A new season of heating has arrived once again, together with the old dilemmas of the best ways to save money and energy during winter. Bosnia and Herzegovina’s citizens pay huge amounts of money each year to heat and cool the air, without considering the amount of energy being wasted in the process, specifically because of inadequate care for energy efficiency. While discussions on the prices of pellet, gas or electricity, together with calculations on the cost-effectiveness of a convector or electric boiler are quite often, consumers are generally not concerned with the energy itself, or its savings.
You do not need to be any expert to see that thinking about energy efficiency of your home is useful, therefore going a step beyond talking about the lowest pellet price alone. For example, take some time to think about your windows. Believe it or not, windows are one of the main reasons you are spending more money on heating and cooling than you should. Inadequate insulation allows warm air to be drawn indoors in summer and out into the winter. However, with just a few strategic moves, you can drastically increase the insulation of your windows, therefore increasing your home’s warmth during cold winter days.
Experts working on the Bosnia Energy Efficiency Project (BEEP) bring you 5 window insulation tips that will help you save a lot of energy (and money) this winter.
• Plug cracks or holes around the window frames to isolate areas that are prone to airflow. As simple as this advice sounds, keep in mind that it can save you a significant amount of energy.
• Do not neglect the effect of sunlight on the heat of your home, so clean your windows regularly as that will allow solar energy to enter your home.
• Regularly check whether all your windows are tightly closed, especially during the night. Open them occasionally during the day to ventilate the rooms, but also to utilize the sun’s rays for natural solar heating.
• If you have not done it already, attach external shutters to your windows. This will additionally ensure that the cold wind does not have a great effect on the heat in your home. Shutters should be kept low during the night. However, you should raise them during the sunny days, so that the sun can send its heat into your home.
• Finally, if you are ready for an investment that will pay off in the long run, the best solution is to install energy efficient joinery. It can reduce heat loss by up to 50 percent, in addition to limiting draft and condensation.
In addition to thinking of the most efficient type of heating, this winter bear in mind the fact that there are many simple ways to save energy. The time has come to change our awareness on the subject and start using energy as wisely and efficiently as possible, that way also taking care of our finances. Energy efficiency is not a matter of the future, but a matter of the present, in which each of us can achieve great things both individually and collectively. Those benefits can be reflected in little things, such as enjoying the winter idyll from your warm home, with a cup of tea by the window, or in annual financial savings. Worth it anyway!
