Energy Management: Sound proof and expense proof

I've lived by busy highways with cars and lorries thundering by, by the ocean with the sound of waves breaking on a distant reef, and in a town bustling with the chatter and to and thro of shoppers and deliveries. But if there's one sound I cannot tolerate it's sound of barking dogs, day in and day out. I needed double-glazing and I needed the money to pay for it.

To get the money to pay for it I needed to work more but finding some extra hours at work was thwarted by my lack of concentration due to the barking dogs outside my home. Getting rid of the barking dogs was not an option. My neighbor was one of those nice guys with nasty noisy dogs. You could bump his car or borrow his lawnmower and forget to give it back for weeks, but you wouldn't want to criticize the incessant cacophony of his dogs.

So if I couldn't get rid of the source of this aural discomfort, I needed to find a way to shut it out of my house. But double-glazing my entire home was going to cost a small fortune. The whole world seemed geared up to making me suffer then charging me to get out of it.

But it was the world that proved to be the answer. Double glazing is no longer seen as some status symbol add on to a house so you can impress guests by floating a feather vertically to graceful landing on your window sill; now its actually a way of managing your energy use and helps to reduce carbon footprints. Because not only does it reduce outside noise, it also acts as a great way to improve your heat insulation and thus save money on heating bills when it's cold.

I went to a local energy management organization. It was community focused and not there to make a profit, rather to give friendly and helpful advice to save money on fuel bills, energy efficiency and carbon saving projects.

There were a range of options for energy management at my home. Now it seemed I could take advantage of some rebates for other energy efficiency measures around the home.

They explained that in some cases, I could get a full rebate on the cost of certain products after installation like ceiling insulation, and if I couldn't afford payment at all, there were options to apply for a green loan. These loans are specially provided for the purchase of certain green products.

Since I got the double-glazing fitted, I've had peace and quiet at home, and seen a marked decrease in my heating bills over the colder months of the year. If I look out my window I can see my neighbor's dogs, and it's so nice to see them and not hear them. Of course, when my neighbor asked if I got the new windows in because of the dogs, I simply told him that the dogs had never been an issue, it was just plain home energy management.

Sarah Maple writes about energy management and renewable energy. The Green Project has been set up to give you and your community the best advice and recommendations on ways to make your home more energy efficient to reduce energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions.