energiatehokkuus

Christmas goes Green

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 10:50:16 +0100

What does Christmas meen to you? Everyone has their own view on Christmas. Everyone has their own private values and a way of seeing things. One thing is for sure: Christmas is the time of the year to stop and enjoy the ones that are close to you. Christmas is the time to rewind the year and remember the ones that matter. Christmas is warm, tasty, red - but could it also be green?

The amount of waste we create during Christmas, the amount of energy we spend to heat up our apartments, the amount of fuel we use to get to our closest - Christmas is far from being green - but there are many things you can do to make it a bit more energy efficient (in Finnish: energiatehokkuus). If you have to travel by car, plan it well ahead. Make sure you create a well planned and organized shopping list and then do it all at once instead of driving into a different shop every day. When you cook - think local. By buying local food and making as much as you can yourself, you make a big difference. Making the food yourself can also act as a great stress relief. People can really taste if the food is home-made or not.

Remember that public transportation is also on a schedule during Christmas time. You can use public transportation for small shopping trips and then leave bigger ones for the car.

You can also visit K-Rauta and consult the staff there. They are very well-trained on energy efficiency and they do also have a lot to say on cost saving. You can even get some Christmas presents from there - and they usually end up in use, unlike some useless gadgets.

Remember that Christmas is most of all a celebration of being together and being well. It is celebration of birth - not the one of doom. Let’s make sure that we have this planet for the future generations to celebrate on as well. By making all of our Christmases more green and energy efficient is at least one step closer to securing it. Merry Christmas everyone - remember to turn off your lights in an empty room even during Christmas time. Santa can see in the dark.

Living on stand-by

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 09:59:26 +0100

It’s not all about building energy efficient (in Finnish: energiatehokkuus) houses or isolating everything to the top level. It is also about talking the talk.

TVs, computers and additional gadgets use up to 10 to 15% of energy consumption in a household. This is approximately the same amount that it takes to keep your food cold. 79% of Finnish people have their TVs on stand-by all the time. The world and the reception is digitalized so now everything must be on stand-by.

Here are few facts of how much each device use energy when put on stand-by:

TV 1-13W

Digibox 1-13W

Computer 8-20W

CD-player 0-18W

If all the households in Finland would turn off their devices instead of putting them into a stand-by mode, we would save 60 000 times the amount of electricity needed by a 2-bed room apartment in Finland. However, turning your device off comes with the attitude check. Living up to the standards our children want us to live, really means putting an effort in creating sustainability. And big parts of sustainability start with small deeds such as turning off all stand-by devices. When you get the hang of it - you can really start changing your habits. You will quite soon realize that the small deeds mount up to big affect and are actually quite fun to execute.

Here are some good tips:

A proper doormat will not only save you energy by keeping your vacuum cleaner in sleep - but it also saves your nerves with guests and unwanted dirt. Easy to apply, small investment but a huge effect. That’s what it’s all about.

If you happen to own a car, you should always warm it with an additional heater if it’s +5c or less outside. In this case it’s enough to run the heater for half an hour but it warms the car enough to not to burn so much fuel. Car uses most fuel when it’s cold - and most of the fuel is used to warm the car.

You should also visit your nearest K-Rauta for some tips and tricks for your house regarding energy efficient lifestyle. They sure know how to save some money by putting a small effort into it.

Buying a Ready-House Package

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 07:21:20 +0100

House package is at its best cheap as a production line product, safe as in unique design and home as in your wishes and designed for your family.

When buying a ready-house package, you can be sure that there won’t be any lost square meters, time or unnecessary visits to the construction agency.

When buying a ready-house package you can actually decide how much time you spend on the site. It can vary from days to weeks and the more you are helping out with the assembly and design the faster the house will come up.

The best things about ready-house packages (in Finnish: talopaketit) are that they are always built by professionals in optimal conditions. Meaning a dry ware-house where they sure do have all the equipment they need to build the house of your dreams.

When you start to prepare to buy a ready-house package, you should really think it through with your family and the family’s needs. You will get good advice and a soul mate for the building phase from your local Rautia. They are specialized in being there for you to think about your needs, find the perfect solution, find the optimal service providers and document everything in a prompt way. Really, it is more of a service than it is anything else. Choosing the right partner and the right service providers means a lot in the beginning phase and might save you a lot of trouble.

