Magazine - Casa Cultures

7 Tips To Organize Your Kitchen Well

Written by Brenda on February 7, 2020. Posted in Magazine. No Comments on 7 Tips To Organize Your Kitchen Well

There are a thousand opportunities to invite family and friends to the house, whether it is around the holidays or on a birthday. To receive without spending hours putting the house in order, it is better to have a well-organized kitchen. How to prepare in the kitchen for the rush of the end of the year or a big weekend? Discover all our practical advice for organizing your kitchen.

Put Your Equipment In The Right Places In The Kitchen

When you cook little, you don’t really need a super organized kitchen. We manage.

But when it comes to preparing meals for 10, 15 or 20 people, it is better to avoid 100 steps and unnecessary gestures. No secret: we organize and optimize each gesture by placing the equipment where it is most useful.

Near the sink: colanders and garbage cans.
Near the cooking corner: pots, spices, condiments and seasonings, utensils (spatulas, spoons).
Near the work surface: knives, cutting boards and any robots that you use often. If you use them only rarely, hop, direct in the closet. Better to leave the worktop free and easy to clean.

Prepare To Share The Kitchen

The Christmas spirit is also about being together in the kitchen to prepare good meals. If you are lucky enough to have loved ones to help you, it is better to prepare the kitchen to welcome them well.

Free the soil from all that is lying around (packs of bottles, stocks of vegetables ) to facilitate circulation.
Free up the worktops so you can cook with others. If you are lucky enough to have a central island, now is the time to make it the heart of the kitchen. Otherwise, you can also set up a table or even a board on high trestles to have a work surface that everyone will use.
Make the item on your knives and cutting boards to have enough available.

Store Food

When you cook a lot over a few days, you have to store a lot of food. For an efficient organization, here are our tips before the rush:

Make a session of decluttering foremost. Outdated or preserved cereals that have been in the cupboard for years deserve to go in the trash and free up space.
For all current groceries, prefer storage in large deep drawers. Ideally, translucent boxes of the same format will be filled with food. So, at a glance, you can see the status of your stocks. If necessary, write the contents of the box using a water-erasable marker. This will prevent you from confusing salt and sugar in your crème brûlée recipe, for example!
For fruits and vegetables, remember that only a minority needs to be stored in the refrigerator, especially in winter. For everyone else, crates or boxes stacked in the garage or in a closet will be perfect.
For drinks, plan to store large quantities of wine, juice, and soda in the garage.

Make Room In The Fridge

When cooking a lot, the refrigerator should be organized in detail. Check daily the stock of drink that must be cool, just to have a bottle of juice or soda in advance.

In the vegetable bins, store only the peeled vegetables that you have washed and cut when returning from shopping: a peeled and washed salad in a plastic bag or tea towel, the carrots peeled in a Tupperware, the diced beets ready to be seasoned.

Everywhere else in the refrigerator, favor the storage of food in transparent plastic boxes of the same format (rectangular or square) to optimize filling.

Small conservation tip: peeled and cut vegetables can be kept in a jar filled with water in a cool place for 5 days! Opened sauce jars are best kept covered with a layer of olive oil.

Make Meal-Prep Or Batch-Cooking

Having half the meal already prepared is a great time-saver at mealtime. And it’s a relief when you get out of the blue. This idea is the basis of meal-prep (meal preparation sessions) or batch-cooking (batch cooking). The idea is simple: in 2 hours, you cook the basics that you only have to assemble and reheat the following days.

An example of winter batch-cooking? You prepare in 2 hours a pot of pumpkin soup, a leek pie, a stew, a chocolate cake.

You cook and store rice, green lentils, sautéed garlic mushrooms, and oven-roasted sweet potatoes. You peel and prepare (but not season) grated carrots, green salad, endives. You cook 2 delicious sauces such as a creamy cheese sauce and a Thai peanut sauce.

With batch-cooking, guests can disembark, you can compose a delicious meal without spending hours behind the stove: you only have to reheat and assemble It’s up to you to plan a session every 3 days during the period celebrations. If you have a freezer, you can also freeze good homemade dishes that you will only have to reheat on D-Day.

Organize The Service

Are you alone in the kitchen and want to both treat and enjoy your guests? It is not necessarily missioned impossible.

The key is to compose his menus by limiting the last minute preparation for one dish. If your main dish is game casserole launched in the morning and your dessert is a frozen log, you can easily prepare a starter served on a plate just before the meal.

During the meal, with each dish that you throw away, immediately fill the dishwasher or put the dishes directly to soak in the sink. You will save time at the end of the meal when you put the kitchen in order.

Optimizing The Ritual For The Trash

The trash or rather now the garbage since all kitchens incorporate the sorting must be ready to perform at the time of preparation of meals. For this, create rituals during the holidays when you receive them. Every morning, make sure that the trash cans are not yet full and if it is, go empty them so that the kitchen is ready for the shot.

Ditto obviously for recyclable packaging and especially glass, which quickly piles up at this time.

6 Tips To Work Serenely

Written by Brenda on February 7, 2020. Posted in Magazine. No Comments on 6 Tips To Work Serenely

Ah the future baby room, a kitchen renovation, this terrace for sunny days, you dreamed of two. But subject to the stress of the unexpected, to fatigue, to the limits of our skills, we can sometimes feel tensions. To succeed in your work as a couple or in a group and with a smile, there are however a host of small tips. Here are a few, to apply a little, a lot, passionately.

Organize Your Work Well

“If I had known it would last that long, we would have organized ourselves differently”.

A site is better to have anticipated it. Here are some suggestions:

Prepare the works budget upstream!

Prepare a loan request from the bank, plan for the unexpected, find out about state aid. It is important to estimate the overall cost of the site so as not to have unpleasant surprises.

