New energy saving gadgets ordered

Following on from today’s earlier post, I’m still searching for ways to make the house more efficient.

Lighting

We currently have some 240V, 50W halogen lighting in the hall, which generate 1000 candelas of light.  Now, there are 8 of these, so that’s 400W when they’re all switched on.

Today I ordered two Philips Master LEDlamps (these things aren’t cheap—over £25 each including VAT), but they do only draw 7W.  They’re also dimmable, and should fit in to the existing sockets.  If they don’t work out, I can still return them and get my money back.

Heating

In addition, I also ordered two electronic radiator control valves, that allow me to programmatically set the temperature a room should be at various times.  The target is the living room with the gas fire.  While the balanced flue fire appears to be around 90% efficient, it’s still easier to heat the lounge with the main central heating.

The plan is to not heat the room at all until 3PM, and then heat it to a base temperature until 8:30pm-ish, when the heating will switch off.  Normally, if we’re in the room, we’ll put on the fire to make it extra cosy, so if no-one’s in for any evening, it won’t keep heating.  When the fire’s on, it will warm the room sufficiently for the boiler to stop supplying heat to that room, and heat the rest of the house instead.

These devices aren’t cheap either (£25 each), and I need to drain the central heating system to add them, but as the current valves are leaking, I need to get a plumber in anyway.

Fingers crossed.  I can’t wait to see what effect these things have.