Low Tech Invention Cuts CO2 by 4% and Heating Bills by 50%

[RedRoseAndy]

From the moment that we switch our radiators on half of the heat given off by them is lost as it goes into the wall behind them. We can, however, get around this problem with an invention from a then schoolboy that got onto the ‘Tommorow’s World’ program decades ago. He had learned from School that heat is given off by way of conduction, convection, and radiation, so when his Grandmother had problems meeting her heating bills the schoolboy reasoned that heat loss due to conduction and convection could be stopped by putting a lining of cardboard covered with silver cooking foil behind his Grandmother’s radiators. Heat loss through the wall is now slashed by nearly 50%, and rooms heat up faster when the heating comes on. The Fire Brigade said at the time that the cardboard was not a fire hazard as behind the radiator is the least damaged part of a room in the event of a fire. And this saving cuts the CO2 emissions of your house.
The UK has 107 main power stations that produce 30% of CO2 production, that is, one power station produces 0.28 % of our CO2 emissions. 26% of our energy is used in space heating so we can guess that the equivalent of 27.82 power stations are used for space heating. If we can cut our space heating needs by nearly half with this simple invention we can reduce the number of power stations that we need by 13.91, and thus cut the total UK CO2 emissions by 3.9%. And we do not need as many new power stations as we did. How about it?