When it comes to savings on the home heating during the winter months there are various aspects to consider. In fact, consumption does not depend only on the system that takes care of the heating, such as the boiler or heaterbut also fromefficiency of the entire housing system and by some practical measures that each of us can implement. But let’s look at all these aspects in detail.
Practical tips for saving on home heating
Here are some practical measures and feasible for all homes and in all situations.
Monitor consumption
First, it’s important to have systems in place to monitor consumption and the temperature in the various rooms of the house. In this way, you become more aware of how you use the heating system and above all you can identify malfunctions in time.
Limit the temperature
There temperature inside the house it should never be excessively high: with 19°C good comfort is already achieved and each degree of change with respect to this temperature leads to a variation of approximately 10% in terms of consumption and therefore heating costs.
Avoid heat dispersion
Another important precaution is close shutters And roller shutters during the Night and the colder hourssince these also contribute to reduce dispersions of heat towards the outside. Who has a heating system with radiatorsIt also shouldn’t cover them with curtains or furniture to increase the effectiveness of their heating effect and should fix a reflective system between the wall and the radiator, or at the limit of simple tin foil.
The characteristics of the house that influence heating
First, it is very important to understand that for save on heating, it is not only the machinery or system that is responsible for heating that is important, for example a boiler or a stove, but it is necessary to consider the whole house And the entire heating system. The main parameters that influence the possibility of energy saving are:
- The characteristics of the buildingsuch as the direction towards which it is oriented, the shape and the thermal inertia (i.e. the speed of absorbing and releasing heat) of the materials with which it is built;
- The degree of isolation of the home;
- the heating systems, cooling And ventilation installed, in particular their size and efficiency;
- there maintenance of the entire house.
Some parameters that influence the need for heating in our home do not depend on us, but were decided by the designers who defined, for example, the form of the building, theorientation compared to the path of the sun in the sky and the size from the windows. A first system that allows homeowners to save on heating can act on is theinsulation from the wallsof the ceilings and of windows. Good insulation allows you to reduce the heat losses and therefore a reduction in the need to turn on classic heating systems. Furthermore, if the windows are oriented at least partially towards the south, the passive heating due togreenhouse effect allows you to further reduce the heat demand from the heating systems.
The types of heating systems
THE heating systems generally most widespread they are the boilers for the production of hot water which through the radiators (or radiators) allows you to heat the house. The most modern systems, such as condensing boilersallow you to obtain aefficiency between80% and the 95% (without considering heat losses due to the distribution of water in the system) and guarantee a improvement compared to the efficiencies of around 60% that characterized older models.
If the home has one source of energy renewablelike the one generated by photovoltaic panelsto save on heating you can install a heat pump. These systems allow you to heat water starting from electricity which, if it were renewable, guarantees a economic savings very high, as well as decreasing the polluting emissions.
There are also systems controlled mechanical ventilation (VMC) which allow you to avoid dispersions Of heat which are often caused byopening from the windows when you want a “change of scenery”. In fact, these systems are made up of a fan which allows the exchange of air inside the house with outside air, but are associated by one heat exchanger which allows theair coming frominternal Of heat that external which stands for enter in the’home. Through these systems it is therefore possible to obtain a effective air exchange without for this to get heat dispersion from the inside out.