Ready-house packages really look like you when you involve yourself in the project and involve your family as well. It is critical not to make too many compromises concerning your dream house even when buying a house package. Most of the things you love are doable and might just cost a bit more.

You should always be fully honest to yourself and to the building partner. Don’t over estimate your budget or under estimate your needs and you will be fine.

People in Rautia do this for living. They make people’s dreams come true and try to find the ways to match your needs and hopes with the reality that comes ready installed.

Building a House

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 07:05:59 +0100

When building a house one has to take into account so many things. Quite a few of my friends have started building a house, some of them even finished with honor. They tend to have the same thought about building (in Finnish: rakentaminen) a house though. Every one of them has been involved in all the processes of building a house and they have also been eager to save money on equipment and by doing it your self -mentality.

When building a house you should really put effort into the planning and consulting professionals. The choices you make regarding your new house will affect your life, wallet and your wallet’s life for decades to come. Decisions that are made in the planning and building phase are sometimes impossible to undo. Changes that are made after the actual building phase tend to be usually quite costly as well.

A good house is made to match the requirements of the family. It is efficient and contains good and healthy intake air. Good house is planned and executed to be a functioning whole with the help from professionals.

Choosing the way to go - whether to build your own house from the scratch or to order a ready made house, you should consult your local Rautia. They have solutions for both purposes and you can’t go wrong if you consult these people on a regular basis. Rautia offers a wide range of products in building a house and they also care to make the planning phase quite fun.

When you choose the professionals you want to work with, you should consider the legislation, your personal goals, the environment, budget and so on. Together with the right professionals you can end up building the house of your dreams and even keeping it within your budget. With Rautia as a partner the last part is quite easy. They always measure the actions and mirror it to your budget so that there would not be too much extra costs.

The phases you have to think through as a big picture are planning the project, technical planning and then naturally the actual building phase.

Choose your Heating Well when Building your House

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 06:48:42 +0100

Many people who build their house spend a lot of time on thinking about their heating systems. More important, though, is to think about if they could decrease the need of energy required for heating by making the house more condensed and isolated.

The price of energy in its various forms will definitely increase during the lifeline of the house. Investing in reducing the amount of energy consumed for heating will pay itself back quickly and the more effort you put into it in the building phase, the more you will win in the longer run.

You can get very good advice and basically everything you need for building a house that doesn’t require so much energy for heating from K-Rauta, a Finnish hardware store (in Finnish: rautakauppa). The staff is well trained and they can introduce the latest technology and tips and tricks for the building phase and beyond.

The currently available heating methods are:

1. Geothermal heating
2. Exhaust air heating system
3. Electric heating system
4. Oil heating system
5. District heating system
6. Pellet heating system
7. Other wood heating systems

To brake down the heating energy and where it goes: on average of all the energy used in heating 40-60% goes into heating the rooms. 10-25% goes to heating the water being used. 5-15% goes to heating the intake air and 20-30% goes to property electricity.

When building a house, you should look into the biggest one of the mentioned, heating the rooms. By planning your house so that you can adjust different rooms and spaces according to the usage and the need means huge savings on heating. If you don’t use one room, you can keep it a bit cooler and if you don’t use one room at all you can cut down the heating. This is the part where it’s also important to have your isolation in condition.

You can get good advice from K-Rauta on building your house so that you can adjust the different temperature zones. You can even have one for every room. Investing in this will pay back if you are active with adjusting the temperatures. Build your house wisely and do consult a professional when planning the heating system. You might save a big penny.

What is Energy Efficient housing?

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 06:22:41 +0100

Living in modern society you cant avoid of being facing with the facts of climate change, energy efficient (in Finnish: energiatehokkuus) living and carbon footprints.

Flying is bad, driving is bad, farming is even worse. What about building and living then - it is quite a chunk of our total footprint so people should put some effort on digging the facts.

What is energy efficient housing then? It is housing where a house consumes at least 50 percent less energy than what are the minimum requirements for the house. The environmental effects reduce on the same scale.

Building energy efficient house costs on average 3-4 percentage more than a normal house. It pays back in 6-10 years, which means that energy efficient housing really is financially reasonable and actually even profitable. The living and maintenance costs are also much lower in the energy efficient house comparing to the normal one.

Building an energy efficient house doesn’t require any special solutions. It can be done with the existing ones. You can walk into your local K-Rauta and ask about the building options. The choices you make now are critical so the staff is well trained to answer your questions regarding energy efficient housing.

Most ready made housing companies also have energy efficient houses on their listing because their advantages are proven with ever rising energy prices.

In an energy efficient house there is good quality of air and the structure of all wet area structures must be very well built. This is the one thing you can’t never be too precise.

Energy efficient house is designed by professionals. The house itself and the housing techniques have been designed to work as a whole. You will and you should pay for good planning when you are provided with a full plan because in the planning phase you decide 90% of the building costs and 80% of the future usage and energy related costs.

It is always wise to work with professionals when building your own house. You will most likely be living there for and all cost related questions will cumulate in the future if you don't do it right.

World’s Best Decoration - A Self-Made One

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 11:13:37 +0100

When surfing on the internet, you bump into some very different, interesting and beautiful things. The world of internet seems to be unlimited and suit all purposes of imagination.

I am currently under a huge interior design and decoration process. I have been struggling with my new apartment for a long time and can’t seem to find the perfect Feng Shui. I have changed the color on the walls many times, built new tables, tried various lamps but can’t seem to get the feeling right. After all it is the feeling that counts. The feeling when you look around and you realize that it makes you feel good and comfy.

Buying things isn’t always the best option. Items that have been bought always seem a bit distant for a while. Cold, unorionted and from a different planet I would describe.

I started couple of projects where I decided to build something myself. I started off with a table - ended up with a 10-player casino poker table with professional race tracks and giraffe leather. Even though I realized I would be spending very limited amount of time around it, it felt good. I made it myself and it was immediately part of my natural surroundings.

I got the idea of a table from my local K-Rauta, a Finnish hardware store (in Finnish: rautakauppa). I was looking for the necessary equipment for my table and bumped into a picture of a poker table. After talking to the staff in K-Rauta they gave me the true inspiration and even asked me to send some photos afterwards of the ready made table.

After building the poker table and really not spending too much time playing on it, I decided to convert it into a dining table. I went back to the local K-Rauta and showed the staff the pictures and they were very impressed. After a while of pondering, we came up with a solution: a cover for the table made from dark oak tree and some leather sealings. This way I can put the cover on whenever I decide not to use it as a poker player and it looks just like a very expensive and comfortable dining table. Very handy and most of all, perfect Feng Shui.

Winter windows

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 11:12:59 +0100

Cold wind breezing through the window seams, cold apartment no matter how high temperature you set for the batteries - most of us know this feeling.

Sealing windows is the single most effective energy saving action one can do during the winter time in Finland. Many old and new houses and apartments suffer from heat leaking windows and that sure is not energy efficient.

There are many ways to measure the heat leakage of your apartment or house. One can rent own equipment like thermal imaging camera and measure the leakage points. Most robust way of finding out whether there are any leakages or not is to hire a specialist to film the whole apartment or house with a thermal imaging camera and draw a leakage map for you.

After you spot the leakages, you can origin the faults to building phase if it’s in the walls or regular wearing out if it’s the windows. Most common leakage comes from the windows.

When you know where the heat is leaking out, you are ready to take the energy efficient builder’s first steps. You can get good equipment but moreover priceless tips and tricks from your local K-rauta. The staff is trained to give you advice on energy efficient building and heat leakages seem to be the most common fault.

After you know what the leakage points are and you have gotten the equipment from K-rauta, you can block all the leakage points and measure with the thermal imaging camera again after a day or two when the temperature evens out. If you don’t find any greater leakage after sealing the windows, you have managed well.

You can measure your floors, closets and walls at the same time when you do the windows. For each of these you have your own equipment and tips and tricks, so go to your closest K-Rauta and get on with it.

