Some Myths About Energy Saving

There are many pieces of Energy Saving advice that I would recommend you do not follow.

Putting Tin Foil Behind The Radiators

Many people believe that putting tin foil behind their radiators will save them money, or make their rooms warmer. Some web sites claim you can save 5% to 10% of your heating bill by doing this.

This is highly unlikely to be true. Yes, walls soak up the heat from your room, but the small area you are covering behind your radiator is not 5% to 10% of the wall area in the room. Therefore you are not preventing 5% to 10% of your heat being soaked up by your walls. There is also the fact that the heat spreads through the wall, so the area behind the wall will just as much heat is it would without the tinfoil. It will get soaked up by the parts of the wall that don’t have tin foil and spread underneath the tin foil.

Lets put it another way, if you really believe that the tin foil will stop your walls soaking up heat from your room, why haven’t you wall papered all your walls and ceilings with it? You could always put a coat of paint over it, or wall paper if you don’t like the look of it. The tin foil will still be there blocking the heat from soaking into the walls.

Radiator Shelves

Many people also claim that fitting radiator shelves is a good heat saving measure, as it directs the heat into the room instead of letting it go straight up. This may be true, but the heat will only get as far into the room as the shelf is wide. The heat rise from the radiator, hits the shelf and if forced outwards by more heat rising from the radiator. As soon as it reaches the edge of the shelf it will start going up again.

There is another reason against having radiator shelves. Most radiators are placed beneath windows, or should be. There is a very good reason for this, they are there to combat the down draughts caused by the window. A down draught is not a draught from your window, they can happen even if your windows are sealed air tight. Down draughts are caused when warm air in the room hits the cold window. This causes the air to cool down and fall to the floor, pulling more warm air into it’s place. This warm air then cools and falls, and so the cycle goes on. You window, when it is cold outside, continually cools the air near it, than air falls to the floor pulling more warm air onto the window. This is why closing your curtains helps keep the room warmer. You are preventing more warm air replacing the falling cold air.

The radiator is placed under the window to send heat up to combat the cooling from the window, and stop this continual down draught. Fitting a radiator shelf will interfere with this function and resulting in your room being colder.

Leaving The Heating On All Night

Many people say that leaving your heating on low will save you energy as you will not need so much heat in the morning to bring your house back up to a satisfactory level of warmth. I have no facts or figures to dispute this, but surely heating your house for 8 hours or more while you are asleep in a warm bed is not good. You would be better off setting your heating to go on half an hour before your alarm clock goes off if you want to wake up to a warm house.

If you are like me, and work five days per week and only ever go into the kitchen and bathroom before going to work, you may be better off buying a small heater just for your kitchen. That way you are only heating the room you are in before you go to work.