Providing heat in your home is extremely important, especially during the colder seasons. The human body is only able to take so much of the cold before it begins to show signs of incapacitation. It is for this reason that each and every household and business establishment in the country is equipped with its own heating system. Most of the home heating systems are currently being powered by electricity. With the price of electricity constantly on the rise, many people are looking for alternative methods to provide heat to their homes. People also are constantly looking to cut back on their monthly electricity bill.
Therefore, to save yourself money, it’s well worth looking at alternative heating solutions to the traditional gas central heating system or electric radiators. The following are 8 easy tips on how to heat your home naturally.
1. An Open Fire
Having an open fire installed in the living room not only ensures your living room is lovely and cozy it can also help to heat the whole house, but especially the rooms the chimney flue also runs through.
An open fire is a natural way of heating your home, but it’s also a more cost-efficient method with just the wood to burn and matches required to get it going. You could even plant your own trees to cut down on fuel and save on trips to the shop to pick up logs in the future.
If you are considering an open fire just remember that they are a potential fire hazard, hot sparks can shoot out and onto your floor so it’s a good idea to use a fire guard if you aren’t going to be in the room at all times. You should also ensure your chimney is swept annually to avoid any soot build up, which can become a fire hazard.
2. Air Source Heat Pump
Air source heat pumps can be used to heat radiators, hot water in your home and even underfloor heating. Air source heat pumps actually work best with wet underfloor heating, a system that is a natural energy efficient anyway, and work at a lower temperature than a standard boiler would.
If you are considering pairing an underfloor heating system with an air source heat pump, it’s a good idea to speak to a reputable floor heating company to discern what work is required. You’ll need to consider finding room outside as well, as air source heat pumps are fitted either on a wall or on the ground and work by extracting heat from the outside air, even at temperatures as low as -15°C.
3. Geothermal Heat Pump Systems
Heat Pump Systems (Geothermal) have turned out pretty popular as an amazing method to heat businesses and homes alike. They function by depending on the comparatively uniform earth’s temperature 3-5 feet beneath the surface. Though the upfront costs may be daunting, it’s plausible to recover your expense in as little as 5 years & to decrease your energy usage by 44-72%.
4. Using Solar Energy
The sun is a viable source that allows life to continue to thrive on our planet. It is for this reason that organizations looking for alternative sources of energy to provide heat and electricity have begun tapping into the sun’s energy. Since it is a natural source of heat and energy, using solar energy to heat up your home will not cause any damage to the environment.
By using solar energy, you are able to make a small contribution to conserving the environment. Using solar energy as an alternative means to provide heat to your home and can also greatly reduce your monthly electric bills, allowing you to eventually save up and use these funds on other personal needs.
How to Heat Your Home with Solar Power
There’re a number of methods which you can exploit from the sun’s energy and heat up your residence. Here’re some tips on how to heat your home naturally using solar power.
1. Installation of solar panels
One way for you to tap into the sun’s energy to heat your home is to install solar panels. These solar panels provide an alternative source of electricity that you can direct to certain electrical appliances in your home. If you have an electrical heating system in your home, you can use the electricity generated by the solar panels to provide heat throughout the area.
2. Work on your windows
If you are currently in the process of looking for a new home, choose one that has a lot of glass windows and doors. This will allow the heat and warmth coming from the sun to enter your home, providing natural heat in your living space. If you are prone to getting headaches from the glare of light, you can easily have a tint placed on the glass windows and doors. This tint will still allow the heat and warmth from the sun to pass through while minimizing the glare at the same time.
Another thing to do is to install window Shuttercraft and louvers which serve to help you cut the heat in hot, sultry summer as well as reduce the heat loss in the thick of winter. A few of them additionally have insulation characteristics built within them & they suit well upon the frame, assisting like an air boundary within it & the window. On the other hand, the louvers help to enhance ventilation and also help natural sun & light inside.
3. Opt for solar water heating systems
Solar water heating systems tap into the heat generated by the sun and heat up the water that you use in your house. Instead of using electricity, solar water heating systems use a series of pipes that transfer the heat they absorb from the sun to the water that passes through these pipes. This water is then collected and stored in an insulated water tank in order to prevent the heated water from cooling down.
5. Pellet Stoves and Boilers
Boilers and Wood-Pellet-Stoves are machines which can consume biomass to give out space heating during the cold season. It’s an advancement of the age-old technology of open stoves, open fires or fireplaces. Biomass like firewood has been swarming previously and even in the present, a good quantity is accessible. Unlike in the past, it’s not possible presently to cut down trees or boughs whenever you require fuel to light up your stoves.
Make use of biomass fuel
An answer has been found in the fuel crises when it hit the seventies in wood pellet, a pelletized waste product of timber and furniture manufacture. The hitherto piled up wood chips, shavings, and sawdust that created a disposal problem to the industrialist, at last, found a way to clear the sawmill or the factory dump yard.