Energy efficient (in Finnish: energiatehokkuus) building does not only affect the environment but it also shows immediately in your energy consumption which naturally means more money for you.

Remember, winter in Finland is long and cold so if you think of postponing the leakage covering for next winter - you might as well do it now.

Small actions bring big savings

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 10:56:15 +0100

It is relatively easy to live energy efficiently (in Finnish, energiatehokkuus). Small actions can make big savings: read the tips from here!

* Replace window and door seals on a regular basis. Seals embrittle with time, and will leak the heated or cooled air out from unwanted places.

* Ventilate efficiently and quickly, especially at cold weather. The most efficient way to ventilate is the cross-ventilation, where two windows across the rooms are opened. For this, 15 minutes is enough to change the air of the room.

* A thermometer is the most affordable energy-saving tool. One-degree drop in room temperature means a five percent decline in energy bill. During the longer period of absence, drop the room temperature in 12 -16 degrees of Celsius.

* Check heating equipment and home appliances regularly. If any malfunction is there to be found, repair it or call the maintenance man as soon as possible. Any malfunction can cost a lot of money for a longer run.

* The shower faucet flow of 12 liters per minute is enough, and with handwash basin six is just fine. There is no need to let the water run at faster speed.

* Take shower instead of bath. When bathing, the water consumption is five times more compared to the shower washing.

* When washing the colored clothes, raising the washing temperature from 40 degrees of Celsius to 60 degrees of Celsius will double the energy consumption. Prefer lower temperatures, if possible.

* Prefer sun, wind and outdoor air when drying the clothes. If you need to use the dryer, use the program suitable for clothes and select the right drying time.

* Instead of one large refrigeration, think of buying two smaller. Built-in refrigerators consume more electricity than freely placed ones. Placing the refrigerator in a half warm place like storage room or garage can drop refrigerator’s energy consumption by as much as half.

* New toilet seats consume water less than half compared to the older models. Think of changing when renovating the bathroom.

* Do shut the lights when leaving the room. If possible, use motion detector or system detecting the amount of light for controlling outdoor lightning.

Check that you store food in proper storage temperatures: 5 degrees of Celsius for refrigerator, for cooler 12 degrees and for freezer, minus 18 degree of Celsius.

Smart choices save money and the environment

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 05:35:53 +0100

With these simple savings the energy efficient family can get 7000 euro more money per year. That money can be spent for example for family holidays or hobbies! Smart choices save money and the environment.

Energy efficiency (in Finnish, energiatehokkuus) does not mean something that takes away the pleasure and comfort of living. With simple actions one can be more energy efficient and also save money, without sacrificing of his living standards.

Heating and ventilation are the biggest energy eaters in any household, but specially in single family houses. By dropping the room temperatures in 18-22 degrees of Celsius the electricity bill can be significantly reduced. According to the studies that temperature is also healthier for human body. Wise choice for any single house owner is to have mechanical ventilation with heat recovery system. These systems have proved to be very effective even in cold northern environments, and are getting very popular today.

Heating and ventilation should be adjusted with the rhythm of family life. There is no need to keep up heating the house when nobody is home, or use automatic ventilation during the holidays or longer getaways. During the period of absence the room temperature can be dropped to 12 -16 degrees of Celsius.

Energy efficient person checks the taps and shower fittings periodically. If any leaks are there to be found, they should be repaired as soon as possible. When washing, it is recommendable to close taps while putting the detergent on – the same goes with washing one’s hand or teeth.

If there is sauna in house, it is a good idea to agree sauna evenings beforehand and go in sauna as soon as it is warmed up. The appropriate sauna temperature is 70-80 degrees of Celsius.

Dishwasher and washing machine should be from energy class A, with mentioning that they spend a little water and electricity. It is more economical and ecological to wash full loads. Following washing instructions and using right amount of detergent does not make good only for environment and wallet, but also for the clothes. Hand-washing should be left in minimal.

For drying clothes, natural drying in sun, wind and outdoor are the most energy efficient ways. If the dryer is used, the filling quantity should be correct. This also gives the best possible result and saves the clothes.

These simple steps will make any household more energy efficient, without any significant changes in the ways of living!