack for €35 and let the sun and wind do the same job.
Address Phantom Electricity Usage
As we covered in the section below, phantom electricity usage can be a real problem, especially in households with many gadgets and chargers on standby.
You can test it using one of those power usage monitors you can get from Amazon.
Unplug or use another gadget - a timed socket switch as a solution.
Upgrade Your Heating System
It is not just about reducing your electricity or gas bills. It is also about how much of it you use to heat your home.
Old boilers and portable electric fans are especially bad in cold winter.
It is often cheaper to invest in a better heating system once than pay less now, but continue overpaying for the years to come.
Use Curtains As Additional Barrier
It is a trick often used in southern European countries with very little insulation, especially in older houses.
Draw heavy curtains in front of the cold and drafty windows, and you will notice a significant change.
Maybe not the best idea for gloomy days, but at night time, it is an easy and free trick to try.
Install A Heat Pump If You Can
Ok, it does require significant initial investment and the assumption that you have access to the rooftop or a considerable lawn.
A heat pump is a large system that extracts heat from the cold outside air or the soil and transfers it inside your home.
It sounds a bit strange, but it is very efficient - and there are many variations of heat pumps to try.
Four Ways to Finance Your Home Improvements
Improving your energy efficiency can be costly, but in Belgium, you can finance insulation and other home energy improvement projects in the following ways:
Do it from your savings
It is fairly straightforward - use your money to upgrade your home instead of giving it to the energy companies. If you can, upgrade your home as an investment and put the money back into the savings account when you pay low energy bills. We have seen some calculations where you get the money back in three or four years, but it depends on individual circumstances.
Interest free loan from the bank
Improve your home with a loan from the bank. Any newly purchased homes can be upgraded within five years with an interest-free loan - as long as it will achieve significant energy efficiency improvement.
Rules vary, but the approach is fairly simple - check with your local bank. They will have at least one interest-free mortgage program in partnership with the government.
Apply for the energy improvement government grant
Brussels City has an informative page on renovation grants. Furthermore, here you can better understand what support you can get for green energy projects too - have you thought of that as an option for reducing your bills?
When applying for government grants, one thing to watch out for is to see the eligibility criteria first. Often it is only available for households in a lower income bracket - just trying to save your time.
Borrow to invest
If none of the options work for you, still consider upgrading your home. It can still be cheaper to take out a loan and upgrade once, than bleeding your money for really high bills every single month... for years to come.
Do your calculations, ask a consultant to do it for you and then track your savings to see in how many years you will get your money back.
And it is not just about the money - by upgrading your insulation, you will stop having cold and miserable winters in your home. And, more importantly, you will stop dreading that letter with your bill from the energy companies. It is simple - you will not use much energy to heat your home.