A home that is over ten years old is unlikely to incorporate many energy-saving features in its original design. Nevertheless, there is no need to despair, to tear down and rebuild or to move out of your home. Rather, the home can be reviewed systematically in its entirety before determining how to stretch those renovation dollars for some good energy savings upgrades.

The Energy Guide program was created to assist in the rating of "white goods", but what about smaller items and electronics which have no such label program?

There aren’t many people who would be content with a home that is not equipped with major electrical appliances, entertainment systems and computers. It isn’t wrong to have and enjoy a large-screen TV (unless you watch it the whole day!) or air conditioning. Using the energy to run the equipment is not the issue. The issue is purchasing inefficient models and, worse still, employing polluting and non-renewable resources to run them.

If you're planning a solar thermal installation for a large building or a communal property such as apartments, you may need to consider a very large water storage tank. This is also true if your project is solar space heating – both of these installations require outsized tanks. Think big: we're talking between 300 and 500 gallons, here.