How GREEN is your house?

IT'S not just unseasonal weather that is making Scots shiver. Soaring gas and electricity prices have added an extra chill to the air. Nothing concentrates the mind like a hit where it hurts, but more people than ever now realise that dodging that blow can also help the environment. After all, 27 per cent of our annual carbon emissions come from our homes, much of it wasted energy lost through Scotland's notoriously leaky houses.

I had thought myself reasonably eco-friendly – until I filled in an Energy Saving Trust (EST) questionnaire. Four tonnes of hot air a year I was spewing out. Four tonnes! From one person in a top-floor tenement flat. This earned me an E rating.

So I sought a second opinion. Changeworks is a charity that provides free energy, waste and transport advice to homeowners in Edinburgh, the Lothians, Fife and the Borders. It operates the Energy Efficiency Advice Centre (EEAC), in conjunction with EST. It also runs special programmes for those living in fuel poverty, "Warm & Well" for people with health problems and "Cosy Kids" for young families. In some cases, Changeworks experts will visit the most vulnerable to demonstrate how to make a home warmer, cheaper and greener.

Energy efficiency adviser Sitar Ramsay and waste prevention officer Evelyn Mitchell showed me how…

LOFT INSULATION

I'M INCREDULOUS. Sitar seems impressed with the mangy looking insulation in my loft. "There's an even distribution of glass wool insulation, around five to six inches deep. In most tenements we find only one inch. Building regulations for new houses call for 11 inches," she says.

There are gaps to be filled and the hatch to be covered, but just one roll of insulation material should do the job.

Glass wool is hazardous, however, as the fibres invade clothes, eyes and lungs. Wear protective clothing, get the material in a plastic sleeve or consider insulation made from sheep wool, recycled paper or plastic bottles.

For those without any loft insulation, grants are available from electricity and gas suppliers, and those on benefits can claim a government grant of up to £500. An average loft should cost between £250 and £500 to insulate properly.

WALL INSULATION

MY WEAKNESS for Edinburgh's traditional architecture (my flat was built in 1898) puts me firmly in the red.

"Buildings that are hard to insulate are the worst; solid stone buildings like this one," says Sitar Ramsay. Such buildings make up a third of Edinburgh's housing stock. Incidentally, a third of a home's heat seeps out through its walls.

"It is not as straightforward as a 1930s-60s building where you can put in cavity-wall insulation and instantly make a £200-a-year saving."

Not good news for me, but cavity-wall insulation is an easy win for others, and the Scottish government's Warm Deal programme awards insulation grants of up to £500 for those in receipt of benefits.

"You could put up insulated plasterboard on the inside," Sitar suggests, "but that would mean redecoration, especially in the front room where there's cornicing and coving."

I redecorated six months ago, so that's a non-starter.


LIGHTING

WHEN I switch on my living room lights, the blaze from my five-bulb iron chandelier dazzles, and only one of those bulbs is energy efficient.

"Is there a reason for that?" Sitar asks.

"Well, I'm sort of replacing bulbs as they spark out," I reply apologetically. And I'm unsure whether there are energy-efficient equivalents for my six halogen lights in the kitchen.

"All those halogen spots could be replaced with LEDs. And with chandeliers people believe you have to use traditional bulbs to get a good light, but there's no difference," she says, pointing to my chandelier. She's right.

A quick flick through an Energy Savings Trust pamphlet reveals 25 different types of energy-efficient bulbs available from major DIY stores, supermarkets and department stores.


WINDOWS

ONE pleasant surprise, apparently, is my double glazing.

"We get a lot of people calling and saying they want to put in double glazing to replace sash and case windows, but the council won't let them," says Sitar.

Changeworks provides advice on refurbishing sash and case windows and incorporating draught-proofing. Historic Scotland's Conservation Bureau also offers detailed advice.

There is a downside to my double glazing. The compression seal on the PVC window unit in my bedroom is bust, and so a terrific draught wheezes through the window.

"Once these preformed units are in there is little you can do without replacing the unit," Sitar says sympathetically. "If it was a wooden one you could put draught stripping on it."

