Heating
Heating is the biggest energy user in the average Victorian household. Therefore it can pay to take a look at how you heat your home. You might not only be able to save the environment through finding a cleaner solution, you could also make your home more comfortable and save money at the same time.
Traditional ways of heating a home include ducted heating, wall furnaces, portable electric heaters and wood fired stoves. Today there are a wide variety of products available to heat your home and the choices can be hard. However, it pays to remember the following points:
- Gas has about one-third of the emissions of electricity, due to the brown coal generation in Victoria, so is a good choice for larger heating requirements.
- Try to set your house at an appropriate temperature – remember it's normal to be a little cooler in winter and warmer in summer.
- Think about your heating requirements. Does the whole house have to be heated or just one room? Would a portable heat work best for you? And remember to close doors and windows!
Options for heating your home
If you need to buy a heater for your home, it pays to think about what is going to work best for you. Radiant heaters predominantly heat people and objects by direct radiation of heat. Convective heaters warm and circulate the air in a room. Other forms of heating, such as heated floors, also heat by conduction through direct contact. Different forms of heating are best in different circumstances:
- In larger rooms with high ceilings, a combination of radiant and convective heating is best
- In small rooms, space convective heating is effective
- In larger draughty rooms or bathrooms, radiant heating works best.
Before purchasing a heater ask:
- Does the room need to be heated or will eliminating cold draughts and improving insulation be enough?
- How many rooms need to be heated?
- How big are they?
- How often and for how long will heating be required?
Gas heating is generally the most efficient. If this is not available or practical, reverse cycle split systems are also achieve very good efficiencies. An electric heater which blows air, or an oil column heater designed to heat the room, are much more expensive to run. If you have no other alternatives and the room you want to heat is well sealed and insulated a small heater of this nature may be used. For houses with central heating, set thermostat to 20⁰C in winter. To help you choose a heater, see Heaters: a Guide to Options or call Sustainability Victoria (1300 363 744).
Sustainability Advice is a service of the Moreland Solar City project, part of the Australian Government's Solar Cities initiative, led by the Moreland Energy Foundation, in partnership with Moreland City Council, the Brotherhood of St Laurence and Sustainability Victoria.
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