Make Lists

Preparing your project beforehand means first and foremost drawing up lists! In particular to manage the different tasks but also to plan the logistics and the stocks of materials.

Take advantage of the applications and functionalities of certain sites to orchestrate your work:

Shared folders and common “To-do list” (Google Drive, OneDrive)
Online project management tools (Trello)
Architecture software to design your plans (Kozikaza)
Create your “shopping lists” by part/project on the casacultures.com website.
The success of the work also means planning meals, snacks, and comforting drinks, it is essential!

Define Everyone’s Responsibilities

During the work, you must know how to share the tasks, delegate with patience and tolerance. Take the opportunity to promote talents, not just those of the DIY pro.

Among the precious talents that you should surround yourself with, there are:

Someone who lists all the tasks schedules them over time
But also someone who ensures that the resources of labor and tools or consumables are accessible
One person who coordinates all workers smoothly
Another who checks certain works

Agree to share the tasks, to delegate with indulgence and tolerance. Everyone must feel integrated and valued at the risk of demotivation! Encourage yourself!

Prioritize According To Deadlines

A successful project is a series of well-orchestrated and managed tasks. It depends on the actions of all the actors on the site (you and your other half but also those who came to lend a hand).

Place deadlines in front of each task and prioritize it!

Once everything is set, the important thing is, of course, to share it with all the participants in the site and to be flexible to deal with any eventuality. Like that, at least, everyone can coordinate and know what awaits them …

Communicate To Avoid Crises

Do you know the common point between couple life, family life, business life, and construction life? In any case, better to communicate.

Listening to the other, accepting that the other is not as “reactive”. The work can become a great source of stress in the couple.

Explain to everyone what awaits them. Take into account the flexibility of the schedules and re-explain the changes in the course in the event of the unexpected. It is essential to define what is expected of each other and let everyone express their emotions.

Manage Your Pace

You are not building contractors. You have a job, probably a social life, maybe children. And life will not stop during your work! So you might as well learn right away to manage duration and “slack”.

It is important to find the right rhythm, timing and to take the time to make regular points in advance of the project. This is necessary so as not to drown in the tasks to be done or completed.

Also, take breaks from work regularly. And treat yourself to little pleasures. An outing to the cinema. A bike ride. Two hours of reading in the sun.

Anything as long as you feel like recharging your batteries between two places.

Celebrate Each Successful Step!

Attention, philosophical advice. The construction site is not a big whole but a multitude of small successes that must be celebrated. Rather than waiting for the whole piece to be finished before opening the champagne, celebrate each step.

The parquet is laid? Is the paint dry? Aperitif with family or neighbors. Are the curtains hung? Taste hide and seek with the children. It’s longer?

And then dédramatisez! It is a beautiful life project, an adventure to enjoy.

Heating System To Use For Each Room In Your House

Written by Brenda on February 7, 2020. Posted in Magazine. No Comments on Heating System To Use For Each Room In Your House

What is the ideal temperature for each room in your house? At the heart of winter, the outside temperature often borders on 0 ° C. What a joy to enjoy the warmth of your home! And yet not easy to find the solution that provides the ideal temperature in the house without spending too much money, while preserving the environment. What type of heating system for the bedroom or bathroom? What recommended temperatures? The ideal temperature for sleeping? Heating, insulation and energy savings, we give you all our advice room by room.

The Right Temperature In Each Room

Let’s talk little, let’s talk well! The essential information for choosing the heating system suitable for each room is the temperature that is recommended. It adapts to the function of the room in question, the time spent there, the time of the day it is occupied.

The temperatures we recommend allow you to be comfortable at home, without being too hot or too cold, to preserve your health, that of the planet, and to save energy. Of course, everyone will adapt these temperatures to their feelings and their lifestyle. Not to mention that the level of insulation, the temperature of the walls, the circulation of air or the humidity rate also influence the feeling of well-being.

What Ideal Temperature For Which Room?

Bathroom: 19 ° C (unoccupied) and up to 23 ° C (occupied)
Room: 18 ° C
Baby room: 19 ° C
Kitchen, living room, dining room (living rooms): 19 ° C to 20 ° C
Office: 19 ° C
Passage rooms: 14 ° C for unused rooms and up to 17 ° C

Be careful not to heat unnecessarily. When you leave the house, think of lowering the temperature by 3 ° C without cutting everything of course.

Bathroom Heating system

Recommended temperature in the bathroom: 19 ° C and up to 23 ° C when used.

What is at stake in a bathroom? Get hot quickly when you go to take a bath or shower, especially in the morning! Be careful not to heat unnecessarily when not in use.

A must in the bathroom? The towel radiator that heats the room and the towels at the same time. To choose it, prefer the programmable models or with “ boost ” function which allows using all the power of the device over an adjustable or preset duration, it depends on the device.

Be sure to ventilate your bathroom well to evacuate moisture from the shower or bath. By opening the window every day if you have one, or by installing a VMC or an aerator , you avoid unpleasant odors and mold. This is a good point for the efficiency of your heating system because drier air is easier to heat.

Room Heating system

Recommended room temperature: 18 ° C

In the room, make sure to maintain temperature more fresh during the night to fall asleep easily and promote the quality of sleep.

Ventilate even in winter! Ten minutes is enough to make your indoor air healthier and to evacuate moisture to heat more easily. Guaranteed heating system savings!

Children’s Room Heating system

Recommended temperature in a child’s room: 18 ° C and up to 19 ° C for the baby’s room

The whole challenge of the children’s room? Efficient heating system and air more healthy than the rest of the house.

For your child’s bedroom, prefer a model that preserves air quality; they are reported in stores and on leroymerlin.fr. Their heating body is not in direct contact with the air, thus avoiding burning the dust, an important cause of the deterioration of the air quality.