There is always duct tape.

DRAUGHT-PROOFING

IT BECOMES increasingly clear that energy waste is like death by a thousand cuts. You may not feel each little inefficiency, but they all add up. On the other hand, treating an individual wound requires only simple first aid.

Like applying draught-excluding material to the letterbox, around the frame and the bottom of the front door. Or filling the cracks in wooden floorboards with small slivers of wood. Filler paste is an option, but Sitar warns that gaps appear as the floorboards contract and expand.

She also suggests draught-proofing doors from the kitchen and bathroom to stop moisture circulating, but my living-room door should be left untouched.

"Never ever put draught proofing on a door to a room with an open flue appliance such as a gas fire," she warns.

As I rarely use my gas fire, blocking up the chimney with newspaper would add more draught-proofing.


CENTRAL HEATING

I'VE made elementary howlers with my central heating.

"You've got the radiator by the front door at minimum, and one in the hall on full whack," Sitar notes. "You want this space cold, that space hot, but in fact you're losing heat from the hot radiator to the cold space."

Better to have both radiator thermostatic valves on about 3, corresponding to about 18-20ºC – a comfortable temperature.

Similarly, I don't want heat flitting from room to room, but a settled background temperature everywhere. And I don't need the kitchen radiator on full blast when I'm cooking.

There are better marks for my combi boiler: "The temperature is 65ºC for the radiators. That's quite low. Some people have that up to 85ºC. And your hot water is not cranked up to the maximum."

With some trepidation, I ask: "Should I replace it?"

"It's about eight to ten years old. Get it serviced annually. I take issue with gas service contractors who say if a boiler is 15 years old you must replace it. If you throw out a boiler that still works that is a waste – think of all the energy going into making the new boiler."

APPLIANCES

ABOUT 10 per cent of energy in houses is wasted on appliances on standby. Plasma TVs are the worst offenders, while many people still leave phone and other chargers plugged into the wall and switched on, drawing current needlessly.

A sweep of the flat establishes that I'm not sinning in that regard and, what with my boiler getting the all-clear, I'm beginning to breathe easy. That's before Sitar opens my fridge.

"You've got nothing in it. Look! You don't need that fridge freezer," she exclaims. "You've got empty space there you are using energy to keep cold."

I'm genuinely shocked. It hadn't crossed my mind. One of the thousand cuts I'd missed. The answer is apparently to fill plastic tubs with water that will freeze and retain the cold… either that or switch to a frozen pizza and ice-cream diet immediately.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

IT DOESN'T take long for Evelyn Mitchell to rumble my recycling regime, as I go for the bin with a used teabag from her cuppa.

"At least 15 per cent of waste in bins is suitable for home composting: tea bags, fruit and vegetable peelings, coffee granules, eggshells. Mix it with egg boxes, shredded paper, leaves, twigs or dead flowers and a little water. It's simple," she says.

"But I live in a top-floor flat," I protest, "I don't garden."

"You have a shared garden. Sprinkle it around. You don't need to be an active gardener to compost."

It's shamefully simple. Go to the Waste Aware Scotland website to order a discounted compost bin (with free kitchen caddy) delivered to your door, put the bin in the garden and invite the neighbours to compost too. "It is amazingly satisfying," Evelyn enthuses. "And you are cutting the food waste you are sending to landfill that produces methane, a greenhouse gas."

Evelyn is pleased I'm using solid soap, pointing out that with liquid soaps and gels, "you are paying for water you can get out of the tap. You are wasting water and packaging."

Up to 50 per cent of families' household waste is made up of disposable nappies, which go straight to landfill. "If you use real nappies you will save up to £500 per child," she says. "Contact the Real Nappy Project at Changeworks for advice."

Smart Cartridge is one franchise which will refill empty ink cartridges. Likewise the Electric Centre will recycle energy-efficient light bulbs or fluorescent tubes if you buy new ones from them.

And one last thing: it's no use recycling if you don't buy recycled products. "The system needs input at both ends," Evelyn says.