I had a good laugh last night when I spoke to my brother about his new home. You see, it was just a couple of months ago that he was bragging about the house he intended to buy. He said all of the appliances were A level in energy efficiency rating, and that solar would bring all of the needed energy to his under floor heating system. And most impressive was the solar voltaic part, which would show him a profit in no time flat. Therefore, his house was not only going to be rated as an A in efficiency, but would ultimately pay for its own running costs. All in all, it would beat the pants off of my house.

Well, the story is now quite a different one. The solar system turned out to be way more expensive than he had budgeted for, so he would need to buy equipment to power the under floor heating, and pay for an astronomical number of gas bottles on a regular basis. And well, as for the solar voltaic prospect and profit, it is also a no go. The area he lives in has a moratorium on allowing new members into the program until at least September, of 2011.  So, while I am proud of his good intentions, I am embarrassed to say that the overall rating on the energy efficiency of his house is a C. The point of this story, not only to publicly announce that my house is better than his, is to remind everyone that what a house has been promoted as being capable of can turn out to be a giant leap from what it will ultimately achieve. If you want to get an assessment of the energy efficiency of your house, you should enlist help from plumbers that can provide an assessment for you. These assessments can be a great way to help reduce your energy bills.