Skip to content

Energy Efficiency

Polished Concrete Floors For Increased Profit In Denver Retail Space

Retail stores are all over Denverso what sets one apart? Great customer service is of course absolutely essential, but so is the actual space in which your products are displayed. Even with a fantastic product, the design of retail space weighs heavily on its competitive nature. For this reason, it is vital to take inventory of the value of your retail space, and devise a way to improve it for a more appropriate atmosphere and better sales. One important aspect of that space is your flooring. Polished concrete floors are a great asset to any retail or commercial area, and can be a wise investment.

Concrete vs. Stone

If your business already has concrete flooring, then you understand how durable it is. Once installed, it will last forever. Taking care of it, then, is a matter of sprucing it up here and there. Polished concrete floors are a cheaper option than natural stone flooring, but have the same great benefits. Maintenance is incredibly simplesweeping and a periodic mopping will do the trick. This saves time and energy.

Beauty and Versatility

Many think of drab gray when concrete comes to mind, but in actuality polished concrete floors are elegant and classy. They look clean, are easy to clean, and can be incredibly versatile. You may have to look for quite a while to get the right color of marble, but concrete can be stained a variety of shades and colors. Concrete can also be painted for a different coloror stamped to have an edgy, textured look to your flooring. The possibilities may be limited with other flooring choices, here they are endless.

Energy Efficiency

Every owner would jump on the opportunity to save on the electric bill, right? Polished concrete floors have a fantastic, reflective surface that increases the efficiency of your lighting. This way, you dont have to install as much lighting, or at the same brightness as you would otherwise. This gives your retail space a financial edge, but also improves the atmosphere of your spaceparticularly if you have sources of natural lighting.

If youre looking to gain a competitive edge in the Denver retail sector, polished concrete flooring could help you to maximize the value of your space and make more for less.

How To Improve the Energy Efficiency of Baxi Boilers

With energy prices seeming to be constantly on the rise, homeowners are always on the lookout for ways of saving money through lower energy bills. Fortunately, one of the best ways of cutting energy is by taking steps to make a Baxi boiler more energy efficient. While Baxi already produces some of the most energy efficient boilers on the market, homeowners can always take further steps to help improve the environment and save them money on their next energy bill. Energy saving tips can range from the simple, like fitting pipes with insulation, to the extreme, like getting a brand new boiler installed. This article will look at just a few of the measures homeowners can take to make their boiler systems more energy efficient and thus cut their energy bills at the end of the month.

Use Room Thermostats

Installing a room thermostat is a great way of being able to control the temperature in individual rooms. Having better control over a homes temperature will go a long way in cutting down on wasted energy. Room thermostats can save consumers about 70 a year and they will go a long way towards protecting the environment. Once the room thermostats are installed, homeowners should turn down the temperature until it is warm enough to still be comfortable. Turning down the temperature just one degree can make a world of difference, and could save families 65 a year.

Hot Water Cylinder

Similarly, most UK families keep the temperature of their hot water cylinders up too high, which is not only wasting energy, but costing consumers more in higher energy bills. The ideal temperature for a hot water cylinder is 60 degrees Celsius, which is more than hot enough to still be comfortable for most homeowners. Water that is kept any hotter than this is not only wasteful, but it runs the risk of scalding human skin it comes into contact with. To make the hot water cylinder even more efficient, the main tank should have a tank jacket wrapped around it. Additionally, any pipes around the tank that are exposed should be insulated. Insulation will not only improve energy efficiency, it will also help the system last longer and perform better. The total cost for the tank jacket and insulation should cost no more than 30, while it could save families 60 a year in lower energy bills.

New Boiler

While all of the above recommendations are good and cheap to follow, by far the best thing people can do in order to cut their energy bills and improve their homes efficiency is to invest in a new energy efficient boiler. It is usually fairly easy to determine if a boiler is in need of replacing. Older boilers usually have a pilot light which burns continuously. The pilot light itself is not only wasteful, but these older boilers also have much lower efficiency ratings overall. Newer boilers have pilot lights which light automatically whenever the boiler is put into use, meaning that less gas is wasted when it is not actually being used by the homes occupants. In fact, the newer energy efficient models have an efficiency rating of up to 90 per cent. From a consumer standpoint, this increased efficiency could translate into an annual savings of over 300, not to mention a household that is much gentler on the environment. Of course, the main disadvantage of getting a new boiler installed is that they are very expensive, often running into the thousands of pounds. However, compared to the savings possible, a new boiler may be worth the investment. Furthermore, grants and trusts have been set up that can help the most disadvantaged improve their homes energy efficiency thus saving them money.

