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Heating & Cooling

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TIP – Buy A Programmable Thermostat: These are just awesome. I wish I’d invented them. They can so dramatically improve your home’s energy efficiency that they’ll probably be legally required in another decade. A programmable thermostat will save as much as 30 percent on controlling the climate of your home, whether you use a furnace, an air conditioner, or both at different times of the year.

If your home is well-insulated, you should see dramatic results. The best part about these devices is that you can set them to automatically adjust the temperature in the morning when everyone goes out, and have it begin to reaclimatize in the afternoon before people come home! At night it can be set to shut down again. And all this without you ever having to give it a second thought.

TIP – Caulk all windows: It’s a well-known fact that there are always leaks and gaps of varying sizes around every window frame. Actually, windows are without fail the biggest energy-losers when if comes to home heating and cooling.

The caulking around your window frames won’t last forever. And given how inexpensive the stuff is, you might as well dig it out, and replace it once a year in the spring. Reason being, elements like rain and snow can get into grooves that we can’t even see, expanding in the cold, and rotting the caulk from the inside’out. To avoid this, use a leading brand silicon caulk (which is weather-resistant) and apply evenly to ensure that you’ve achieved a good seal.

IEA Solar Heating & Cooling Implementing Agreement - Task 13 (Solar Low Energy Buildings) was an international effort organised by one of the International Energy Agency's Implementing Agreements to build several solar low-energy houses. This took place between 1989 and 1993(?). The Implementing Agreement for a Programme to Develop and Test Solar Heating and Cooling Systems is one of 40 research and development and deployment programmes, which are at the core of the IEA's International Energy Technology Co-operation Programme. The idea behind Task 13 was to push construction technology towards its limits to achieve the lowest possible total purchased energy consumption. Task 13 was part of the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Programme, to test the designs and techniques, and to monitor their performance.