For efficient heating system and healthier ambient air take care of your daily heaters: dust the electric heaters, purge the noisy hot water heaters and empty the ashes from the stove or the chimney.

Heating system Of The Kitchen And Living Room

Recommended temperature in living rooms: 19 ° C to 20 ° C

The living rooms are the places where we spend the most time. The temperature must, therefore, be constant and the heating equipment design enough to integrate into the decoration quite naturally.

Remember to have your heating devices maintained before and / or after the heating season: boiler, pellet stove, etc.

Heating Of Passage Rooms (Corridor, Workshop, Garage, Veranda)

Recommended temperature in passage rooms: 14 ° C for unused rooms and up to 17 ° C

As we spend little time there, we need to get warm quickly. For the hot water radiator, equip it with a thermostatic valve to turn it off when you are not there. If you spend very little time there, you can consider another solution than a fixed radiator. The electric heater is particularly suitable for places where you spend little time. Choose a small radiator: barely lit, it heats up.

The backup heater is the easiest to install and the cheapest especially if these rooms are occupied only a little. Beware of consumption which can quickly prove to be very high.

Control your heating using a thermostat or models of programmable heaters to heat at the right temperature at the right time.

6 Tips To Get Warm At Home With Enki

Written by Brenda on February 6, 2020. Posted in Magazine. No Comments on 6 Tips To Get Warm At Home With Enki

Being warm at home in winter is an essential criterion for feeling good at home. But how can you get warm without burning your bills or spending your time adjusting the radiators in each room? The solution is Enki, the box that connects all your radiators and allows you to program your heating to the nearest degree in each room and at the time that suits you. Find out how the Enki box can change your life in winter.

Enki, The Solution Whatever Your Type Of Heating

Enki is the box created by Leroy Merlin to connect all of your connected objects together and centrally. With 120 compatible products from more than 20 different brands, you can control all your objects in the same place from your smartphone or tablet. And for your heating, Enki is the best way to centralize everything.

If you already have central heating, you can connect your boiler with Enki and ask it to respect your lifestyle. If you do not have central heating, the different connected radiators can also heat each room according to your habits, at the said temperature and at the appointed time.

In short, whether you are a tenant with toaster radiators that consume a lot or an owner with centralized and efficient heating installation, the Enki box ensures optimal operation of your heating.

The goal: be warm when you need it and save!

Get Warm When You’re There Thanks To Enki

With Enki, it is easy to decide on a comfortable temperature in each room, at times when you are there.

For example, to get warm in the bathroom in the morning if you leave at 8:30 am, you can launch the towel dryer to reach the temperature of 22 ° C at 7:30 am, sharp when you get out of the shower.

Similarly, for the living room, if you come home at 8 p.m., you can heat up a little before with your home automation system to enjoy the evening and watch TV while warm.

And in the bedroom? If you are only there to sleep, no need to heat up for too long. But if you stay in bed late at the weekend, it is possible to modify the home automation programming to gain a few degrees and enjoy a real moment of comfort. One example among many of the joys of the connected home.

Save On Heating Costs When You’re Not Around

When you reduce the temperature by 1 ° C, you save 7% on your bills! We thus understand how fine management of temperatures thanks to your Enki home automation box allows you to make great savings without impacting your comfort.

The ideal temperature in the room is 17 ° C, that of the entrance, the kitchen and the WC is 19 ° C. And for the bathroom, it’s 22 ° C when you’re there, but 17 ° C is good enough when you’re not using it.

It’s up to you to play from your smartphone or tablet to best program your heating room by room. You will thus avoid unnecessary expenses and you will preserve your comfort when you are at home.

Create Scenarios Adapted To Your Habits With Enki

Between the bachelor who works a lot outside his home, the couple who is only there on weekends, the family whose children come home every evening at 4 p.m. with the babysitter, the habits are different and the heating needs also.

With Enki, you can create your precise life scenarios, according to your habits, for maximum comfort.

For example, in the case of a family, on Monday morning, at 9 a.m., the heating is reduced as soon as everyone leaves the house but turns on again around 4 p.m., while the shutters are automatically lowered when it is dark for preserve the heat in the rooms. Around 6 p.m., the heated towel rail heats up for the children’s bath at 6 p.m. and stops at 7 p.m.

Do you work at home? Your office deserves a few extra degrees during your working hours and Enki provides them effortlessly. You only have to program it once to save everything.

The weekend, your habits are different? Create a “weekend” scenario that starts automatically on Saturday, with for example a bathroom heater rather around 11 am if you are a late riser, continuous heating in the living room and no heating in the office.

You understood, with the Enki box, your home becomes intelligent and your heating adapts to your habits to guarantee you optimal comfort and no unnecessary expense.

Manage Unexpected Events With Complete Freedom

Programming is good, but in life, everything does not always go as planned. With Enki, you can change your settings in real-time from your smartphone.

No need to navigate from room to room to adjust the radiators, or even to be at home. Your teens are not going to school and come home earlier? You adjust the heating of their room from your workplace.

Are you returning later than planned from your weekend at sea? Postpone the ignition of the radiators during the return journey from your car.

You change your mind and tonight, you are not going to eat with friends at the restaurant but you are going to come home early? From the app, you raise the temperature to be warm the moment you slide the key in the door.

Be Warm While Controlling Your Budget

Enki, you get it, keeps you warm all the time you need it, but only when you need it.

Thus, thanks to this fine temperature control, the essentials of which are programmed once and for all, you save without compromising on your comfort.

Better still, with your home automation installation, you measure the impact on your invoices for each decision since the monitoring of your consumption is of perfect precision.

