LEIGHTON BUZZARD, England, October 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Winter approaches, the temperature falls and on goes the central heating, a major energy consumer in the home,. In a society where environmental issues gain in importance every day, a brand new survey has been conducted among 3,300 house owners in the UK, Germany and France. This survey confirms that most people would like to cut their energy bills and help reduce CO2 emissions, it also shows they don't have a clue about the consumption of most of their appliances. An interesting contradiction ...
The survey, conducted by Survey Sampling International for the pump manufacturer Grundfos, mainly questions power and heat consumption patterns in the home. The good news is that a large majority of the respondents (81% in the United Kingdom, 87% in France and 90% in Germany) want to contribute actively to the reduction of energy consumption and therefore to an improvement of the environment in general. In addition to that, the survey demonstrates that 61% of the British participants and around 40% of the others are aware of the labelling scheme categorising electrical devices on a scale from A to G; A being the most energy friendly.
The survey also shows that the majority of respondents are actively trying to reduce power consumption, but mainly through turning devices off instead of leaving them on stand-by. Definitely a step in the right direction... however, only 39% of UK residents are inclined to purchase A-labelled, energy efficient products. So, on the one hand, consumers change their old bad habits for the better, but on the other hand, they are not consistent when purchasing new devices.
Also, even more disturbing, answers show that most people really have little or no knowledge of which devices actually consume the most power. Although electric bulbs, refrigerators, tumble dryers and washing machines were mentioned as the largest energy consumers in the home, respondents were surprised to hear that the circulator pump can be one of the greatest energy eaters, greater than light bulbs or even washing machines - depending on use. The forgotten circulator is usually hidden in a cupboard or situated inside a boiler ... making it a major hidden and generally unrecognised energy thief!
So, this winter, why not start implementing some little routines to help reduce heating consumption and thus lower bills, as well as CO2 emissions.
A few tips from Grundfos to reduce heating consumption:
- Have your central heating central serviced annually by a CORGI registered engineer and make sure it contains a Grundfos A rated circulator pump which could save10% of the total power consumption of the household;
- Check your windows for drafts, if there are any, and consider insulating them or replacing the windows, preferably by double glazing;
- Turn the heating off when you leave a room;
- Verify if the timer is set correctly - only have the heating on when you really need it e.g. not two hours before you get out of bed!
- Check room thermostats and thermostatic radiator valves and turn them down a notch
Some interesting numbers:
- European consumers who chose to install energy efficient Grundfos circulators in 2005 or 2006 have, combined, saved more than 916m kWh. That is equal to the energy consumption of 200,000 houses in Europe.
- If the 120 million circulators installed in Europe at present were replaced by A-labelled pumps, savings would be approx. 44 billion kWh per year - or equal to the power production of 5 nuclear power stations.
About Grundfos
The Grundfos Group develops, manufactures and sells pumps. The Group employs more than 14,500 staff and is represented with subsidiary sales and production companies in 41 countries. 2006 turnover reached DKK 15.4 billion.
For more useful tips, visit http://www.grundfos.co.uk
For further information, please contact: Cathryn Brannan or Laurence De Bièvre, Pleon UK, T: +44-(0)207-479-5656, E: cathryn.brannan@pleon.com or laurence.debievre@pleon.com
