2013 Energy Saver Competition 
With energy rates on the rise again we are running another great energy saving competition here on Purchase.ie
Having recently started to make Purchase.ie Gift Vouchers available to buy from our site we are offer a €50 Voucher as the first prize in this competition. The good news is that we are also offering a second and a third prize.
1st Prize: Purchase.ie €50 Gift Voucher
2nd Prize: Inflatable Solar Light
3rd Prize: Chimney Snug Fireplace Draught Excluder
In order to enter our competition read through our blogs and watch our video presentations on energy saving tips and tell us your favourite three products which feature and why they are your favourites.
The Energy Saving Tips Blog Posts and Video Presentations can be viewed at the below links.
Saving on Hot Water and On your Energy Bills
Energy Saving Home Heating Tips
How Limescale Problems will add to your energy bills
Please ensure that you come back to this page here to post your answer in the comment field. Only comments posted on this page are valid in order to enter the competition.
The competition will run until Monday October 14th and we will announce the three winners here on Tuesday October 15th.
My 3 favourite products are :
1. Instant Hot Water tabs
they are a great idea, and it safes me from switching on the hot water just for a view drops needed.
2. Radiator Booster
Another way of saving on the heating bill and have a lovely warm room.
3. Biobulb
I love these bulbs as they don’t give out such a strong but a natural light. Especially great in the Winter.
My three favourites would be
1. The Instant Hot Water taps – which are next on my “saving up for” list! It would almost eliminate the use of the immersion heater completely.
2. The eco kettle. Brilliant idea. I know I have a tendency to fill the kettle, and just keep re-boiling it as I need some boiling water, until it needs filling again! I know it’s wasteful, but I always have this fear of there not being enough water in the kettle!
3. The FAR infra-red heating panels – which we have just had installed. With a very elderly, frail person in the house our oil bills last year were beyond a joke, so these panels seem like a good solution – especially as each room is controlled separately.
Loved browsing through the huge range of products, hard to pick 3 but these were the winners for me:
I hate turning on the tap and getting freezing water so I love the idea of The Instant Electric Hot Water Tap. I find it a nuisance having to wait for the immersion to come up when you want some warm water in a hurry (takes an hour for us) and usually I only need a few litres for simple kitchen jobs rather than a full tank so it’s a waste of money. Also, with the water charges on the way, it’s ridiculous to have to leave the tap running while waiting. This is a genius solution and with 20 euros off, not bad at 185.85.
My number 2 choice is completely different – the Solar Powered Table light. I just think they look cool and funky and would really brighten up my living room or bedroom. I’d find it a lot easier to study or read with this! I like the way it comes with 3 shades – clear for reading and green or orange for mood setting. It comes with 6 LED bulbs and will charge fully in daylight after 8 hours. It’s functional and trendy and a no brainer at 9.95 in the summer sale!
The next product I chose was The Bin Strap. During the winter, there’s nothing worse than hearing dad rant on about the rubbish from the bin blowing all over the road and into gardens. It just increases the risk of flies, rats or mice and he has to clean it up for fear of upsetting the neighbours! I like that it’s Irish made and keeps the bin shut, dry and light. It’s durable, easy to attach and keeps the bin shut tightly, dry and light. Also, the fact that it’s Irish made is a huge plus. Definitely on my shopping list!
1. Instant hot Water Taps ~ great idea, too much water is wasted waiting for the hot water to come through.
2. Dry Paper Logmaker ~ much more practical than the wet one
3. Toilet Tank Banks ~ or anything that reduces water consumption
1.Saving on Hot Water and On your Energy Bills
2.Energy Saving Home Heating Tips
3.Energy Saving Lighting Tips
Thanks for the tips!!
No1 for me is without a doubt the INSTANT HOT WATER TAPS, I can’t even begin to tell you how much I would love them in my house. With a husband who’s a gardener and 2 kids, its always bath time!!
No2 is the bio bulbs, these would give enough light at nigh time for the kids. The bulbs we have now are very bright and far too harsh.
No3 is the bin straps because we have 3 big dogs, need I say more!!!
Great tips for saving energy and let’s face it MONEY!
My top 3 favourite products are:
1:Electricity Monitoring Socket. I love the fact I could find out what products are costing me the most electricity, also if an electrical item is getting old like a heater and costing more to run then it should this would help me know when I need to replace certain items.
2:Moonlight. Not an obvious choice but lights are always being left on in my house to keep the “boogeyman” away and it only coast 1 cent a day to run which would be a lot cheaper then 2 or 3 lights.
3:Magno Balls. I have got awful hard water in my area and extra powder, higher temperatures and extra limescale tablets all bump up the cost of laundry. These would lower it a lot.
I guess the biggest thing I have taken away from this is that if I spend a little I save a lot. Thank you for that.
1.Saving on Hot Water and On your Energy Bills
2.Energy Saving Home Heating Tips
3.Energy Saving Lighting Tips
No 1 Instant hot water taps, automatically conserves water, great now that water meters are on the way.
No 2 Electricity Monitoring Sockets, will be a great help in seeing what is eating the power and thus allows the householder to make informed decisions.
No3 Toilet tank banks, again will help with water consumption and help to keep the water bills down
No 1 Electricity Monitoring Sockets
No 2 Instant hot Water Taps
No 3 The eco kettle.