Over the weekend, week, month or year, you can see what each connected device consumes, all from your smartphone or tablet. Enki magic!

How To Save Big Energy At Home With Doing These Small Things

Written by Brenda on February 6, 2020. Posted in Magazine. No Comments on How To Save Big Energy At Home With Doing These Small Things

No, there is no need to get into big jobs to save significant energy. Both for heating and for hot water production. sometimes it only takes a touch of trick, or new technologies, to do good to your wallet and comfort!

Energy Renovation

For once, everyone agrees: the energy renovation of old dwellings is an ecological and economic necessity. Especially when fuel poverty affects more and more people in France every year. Fortunately, improving your energy coefficient does not always involve insulating attics or exterior walls: less expensive solutions exist!

In 2014, more than 3.5 million housing renovations were completed in France. Source: 2015 campaign of the Permanent Observatory for Energy Improvement of Housing (OPEN)

55% of people who know about fuel poverty are over 60 years old. Source: Ademe, 2015

Control The Temperature At A Lower Cost: Long Live The Technology!

Today, as long as your home is properly insulated, smart thermostats combined with central heating are the essential economic solution: They help heat without ever wasting. Like the Netatmo model, thanks to which you can remotely adjust the temperature at home, via your smartphone, just before you return from work or a weekend. This type of thermostat costs a hundred euros, and its installation by a certified craftsman provides financial advantages.

Do you prefer individual heating, controlled room by room? Install radiators – like the Bolero model by Sauter – which startup when they detect your presence in the room and go out when you leave it. Energy savings are made without thinking about it!

If your accommodation is very well insulated, perhaps you are faced with this difficult choice: how to bring in clean air without letting the heat escape? The technical solution is very simple, even if its name is less so: VMC double flux. It is a system for suction and filtration of outside air – this being heated by the air expelled from the house. In other words, the expelled airflow heats the incoming airflow (double flow), without gas mixture. An excellent compromise, that an experienced handyman is able to install alone.

Solar Heat? Under Control!

If you have a garden, building a climate well (also called Provençal or Canadian) will help you to regulate the temperature naturally in your home, summer and winter! This system collects outside air from the garden. In summer, this air cools down during its passage through the ground, before being blown into the house. In winter, the same device heats the indoor air by a few degrees.

In direct connection with our star, solar water heaters replace or supplement the classic devices such as balloons, boilers. They are installed on the roof or on the ground. Correctly oriented, a 1 m² photovoltaic panel produces around 100 kWh of electricity per year; with an average of 90 kWh / year in the North, and 110 kWh / year in the South. Who said that this system was reserved for the South of France?

The (simplified) operation of a Provençal well.

4m² of collectors and 200 liters of solar storage cover between 50% and 70% of the energy needs of 4 people. Source: ENGIE

The installation of a photovoltaic installation on a roof can be completed in 3 days on average.

Financial Aid For Whom? Why?

According to Ademe, the bill for energy renovation works is reduced on average by 17%, thanks to the various financial aids put in place for individuals (2015 figures). So remember to inquire with your region, department or municipality!

The Energy check, meanwhile, set up on an experimental basis in four departments, should be available in January 2018 for modest households. All of these government and local measures clearly illustrate the very long-term effort to save energy at all levels: energy renovation is now a major national project.

Did you know ? The duration of work eligible for eco-ptz increased from 2 to 3 years in 2016. Source: Insee 2015

The installation of a thermostat or a programmer by certified craftsman benefits from the Energy Transition Tax Credit (ISCED 30%) and reduced rate VAT (5.5%).

What if, in terms of energy savings and resource conservation, intelligent objects were the solution of the future? Remote control or self-regulation are becoming commonplace in the home: thermostats, water heaters, or even the Hydrao shower head, which warns of overconsumption of water … Chances are, soon, all our houses will be equipped with it. Smart home, economical and, why not, energy producer, thanks to the democratization of photovoltaics? We say yes!

7 Tips To Control Your Energy Consumption

Written by Brenda on February 5, 2020. Posted in Magazine. No Comments on 7 Tips To Control Your Energy Consumption

Living in comfort without exploding your bills, we all dream about it, especially when the cold season is approaching. However, sometimes it only takes a few simple gestures or suitable technical solutions to put your meter under control. Discover some tips to control your energy consumption.

Control Temperatures

Heating corresponds to 62% of the energy consumption of a home. A good reason to start by mastering this position. The first precaution is to install a thermostat.

ADEME (Agency for the Environment and Energy Management ) recommends:

19 ° C in living rooms
16 ° C in the rooms
17 ° C in the bathroom; 22 ° C when used
16 ° C for unused parts or even 12 ° C in the event of prolonged absence

And each degree counts since 1 ° C less represents a 7% reduction in consumption per year!

And if you install a connected thermostat, you will be able to control the temperature of your interior from your smartphone. You will be able to follow and control your consumption in real-time.

Heat The Water, But Not Too Much

The water heater often heats too much! A temperature between 55 ° C and 60 ° C avoids the risk of burns and saves you energy.

Just set this temperature on the water heater and voila.

Likewise, installing a thermostatic mixing valve or tap allows you to avoid consuming hot water during the time you set the temperature, for dishes, baths or showers.

Year-round, this represents a good amount of water and energy saved.

Set Your Fridges And Freezers To The Right Temperature

Cold appliances such as the freezer or the refrigerator are responsible for 25% of energy consumption! The right temperature for the refrigerator is 4 ° C in the upper floor.

No need to cool more or risk consuming more without keeping better. So check regularly that the fridge is at the right temperature. If you can keep it away from heat sources (oven, electric hob, radiator), you will make it easier.

