Climate Change Series: How to cut carbon out of your heating, P7
- Shidonna Raven
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
By Shidonna Raven, Chief Editor
& Laura Cole, BBC
November 16, 2020
Source: BBC
Photo Source: Unsplash,
This Year we are bringing you Our 12 Months to 12 Climate Change Goals & New Habits Series. The series is designed to help you begin making simple and easy habit changing goals that can have a huge impact on your pocket and the environment, you are leaving to your children. We hope that you will be inspired to make your own Climate Change Goals and share them here with the community.
Climate Change can seem daunting as a whole, however, we are many. When we each make our own contribution, we believe these add up to huge numbers. Be inspired, encouraged and most of all enjoy yourself. Involve your children and help start their own space online where they can engage in Climate Change Habits.
We recently brought you the Cooling (Homes/Buildings/Office) Series for the July & August Climate Change Habit Changing Goal to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, This change can have a huge impact on Climate Change and is important Habit for Corporations and Community (Individuals) alike.
September is all about EnergyEfficiencies (at home, in the office and other buildings), which can have a huge impact on the environment. In September the 12 Month Habit forming Climate Change Goal is Solar Panels. Even if you decide to go another route, we invite you to learn more about Solar Panels. Solar Panels are having a huge impact in states and locations like California, that lead in such energy efficiencies. Choose carefully, in some cases Solar Panels have other environment impacts, some associated with production and longevity of usage. Heating and cooling can require a huge energy load depending on where you live and the weather differential.
Enjoy this Series, Apply what you have learned here and share the Journey with the community here by making posts and submitting photos and video to us. It could be featured on our eZine here. Also be a Climate Change Community Champions and share with your community and help empower them to make New Habit forming Climate Change Goals also in the community you share.
Accidental emissions
While adding insulation and other measures to make your home more energy efficient might seem to make sense, there is a risk that the carbon footprint of the construction materials themselves could cancel out any savings made.
“It can sometimes be a zero sum game,” says Ahmed Khan, a professor of sustainable architecture in Belgium.
Through research at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, he found some of the most energy-efficient products, such as brand new insulation materials and triple glazing, can be more carbon heavy over their lifetime due to the energy needed to manufacture and transport the materials. This is called embodied energy.
Rather than fibreglass insulation, cellulose fibres, mineral wool from mineral waste, cork and even wasted blue jean fabric can be used
There is a sweet spot though. “It’s possible to achieve a very high energy efficiency and low embodied energy, so long as you pay attention to the sources of materials,” says André Stephan, expert in energy efficiency at the Univerité Catholique de Louvain.
Favouring materials that come from natural sources, repurposed waste or reused materials can help. “It truly depends on the location of your home, but as a general rule materials which are bio-based and not fired at very high temperatures are typically less energy intensive,” says Stephan. Less energy intensive means less greenhouse gas emissions.
Rather than fibreglass insulation, cellulose fibres, mineral wool from mineral waste, cork and even wasted blue jean fabric can be used. “Reaching passive house standards or equivalent with these materials is ideal for a low carbon footprint across the life cycle of the property,” says Stephan.
How can you introduce more (organic or natural) fresh vegetables and fruits into your diet? How could this impact the environment? How could a home garden contribute to your and your family's overall health?
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