One of the greatest concern in trying to go green is HVAC (which stands for Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning). A poorly designed room with terrible insulation will have the HVAC fighting with the outside weather in keeping the room to just the right temperature you want. Insulation is key in ensuring that the outside weather stays out, and the temperature inside stays in.
When this is resolved, the other key issue is "How do we make our room comfortable even at 25 degrees celcius?". This is the greatest query sent to me once, to which the reply is, Get a thinner blanket.
Let's look at the closer purpose of a blanket. They key element of a blanket is that it keeps you warm. A thick blanket has great thermal insulation of keeping the cold out and your body nice and hot. If your blanket is too thick, you feel a little too hot, thus requiring you to use more air conditioning to keep the room nice and cold. Over time, the cold temperature reaches your body, but just enough, to keep you comfortable while the other side of the blanket is at 16 to 18 degrees.
If the blanket is thinner, the thermal insulation has been greatly reduced, bringing the required temperature to make one comfortable up to 25 degrees. If one can do without a blanket, then 28 degrees can come out to be very comfortable.
One can take the further step of using a mild blowing fan to accompany the air conditioner. Keep the room at 25 degrees and keep a small fan running on low. This small fan will circulate cool air better, therefore requiring less of the air conditioner.
One can try some curious experiments and see for themselves the effect of different blanket thickness options and its corresponding comfort. Some might take a little longer to get used to, but nothing more than 5 days at the most.
A small change in habit will tremendously help the earth, and the wallet as well.
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