Finally, concerning the freezer, regularly practice a defrost. Indeed, 1 mm of frost represents 10% more energy consumed.

Switch Your Appliance To Eco Mode

Household appliances now have energy labels that allow you to know their energy performance. Bet on the devices classified A which are the most economical. Small precision, the progress made means that there is now A +, A ++ and A +++ devices with very uneven performance (an A +++ device consumes half as much as an A + device).

ADEME plans to change the categories in 2018 to return to classifications from A to G.

Similarly, some devices such as washing machines or dishwashers have ECO modes that you can choose for every day. They are obviously more economical in water and electricity than the other programs.

Streamline Your Lighting

There are two ways to reduce the impact of lighting on your bill. The first is to replace the bulbs one by one with economical versions: either compact fluorescent bulbs (efficiency 300 times greater than an incandescent bulb) or even better-LED bulbs (efficiency 400 times greater than an incandescent bulb), more expensive to buy but very energy efficient and therefore quickly profitable.

The second option is to control your lighting by centralizing the controls. No more lights on for nothing! There are home automation boxes that allow you to fully control your ceiling lights or lamps from the central panel. You can even organize the lighting according to different scenarios such as “day week” where everything is off, “day weekend winter”, where the house lights up for example at 4 p.m. in the living rooms. You choose.

If your house is not equipped with such a table, everything is possible. Just plug your lamps into connected sockets, which you will control from your smartphone or tablet.

Unplug Devices From Standby

Standby devices are really energy consumed for nothing, without any service rendered. To make it easier for you to quickly switch off devices on standby, connect them to multiple sockets with switches.

When everyone goes to bed, you cut the TV, the box, the speaker at the same time. Another option: the standby switch. When you turn off the device, it blocks the flow of current.

Also, remember to unplug the chargers when you are not charging any device as they consume as soon as they are connected.

Connect Your Entire Installation

To control heating and lights from your smartphone, simply group all the connected objects (bulbs, thermostats, sockets, etc.) in your house in a single application. This is what the Enki application allows. So, from your smartphone and even when you are not at home, you can turn off a forgotten light, start the heating before returning, or even close the shutters to keep the heat inside.

You see your consumption in real-time. You can also compose your scenarios according to your habits. An example? The scenario “morning week” turns on the towel dryer at 6:45 am as well as the bedroom lights, while the kitchen radiator heats up slowly. At 9 a.m., all the lamps go out and the temperatures drop to 16 ° C when everyone is gone.

Not only do you no longer have anything to manage since everything is done automatically, but you can also monitor your consumption via precise histories. I promise you will see the savings!

10 Tips To Save Energy In The Bathroom

Written by Brenda on February 5, 2020. Posted in Magazine. No Comments on 10 Tips To Save Energy In The Bathroom

The bathroom may be small (6 m² on average), it consumes a lot of energy! For heating of course, but also and above all for hot water. Small and large solutions, here are our tips to save energy today, without sacrificing your comfort.

Shower In Eco Mode

It is well known that taking a shower rather than a bath uses much less hot water. As long as we don’t stay there for 20 minutes. To make the pleasure last (a little) without increasing the bill, here are 3 smart ideas.

In a jiffy: the aerator to add to your taps. It limits the water output rate while optimizing the jet pressure.
All-in-one on the same principle: the economical shower. The key is up to 75% savings in hot water!
And for those who don’t see the time passing in the shower: the connected shower head ! Green color, relax; blue: start rinsing; pink: last rinse; red: it’s time to go out!
Flashing red: you are exaggerating!

Turn Off Hot Water While Soaping And Brushing Teeth

It’s a simple gesture that we don’t always do.

Fortunately, there are smart devices to help us acquire this reflex!

The mixer saves 10% of water compared to a conventional mixer tap and can be closed with one hand or even with one finger. No more excuses!
Better still, the infrared mixer tap is even more economical: you keep your hands away, it cuts the water automatically. Thanks, WHO?

Heat The Water Yes, Boil It No!

The more you heat the water to wash, the more you spend. Set the temperature of your hot water tank between 55 to 60 ° C: this is enough to limit the development of pathogenic bacteria, and this prevents scaling of your water heater, which will suddenly live longer. And hop, another economy by the way!

Heat Water Much Cheaper

Save energy to heat water is economical or even free, the bill becomes lighter! Several solutions are available to you:

Associated with heating, hot water can be produced economically by a wood-fired boiler, a solar water heater or an air-water heat pump.
Independently of the heating, it can be provided mainly by a solar water heater or by a thermodynamic water heater.

Produce Hot Water As Close As Possible To Your Needs

The further the hot water source is from your bathroom, the more calories it loses en route, and the more you spend to compensate for these heat losses.

If you cannot get your boiler closer, install a booster tank as close as possible to your needs. In all cases, isolate the pipes and your balloon.

Heat at the right time

In the bathroom, the ideal temperature is around 22 ° C. Aim for 21 ° C: one degree less is already 7% save energy done.

But no need to heat as much when you are not there. The solution: program your heating in comfort mode during shower times and in eco mode the rest of the day. Savings can reach 25%!

Save Energy When You Leave

Do not waste your money when you are on vacation or in case of prolonged absence! Before leaving, program your heating and hot water in “vacation” mode. Your devices will restart to welcome you upon your return. Welcome home!

Don’t Let The Cold Come In

One good way to save on heating is to prevent heat from escaping. How? ‘Or’ What? By strengthening the insulation of your front walls and your joinery.

The cold rushes around your window? Apply caulking seals. Is the glazing simple? Replace your window with a double glazed model: the heating savings can reach 15%!

Remove Moisture

In the bathroom, humidity is inevitable. However, the air charged with humidity is more difficult to heat. A good ventilation system is necessary (VMC or aerator).