Many consumers are seeking to improve their households energy efficiency for a variety of reasons, ranging from wanting to save money on energy bills to trying to do some good for the planet. One of the best ways of cutting down on carbon emissions is by improving a houses current Baxi boiler system. By taking the measures listed above, whether that means buying a new energy efficient boiler or simply reducing a homes temperature by just one degree, homeowners will be doing their part to make the planet a little greener and their utility bills a little lighter.

Domestic Energy Assessors Help Homeowners Show the Energy Efficiency of Their Homes When Selling

There is a new breed of professionals who you will get to know about now when you start out to sell your home. They are called Domestic Energy Assessors and are out now in England and Wales performing a brand new service.

The role of the Domestic Energy Assessor is to produce Energy Performance Certificates for inclusion in Home Information Packs. If this is complete news to you then just think of these as being certificates, like those you see on new fridges, which will provide A-G ratings on the energy efficiency of a home, plus advice on how to make further energy savings.

Energy Assessors will use their in-depth knowledge and practical understanding of the thermal performance of your home to judge on the thermal energy efficiency of properties.

This requirement has been introduced by the UK government working on the theory that these assessments of the the capability of all buildings about to be sold will encourage us all to be energy efficient. This will be good for the nation as it will be thoroughly green. It will the idea is, help avoid the need for the energy whether renewable or not.

This type of certificate is required whenever the building is constructed, sold or rented.

In the short term home owners directly, and home buyers indirectly, will need to pay for these Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) and in order to possibly carry out work to improve poorly insulated properties, they will need to pay for general advice to clients on energy efficiency measures.

This is all very good in principle, but the UK government has chosen exactly the wrong time to do this. The credit crunch is hitting the house sales market hard, it is already very difficult to sell properties, and the value of most of them is falling.

The staff that produce Energy Performance Certificates are very experienced in construction technology, building condition surveying and domestic energy assessment and are Degree qualified professionals. They do not come cheap!

Now we do accept that most assessors will not simply stop at inspecting your property, they should also take the time to explain exactly what they are inspecting, how they are going to go about it and gladly answer any questions that you may have. But, most sellers are going to deeply object to being forced by the state to take on this additional burden of cost.

The energy assessor takes measurements to analyse the cost of heating, water and lighting for a house and makes recommendations to improve the energy performance of the house. To me it looks like you the government may think that an assessment is a quick hour in the property and thats it. I doubt they have fully considered the travel time to and from the houses to be assessed, time taken to assess, time to prepare and check the report, input the data, produce the certificate and then charge a fee which includes the professionals insurance, accountant fees, advertising and many other costs – the list goes on and on, after all they will have to make a living like everyone else.

A Biofriendly Approach to Energy Efficiency

Few of us will deny that being dependent on foreign oil supplies is undesirable. But it is not widely known that available oil supplies worldwide are dwindling, which drives the need for alternative ways of meeting our energy needs. While there is still a lot of oil in the ground, much of this is becoming harder and more costly to extract.

The term “peak oil” describes the concept that oil is a limited resource and at some point the available oil supplies will become less and less. According to some sources global oil consumption already outstrips viable new oil sources.

While we are not likely to completely run out of oil, newly discovered supplies will become less accessible and/or of lower quality, making it progressively more costly to extract. In addition, oil consumption is also on the increase as developing nations like China and India become more industrialized. Oil prices are therefore likely to keep rising.

The bottom line is that it is in everyones interest to become less fossil fuel dependent. A first step in that direction is to become more energy efficient. Saving energy means a lessened dependency on fossil fuels, fewer pollutants, as well as saving money.

Greater energy efficiency can be achieved in many ways. For example, homes can be made more energy efficient with weatherizing and improved insulation, saving on heating and cooling costs. In the transportation arena, biofuels and fuel efficient hybrid cars are becoming more popular. Meanwhile, the Green Plus liquid fuel catalyst from Biofriendly Corporation makes internal combustion engines more efficient by causing the fuel to burn more completely and thus reducing fuel consumption and harmful emissions.

References:

(1)http://www.energybulletin.net/primer.php

(2)http://www.ecomall.com/greenshopping/20things.htm