Cut Your Emissions

By Author: Dave Sabri
Total Articles: 29
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Members of the UN will discuss how countries can cut back on their greenhouse gas emissions in Copenhagen at the UN Conference on Climate Change in December this year. While governments should certainly take the lead on this, we as individuals have an important role to play too.

40% of all carbon emissions in the UK come from us as individuals. This includes our transport and our homes. Overall transport is the biggest polluting sector in the country but this includes planes, trains and lorries. On a personal level it is our heating that contributes the most to this growing problem. 60% comes from our boilers.

Thankfully new technologies can help reduce the waste given off by our boilers and actually lower the level of energy and therefore CO2 emissions, used to power them. Modern combi-boilers only heat up the water as and when it is needed, so you don't need to leave the boiler on all the time. This helps the environment and also saves you money.

Energy-efficient, condenser boilers stop around 875kg of CO2 being emitted into the atmosphere and will mean around £170 off your heating bill. They do this ...
... by making use of the gases normally lost through the exhaust flue to condense the water vapour in the boiler back into water. This saves heat and energy therefore reduces CO2 emissions.

For a lot less than normal, British Gas can install one of these with radiator controls as well as offering free home care if you upgrade your old boiler for a new one by 25 July.

The less heat you lose, the less heat you use, and the most common sense way to use less heat is to minimise the amount lost through the walls and roof. Roof and wall insulation costs around £700 to be installed but you could get up to £125 back as a tax rebate thanks to a government initiative.

British Gas estimate that you could save around £365 a year with proper insulation, so if you add to this the savings to your heating bill, insulation will effectively pay for itself in less than two years. You will also reduce CO2 emissions by over 1000kg because you will be using less power to heat your home.

We would save 13 million tonnes of CO2 and enough energy to power 3.4 million homes for one year if everyone in the UK switched to an energy-efficient boiler.

British Gas is not just a gas supplier. They are also one of the leading electricity suppliers and even help you with the installation of more efficient radiators.