How you can save heat and money in your home using thermal imagery

One of the easiest ways to save money in your home is to know where you are losing heat and look at reducing that heat loss.  Losing heat means losing money, it really is that simple. However knowing where you are losing heat is not easy to spot – until now that is! Everest having been looking at just how efficient our homes are at retaining heat and to do this they are using thermal imagery.

Everest Windows sent us the Flir One to use at home and evaluate our own homes. I knew this gadget would excite my son and my science teacher husband.  It gave us the opportunity to see our home from a totally different perspective and we can then look at how we can save energy and money.  The Flir One attaches to my iphone and you can then see the thermal imagery and the more yellow and orange is where energy is, therefore the blue shows where the house is colder and where the heat is escaping.  The children really enjoyed playing with the app and spent time dancing around the living room and you could see just where they had been, likewise they found it fascinating to see how their bodies lit up.

However I then set them the task of going around the house and spotting where we were losing heat. As the pictures show there were a number of places!

As you can see from the amazing images we do have some areas that are leaking heat therefore I also tasked the children with thinking about how we can reduce this and save energy. Together we came up with the following practicaal things we could do.  Some of these are more costly than others but we can all make a difference which is better for our homes, our purses and the environment too.

• Draft excluder’s have a positive impact and we do have one by the front door as this is a obvious place we lose heat and money. However we are not always good at remembering to use it!
• Having heavy curtains that are well made reduce loss in the evenings around the windows and help keep the house warm and exclude drafts.  This is a simple and very effective way of keeping warm.
• Triple Glaze Windows from Everest retains more heat making your home warmer, and that’s why it’s been awarded A++, the highest possible energy rating
• Turn the heating down to use less heat and you can save money  – this was Dyl’s idea lets see if he suggests this once it’s the evening!
• Our external walls are obviously losing heat and cavity wall insulation could reduce this.  There are often government grants available for home owners and we are thinking that maybe we need to look into what is available.
• Losing heat through the roof also occurs but we seem to be well insulated here.  For others loft insulation may reduce heating bills and keep the home warmer.
• Making sure door seals are effective.
• We noticed our tile flooring is colder whereas the rug in the living retained heat well.  Therefore carpets maybe better than tile or laminate flooring.
• Let natural sunlight into the home wherever possible as this naturally warms the home.  This is a reminder to the children to open their curtains in the morning once they are up!
• Letter boxes and cat flaps are draughty areas so ensure your letterbox has a brush which helps retain heat.
• The loft access is also a draughty area as one image illustrated

The new Everest advert proves that Triple Glazing Windows reduces heat loss.

We have really enjoyed this challenge from Everest Windows and Dyl is keen to take the Flir One out with us and see where our friends can also improve the energy efficient homes. You can also read how my friends got on with the same challenge, here is Baby Budgeting’s post and also one from Frugal Family.