If it is insufficient, equip yourself with a dehumidifier. Ideally, the humidity level should be between 40 and 60%.

Get On With Save Energy

When washing your bathtub or sink, no need to use hot water. Coldwater cleans up as well!

Is your washing machine in the bathroom? Prefer “eco” programs, which consume less energy. And if your washing machine is also drying, spin your laundry first as much as possible: drying will be faster and cheaper.

One last piece of advice to reduce your energy bill in the bathroom: opt for save energy bulbs like LEDs, champions in the field. You are well lit to save!

Why Maintain Your Heating Equipment

Written by Brenda on February 5, 2020. Posted in Magazine. No Comments on Why Maintain Your Heating Equipment

For security reasons, the law requires the control and overhaul of certain devices. Well-maintained heating equipment improves the performance of your installation, increases the life of your equipment, and reduces your energy bill. Boiler, fireplace, stove. what are your obligations and the good reasons for maintaining them?

Why Maintain Your Boiler?

Gas, oil or wood boiler: which says combustion says compulsory maintenance, for your safety and for the proper functioning of your heating equipment installation. A well-maintained boiler generates 5 times less breakdown. Its yield even increases from 8 to 12% and its life expectancy is multiplied by 2 (source ADEME).

Maintaining your boiler is mandatory: whatever the fuel used, the regulations require an annual review by an authorized heating equipment engineer. The professional checks the general condition of the device. He cleans the connection duct, the heating body, the burners, the pilot light. and reviews the settings. It measures the level of carbon monoxide in the ambient air, to ensure that there is no risk of poisoning.

The revision is the subject of a certificate, to be kept preciously! In fact, in the event of a claim, your insurance will ask you for the certificate of proper maintenance of your boiler.

Why Maintain Your Central Heating equipment?

From the boiler to the radiators or the underfloor heating equipment, the hot water is routed in a circuit, which must be maintained to prevent the heating from malfunctioning.

Air pockets form from time to time in the hot water circuit. They reduce the performance of the installation. In addition, the heat of the water can cause sediment to form.

A network sludge is then necessary. The law does not impose any obligation in terms of maintenance of the central heating equipment circuit, but prevention is better than cure: it is advisable to clear the water every 5 years on average, or before replacing an old boiler with a recent model. Know that this is a delicate operation, which it is better to entrust to a specialist. Poorly done, it can damage your network and it can cost you dearly!

However, the purging of radiators, to evacuate air pockets, is within everyone’s reach. This involves emptying the air from the pipes, then putting the boiler back under pressure. Finally, the regular dusting of radiators will ensure better heat distribution and clean walls!

Why Maintain Your Fireplace, Insert Or Wood Stove?

The pleasure of heating with wood and the spectacle of flames requires regular maintenance to guarantee safety and performance and to avoid dirt produced by combustion.

The unit’s regular maintenance is your responsibility, that is to say, the emptying of ashes, cleaning the walls of the hearth or fireplace and the window when there is one.

The only obligation is the sweeping of the chimney flue by a professional, twice a year including once during the heating period, with an invoice with the key and a certificate of sweeping. Your insurer will obligatorily require it in the event of a claim.

Why Maintain Your Insert Or Pellet Stove?

Unlike wood heaters, which you can maintain yourself, those that work with pellets (or pellets), derived from wood processing by-products, require the help of a professional because they are highly technical (equivalent to a boiler).

The law requires a maintenance contract from an approved company. The specialist carries out an annual visit involving various cleaning, control, and specific adjustment operations. These checks include the on-board electronics (very sensitive) and the electrical installation. Added to this is the obligation to sweep the flue by a professional, twice a year, once during the heating period.

In the event of a claim, your insurer will require the maintenance contract for your insert or your pellet stove and a sweeping certificate as well as the sweeping invoice.

Be aware that you can carry out certain routine cleaning actions yourself during the heating equipment season: fireplace, burn pot, ash drawer, glass door. But be careful, any deterioration due to non-compliance with the manufacturer’s instructions would cause ‘ cancellation its safeguards.

Why Maintain Your Air-Water Or Air-Air Heat Pump?

These economical heating (and cooling) equipment require qualified maintenance.

They contain a refrigerant and require a good seal check.

The law requires an annual examination by a specialist if the heat pump contains more than 2 kg of refrigerant, i.e. a cooling capacity greater than 12 kW.

To check if your heat pump is affected, look on the back of the device, which usually has a label with all the main characteristics, or refers to your invoice or the manufacturer’s instructions.

Why Maintain Your VMC?

Mechanical controlled ventilation (CMV) is not a heater, but it can affect the comfort of the home. A poorly maintained VMC no longer wicks moisture properly and requires more heating equipment, which increases consumption and therefore the bill.

You can take care of the routine cleaning yourself: dusting, cleaning the vents, the fan.

If the law does not impose anything, about every 3 years, it is advisable to call a professional for complete maintenance, from the vents to the central box, via the air inlets.

Without forgetting the double-flow CMVs which require the replacement of filters periodically as well as the cleaning of the heat exchanger once a year (according to the manufacturer’s recommendations).

Why Maintain Your Hot Water Appliance?

If your boiler also produces hot water, see our advice on the boiler. If the production of hot water is independent: Water heater, cumulus or thermodynamic tank are not immune to a continuous review.

Proper maintenance protects you from hot water failures and saves you unnecessary consumption.

What Maintenance For Which Device?

The gas-fired water heater or bath heater must be serviced annually by a certified plumber, this is an obligation.
A scaled cumulus is energy consuming and malfunctioning. If it is fitted with a heat sink, this must be replaced after a few years of use, depending on the water hardness and the thermostat.