Biomass wastes can be transformed into efficient heating fuel
Presently, you would discover completely automated pellet-boilers that you would set up and forget, thus to speak. A thermostat would notice your house’s heating requirement, supply wood pellets into the burner by an auger, control the heat production, and stop when not required. All you would have to become involved in is to remove what is left after combustion – ash.
What are wood pellets?
Wood pellets are compressed industrial waste of wood. The biomass wood is a good source of energy easily undergoing combustion and releasing huge amounts of heat energy within a stove or a boiler of a centralized hydronic system.
Each wood pellet is about 15-20 mm in length and has a diameter of about 6 – 8 mm. It is extremely dense due to high compaction at manufacture. So much so that unlike wood it would not float in water but sink to the bottom as soon as it hits the water.
The fuel pellet is extremely dry and generally, the moisture content is less than 10% at the manufacturer. However, it is highly hygroscopic and unless properly stored under strictly monitored conditions, will be soggy like a crispy biscuit left exposed. This, unfortunately, renders the costly product useless.
The evolution of pellet stove
The device, which was a very business-like simple steel box when it was invented in the 1930s, has changed face with an attractive piece of decoration in your living room or wherever you intend to keep it for heating a comfortable interior. The pellet stove may be either freestanding or placed as a fireplace insert that vents into an existing chimney.
The construction material is steel or massive cast iron that radiate and conduct heat out of them. The control arrangement, electronic elements & exhaust functioning parts are encased within stainless steel.
Similarly, just like the decorative stove pellet boilers and furnaces too are available depending on your requirements. The boiler used in hydronic systems has the useful property to store heat energy generated by combustion. These are mainly applied in retrofits with minimum changes to the ducting, plumbing, venting etc. of the existing heating arrangement.
6. Insulate Your Roof and Walls
Approximately half of the heat wasted in a standard home leaks through the roof and the walls. Insulating your attic is easy to do and you may even make the insulation by yourself. In case you now have loft insulation monitor its thickness and if needed add a second layer to draw it up to the prescribed 270mm. Insulating the cavities of your wall could preserve up to £120 every year. Installation takes simply about 2 hours for a general 3 bedroom home and can be arranged from the outside.
7. Dodge the draughts
Do away with wasted heat and draughts by setting up an easy-to-fix and an affordable brush or PVC fastener on your outside doors. Place draught-proof wraps on letterboxes & key holes as well. Draughts likewise get in into gaps in floorboards & skirting boards; halt this by permeating these gaps using a sealant or beading.
8. Underfloor Heating with Natural Stone
Underfloor heating with natural stone is not a particularly new idea, though some salesmen may want you to think so. The enterprising Romans are known to have devised a form of early underfloor heating for the natural stone and tiled flooring of their houses.
Today’s underfloor heating methods are broadly similar in purpose, though technology has, of course, moved on. The efficiency of modern underfloor heating systems is naturally far ahead of the relatively crude Roman invention.
Natural stone is a natural choice for underfloor heating. It does, of course, take a while for the heat to seep through after the system is initiated as the stone is slow to warm up. But once it gets going it stays as hot as you need it to be for as long as you need it. No more painful tiptoeing because of the cold floors during winter seasons; underfloor heating using natural stone happens to be a richness to be enjoyed.
Underfloor heating possesses many benefits over the many conventional radiant heating or even charged air heating. Radiant heating from a relatively small unit tends to be directional and takes time to warm a room thoroughly, while convection heating is great for producing a hot ceiling, but usually, there’s no one up there to appreciate it.
Underfloor warming, particularly at the moment is the most picked natural stone floor covering that heats a house more regularly and completely. It’s a natural pick for anyone who despises cold feet and cold winters.
Heating either a room or an entire house from beneath the floor has different benefits from the position of view of frequency, noise & cost. When correctly created the heat is spread evenly from each part of your floor, hence producing an equally heated room. There’re no irritating fan noises, turning on and off on frequent intervals, and the charge of running an underfloor-heating-system may be amazing.
When it comes to heating your home there are plenty of alternatives that can save you money and help you become more energy efficient in the long run. Just be sure to choose one that suits you and meets your needs.
It is important to note that the installation of heating equipment and water supply should be done by a professional, otherwise there is a great chance of failure in the first years of operation. For example, before purchasing a water pump you should consult a plumber about the technical possibility of installing similar systems in your home.
Good morning, Just reacting to your last post on Ecomena about tips to heat homes. I ma not sure we should recommend open fire for heating purpose. Not only reports tend to show it’s far from being efficient heating, but the related air pollution is also an issue. For the ‘feeling’ of comfort and the aesthetics, open fires may be considered from time to time, but when it comes to heating homes, that’s questionnable.
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I love that you talked about how important it is to provide heat in a home, especially since we live with our grandparents. They can’t stand extreme weather conditions and they often have a hard time during the winter season. It would probably be better to have our heating system checked by HVAC experts to ensure that it will work properly until next year.
I really like your home improvements and renovation tips. You have told me well what should we do at the time of home renovation. It is good advice for me and who wants to renovate the house. Thanks for sharing this.
Thanks for sharing the article. I really appreciate your work.