Forgot to say that they are my favourites because the each target areas which I believe we are wasting loads of money on at home.
Solar panel for hot water would definitely be my No 1 choice. Hot baths! Instant hot water at the turn of a tap, and at no cost! If we installed these as standard on every house in the country, our carbon footprint would plummet!
My second favourite is one I have already – a fan on the stove that pushes the hot air into the room, rather than having it lurking around above the stove; this makes a considerable difference to the efficiency of a woodstove.
Third would be LED energy-saving bulbs – though we also really really need a green system for discarding bulbs. At the moment, unless you have a friendly local lighting shop that will take them back, or are near Ikea, most of them get thrown into the bin and go to landfill.
1.Saving on Hot Water and On your Energy Bills
2.Energy Saving Home Heating Tips
3.Energy Saving Lighting Tips
1. Dry Paper Logmaker
2. Electricity Monitoring Sockets
3. Instant hot Water Taps
These products would save so muc money in my household!
Wow !! Great site, so many Energy Saving Tips. Never know that their were so many products and great Irish products to choose from. Would help reduce my bills with so many money saving products. Excellent ways to save money, with the energy bills due to increase in October.
The video presentation was very good and easy to follow.
It was hard to choose only 3, but theses are my favourites.
1. Electric Tap.
Makes so much sense rather than having to heat up a 55 gallon tank, with the immersion, and having to wait for the water to heat up. With the Electric Hot water tap instant hot water for the few litres that I would need.
2. Radiator Reflective Foil.
Excellent idea, with losing up to 40 % of the heat through the walls, and also having a radiator under the window. Reflection the heat back into the middle of the room would be great way to keep warmer, and save money this winter.
3.The Eco Kettle.
Love it. With so many people in our house and everyone wanting cuppas at different times it would save on electricity bills and water.
Excellent products, tips, and videos, no wonder you were selected for a Green Retailer Award. Keep up the fantastic work. Well done !!
1. Biobulb
They give off natural light that is easy on your eyes and benefits the environment and your monthly electric bill!
2. Radiator Booster
Having the booster would help keep the apartment warmer during the chilly winter months and not having to turn on the thermostat all the time. I would seriously love to have something like this!
3. Electricity Monitoring Socket
This is a very important product to have for monitoring the amount of electricity you use every day and every month to keep your electricity bills down and knowing beforehand what you could be charged.
1. The Dry Paper Logmaker. With the cost of fossil fuels rising exponentially and waste disposal charges on top of that, making logs for your stove or fireplace from waste materials seems like a smart move.
2. Solar Powered Fairy Lights. Super cute and free to use. I’m a big fan of solar powered outdoor lighting.
3. Automatic Radiator Bleeding Valves. Hard to decide between these and the radiator booster, since both are great ideas. There is one radiator in my home that is particularly problematic and I would greatly benefit from these products, used together.
also, although it does not feature in the blog posts, I wanted to mention the Pedal Powered Washing Machine. This is such a great idea, there should be a pedal powered dishwasher too. It’s small, portable, you can use it to help with electricity costs and (soon) water bills, or when you’re camping, or if there’s a power cut! I think this is also good for people who have to use a laundromat because they don’t have laundry facilities in their apartment… sometimes you just want to wash a few important things. Handy invention!
With water charges due to be foisted on us, my choices are aimed at ways to reduce these new charges. So number 1 for me would be the electric tap – no more sticking on the immersion just to get a few litres of hot water for the kitchen sink or for the morning ablutions!. Secondly I’d go for the eco-kettle. Probably makes sense for most Irish households given our obsession with making the tae all through the day! Lastly, I’d opt for the toilet tank banks – a simple solution to reducing water waste. OK, all set for the water tax!
1. Solar Powered Fairy Lights
2. Electricity Monitoring Sockets
3. Instant hot Water Taps
All simple ideas which are usually the best kind!
Energy-saving has often been over-looked, however, as the penny is pinched, the focus on making even the smallest of savings can be the difference between making mortgage payments. I have made a list of my three favourite energy-saving items that I believe any money-conscious consumer should invest in:
1- Tap Aerators-These items are essential, inexpensive and very economical. They would be most suited to bathroom taps as kids can often leave them on or dripping carelessly throughout an entire school day. They can save up to…5 litres of tap flow a minute.
2- Energy Saving Night Bulbs- Energy-efficient lighting has come a long way, with better quality at lower prices. These bulbs have a stylish low-profile design and have an estimated 30,000 hours of bulb use. They are ideal for hallways and bedrooms and can save you a considerable amount of money in 365 days.
3- Radiator Reflective Foil- Bought this as I was renewing some radiators and I needed some radiator foil to go on the wall. The Foil is polystyrene backed and what appears to be a metallised Mylar film covering. The poly’ backing will stop heat from conducting into the wall, and the metallised foil should reflect any heat and help improve conduction at the rear of the radiator. I used extra strong solvite to fix with no problems. And it was easy to cut. Will easily repay the outlay in savings. There are more expensive reflectors out there, but this type will work just as well at a greater saving.
The competition winners are as follows
First Prize: Emer
Second Prize: Alice McGrath
Third Prize: Elle Cox
Emails on the way to the winners.
Enter our guess the weight of our homegrown tomato competition here for a chance to win more prizes