The thermodynamic balloon does not require complicated maintenance but it is preferable to contact a professional for a routine check, every 2 years, even if the law does not require it.

11 Solutions To Insulate Well Without Spending Too Much

Written by Brenda on February 5, 2020. Posted in Magazine. No Comments on 11 Solutions To Insulate Well Without Spending Too Much

A poorly insulated house is a nightmare in winter. We are cold at home and we always have the feeling that the house is not comfortable. The lack of thermal insulation also increases the energy bill by 30% on average! But in the dead of winter, this is really not the right time to embark on major work on the openings or the roof. To fight against the feeling of cold at home and save money, there are easy, fast and inexpensive insulation solutions. Here’s how to insulate without spending too much to get warmer immediately.

Insulate Your Attic For 1 €: Cheap And Fast Insulation

The roof is up to 30% of the heat loss of a house! This is obviously where to start the overall energy renovation. Thanks to devices designed to encourage the energy transition, it is now possible to insulate your lost roof space for just € 1.

If you make a request and fulfill the conditions of allocation, you can have the insulation work done on your attic and only pay a symbolic euro. Professionals will then come and blow a nice thickness of insulation in your attic. A fast, clean site with no impact on your daily life.

And if you are not eligible for the devices, Leroy Merlin offers insulation of lost roof space at € 6 per m² without resource conditions.

If you want to do the work yourself, you can unroll rolls of insulating wool on the floor on the attic floor. This does not really require technical skills and the cost remains reasonable. As for the duration of the work, it depends of course on the surface to be covered but should not exceed a few days.

Flushing Drafts: Plugging Holes In The Structure

Defect in the structure, accident, deterioration due to time or humidity can transform the house into Swiss cheese. Simple and quick insulation work can solve the problem. A wooden board and a few nails or a plastic fragment and a little glue to cover the hole and the drafts disappear.

Adding sealant or foam in places like cracks can also stop drafts. If a hole gives you access to the space between the wall and the plasterboard, take the opportunity to slip polystyrene or insulating wool into the hole, it will always be a good thing until complete insulation of the walls of the House.

In the case of an open fireplace, remember to plug the flue when the chimney is not working to prevent heat loss again. Likewise, with your stove, you can seal the flue to prevent heat leakage when the stove is not in use.

Humidity is sometimes responsible for the cold sensations in a house. A few good gestures can change everything such as daily ventilation or the installation of a dehumidifier adapted to the surface of the room.

Hunt For Drafts: Better Insulate The Front Door

Insulating your home means avoiding that your home looks like a colander. The holes in the structure, even small, allow air to pass and the heat escapes in a few minutes. These are the famous thermal bridges. To avoid them, there are many solutions that are very easy to implement.

If the front door and frame are not properly adjusted, drafts can cool the whole house. Without redoing all the framing or changing the door, protections can be placed all around the door to isolate the entrance.

Of rollers with fasteners or adhesive used to isolate the door. They are installed at the bottom of the door but also over its entire length if the interstices allow air to pass. Textile door bottom, with Velcro, is also very effective. You can also redo your front door seals.

Hunt For Drafts: Well-Sealed Windows

If poorly insulated, windows, like the door, create large drafts. The principle of insulation for caulking your windows is the same as for the door, but there are some variants with metal or PVC supports to fix well to the window frame.

Are the window seals too worn? A simple replacement and your windows regain good insulation.

And if the masonry is lacking, expansive foam and that’s it! If you have chosen a roof dome, you will also have to think about insulating it.

Install Thermal Curtains: Your Insulated Openings On Demand

Not always efficient in terms of insulation, windows and bay windows sometimes create obvious heat loss (up to 15% of heat loss). But this is not the ideal time to replace them: in the middle of winter, you do not leave your house open to the four winds!

To keep the heat, you can protect its glass surfaces with thermal curtains. Thicker and cut in an insulating material, thermal curtains save a few additional degrees in the room. They can be installed as close to windows as French windows or windows, and even serve as a separation between the often cool entrance and the other rooms for example.

The thermal insulating curtains are also blackout. They are perfect at night to avoid being seen or in the morning to sleep late even when the sun is up.

Place Carpets Or Rugs On The Floor: Insulation And Living Comfort

Better than tiling, wooden parquet or even vinyl flooring, the carpet offers good thermal insulation on the floor and keeps the heat in the house. It is ideal in living rooms such as bedrooms or living rooms. You may even want to walk barefoot to enjoy its sweetness?

And if you do not want to do the replacement work to change your floor, it is always possible to place carpets on the floor, just for the winter.

The good news is that the accumulation of overlapping rugs in a bohemian spirit is in tune with the times. Most? Sound insulation is also reinforced.

Close The Shutters At Night: Or How To Insulate In The Blink Of An Eye

Insulating your house well also involves simple actions. To keep a maximum of heat when the night falls with the temperatures, it is enough to close its shutters. Whether automatic roller shutters or more traditional wooden shutters, closing them will further insulate the window.

Quick and without cost, this gesture keeps your house warm during the night and saves all your rooms several degrees during the night.

Also, consider adding insulation kits for roller shutter boxes (or insulating plates in the box), which precisely prevent losses at this specific location.

Insulate Walls Without Breaking Everything And In One Day: Insulating Paint Or Cork

After the roof, the walls are a great source of heat loss. But the overall insulation work deserves to be considered and is done more during the hot season. In the meantime, you can fall back on solutions that are certainly less effective but which nevertheless bring a more immediate.

The insulating paint poses as a classical painting and creates a kind of barrier cold out on your walls. A brush, a little elbow grease and voila! The roll cork is also a good option.
It is both insulating and decorative and its low thickness allows it to be installed almost anywhere. It is enough to stick it on the walls giving on the outside to better insulate his room.

Place Aluminum Foil Behind The Radiator: Insulated And Heated Walls

Insulating its walls and making them radiate heat rather than absorbing it is easy and it is especially very interesting in old dwellings when the walls are not insulated. Between your radiators and your wall, just insert an aluminum foil.

Better insulated, the walls will redistribute the heat throughout the room instead of mainly heating the wall and the outside. Heating thus becomes more efficient and more pleasant.

No need to do work, this insulation tip is quick to implement and does not cost much.

Among the important things for the efficiency of your heating, it is also judicious to take care to clear the surroundings of your radiator to let the heat circulate. Also, remember to dust your electric radiators to ensure their proper functioning.

Insulate The Garage Too: The Door Deserves Your Full Attention

The garage is a space halfway between the inside and the outside and the room glued to the garage can easily be cooler than the other rooms in the house.

To minimize this effect, garage door insulation kits exist.

These are rolls of insulation that are cut and glued directly to the inside of the garage door.

In a few hours, for a few tens of euros and without special skills, you will be able to insulate your garage.

Engaging In Energy Renovation At Home: Update On Aid

Beyond these emergency solutions, a global energy renovation is a profitable investment. If the budget gets stuck, know that there are many aids to help you carry out your energy renovation work:

Energy transition tax credit (ISCED),
Eco-loan at zero rates (ECO-PTZ),
Reduced VAT,
Energy voucher,
ANAH help.

Each aid has its own eligibility conditions and it is better to find out about the aid in progress at the time you start. Most of the aid is conditioned by the intervention of an RGE craftsman (Recognized Guarantor of the Environment).

Worth The Cost: Connect Your Home

Written by Brenda on February 5, 2020. Posted in Magazine. No Comments on Worth The Cost: Connect Your Home

Driving your home with connected objects, for many of us, it’s a project that makes you want. But is home automation really a good investment? For you, we have gathered the best ideas to make your connect objects profitable and make maximum savings, in the short or medium term. Heating, hot water consumption, standby devices. There are many ways to optimize, program and control at a lower cost. Ready to try the home automation adventure?

Detect What Consumes The Most

To save money, is it better to lower the heating a few degrees in the bathroom all day or turn it on fully when you use it and turn it off the rest of the time? Is it better to turn on the oven to reheat the meal or use the microwave? Mute the box at night or switch off the TV standby when it is off? Difficult to know in absolute terms. But with connected objects, you can measure and compare everything.

If you have a centralized home automation installation with a box that takes all of your connected objects into account, like the Enki box, you can view in real-time or retrospectively the impact of your decisions on your invoices. But you can also decide to connect a particular device to a connected outlet to monitor its consumption.

So, you can focus your efforts on the most energy-consuming objects, either by limiting the slots of use or by replacing them for more economical versions.

Control Your Overall Heating

How to lower your bills while ensuring comfort at home? A figure can shed some light: 1 ° less at home means 7% savings on the bill! It is, therefore, worth it to optimize its heating.

With a connected heating installation, whether it is central heating or isolated radiators, you can program your heating to be hot only when necessary. Thus, it is hot when you are at home but you save when you are at work by cutting the heating. Are you stuck in traffic jams? Are you coming home earlier from the weekend? From your smartphone, you regulate the temperature in real-time. Is your teen not coming home tonight? No need to heat your room for nothing, you can turn off the radiator from the sofa of your friends where you dine.

There are many home automation boxes but not all of them are compatible with objects from other brands. The Leroy Merlin Enki box allows you to centralize the management of 120 products from more than 20 different brands! An investment of 109 € that simplifies your life.

Control Room By Room

Unlike previous regulation systems, home automation control of heating and electricity allows fine regulation, room by room and in real-time. Much better than simple programming! When you’re in the living room watching TV, there’s no need to leave the lights on in the bedrooms. Similarly, if it is pleasant to enjoy 23 ° C in the bathroom when taking a shower, a temperature of 17 ° C is quite sufficient in the room for the rest of the day.

With your box, you can program room by room of course and according to the hours of the day but you can also modify the options from your smartphone in real-time or even directly by voice. You, therefore, combine ideal programming and the inevitable unforeseen events of daily life with great flexibility. Long live home automation!

Disconnect Devices From Standby

This is a gesture that requires no sacrifice of comfort and saves money. On average, by switching your devices on standby, you will earn € 80 per year. TV, hi-fi system, speaker … To switch off standby for sure, just add a module to your connected socket so that it cuts the power automatically. You no longer have to think about it. An investment that quickly pays for itself.

Limit Hot Water Consumption

In terms of home automation, there are great classics such as heating, cameras and alarms, locks, lighting … And then there are also new ones such as the connected showerhead.

The principle is very simple: as you consume hot water, the color of the showerhead changes to finish in the red. A good way to realize in real-time what you consume and a fun way for children to limit their water consumption. For an investment of less than 90 €, you realize nearly 200 € savings per year (average calculated for a family of 4 people).

Similarly, with a connected water heater that optimizes the heating periods according to your lifestyle, you can save up to 70%! The calculation is quick, year after year, you lower your bills.

The Subscription To Control Costs

Are you convinced of the interest of connected objects but you hesitate to invest? The Zen and connected subscription are made for you. Developed by Leroy Merlin, this subscription allows you to smooth the costs of your equipment to ensure you avoid unpleasant surprises.

You define the connected objects you need and you commit to at least 1 year, from € 9.90 per month. If your needs change, you can, of course, adjust your subscription and add connected objects. In the event of a breakdown, repair or replacement of the faulty product is included in your subscription.

The equipment has become obsolete? You can migrate to more efficient home automation equipment. No bad surprise, you control your budget as you control the rest of the house.