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Become Eco Friendly

By: Dave Sabri Click author's name for more of his/her articles

Do you want to become more eco-friendly but, other than buying energy saving light bulbs and recycling your newspapers, don’t really know where to start? It seems you’re not alone. Increasing numbers of us are starting to think about our impact on the environment and would like to reduce our carbon footprint but need a little guidance and direction.

Well an obviously place to kick things off is in the home. 40% of the UK’s carbon emissions come from us as individuals. This includes driving to work in that old banger but also boiling too much water in the kettle and leaving the lights on when we go out. But the biggest offender, are our boilers. They contribute two thirds of our personal pollution largely because they are old and wasteful.

With a little money and effort there are a few things you can do to your boiler and your home to ensure you make the most efficient use of your heating as well as saving a good amount of money.

First off, by install an energy-efficient boiler to replace your old inefficient one. Condenser combination boilers are the best option. Combi-boilers only heat up the water as and when you need it so because you don’t need to leave them on all the time, you will waste far less electricity, so reduce your CO2 emissions.

Condenser boilers minimise heat loss and maximise efficiency. They do this by reusing the gases normally lost through the flue to condense the water vapour in the boiler back into water. This will save you about £170 on your electricity bills and prevent 875kg of CO2 per year being expelled into the atmosphere.

Plus, if you act right now and get British Gas to install one of these for you before 25 July, you will save £852. This saving is based on £400 off a new boiler, £204 off a year’s worth of home care and £248 off radiator heating and controls installation.

This £248 saving on heating controls will also mount up to even more savings. By simply using timers and thermostats in each room you’ll save an extra £100 on your heating bill.

It’s the small changes that make the biggest difference and if we all made the switch to energy efficient boilers we would save 13 million tonnes of CO2 and enough energy to heat around 3.4 million homes for one year.