Romans ahead of suburban Brits in energy efficiency

New research from E.ON, one of the UK’s leading energy companies, has revealed that a typical Roman villa built 2,000 years ago, used techniques that we could learn from today to save energy in traditional British three-bed semis.

The findings are released as E.ON launches the next phase of its campaign to help Brits get ‘energy fit’. Via a personalised website, consumers can learn more about how they can reduce their energy usage within their own home and ultimately help lower their utility bills. 

Working with eco-friendly living expert Dick Strawbridge and Prof Andrew Wilson from the Institute of Archaeology at Oxford University, E.ON compared the attributes of a Roman Villa and a 1930s semi – the most common housing stock in the UK.  Using criteria highlighted in the Energy Fit website, (eonenergyfit.com/), they found that modern British suburbia can learn a lot from the Romans. 

So, from underfloor heating to water efficiency, the Romans were highly efficient, using recycled materials and the environment around them to the greatest benefit.                                                                                                        

Andrew Wilson, Professor of the Archaeology of the Roman Empire, said: “One of the many things the Romans did for us was to show us ways to be much more imaginative and efficient with their energy use.  They made heat and water work much harder round the house than most of us do today.”

Dick Strawbridge, ambassador for E.ON’s ‘Energy Fit’ campaign, said: “Of course, new buildings today are mandated to be energy efficient but many of us live in homes that aren’t and we should look at ways to fix that.  Taking some inspiration from the ancient Romans as well as personalised tips from the Energy Fit website is a good way forward.”

So what did the Romans do for us?

Heating rooms

Roman Villa:  Romans used underfloor heating systems called hypocausts, which heated the entire room starting with the floor and walls. In addition, rooms which featured this system tended to face south or south-west, with glazed windows to catch the sun, making clever use of solar radiation;

British Semi: Houses in Britain can waste heat unnecessarily. For example, we tend to place wall-mounted radiators underneath windows, where heat can escape, or we cover radiators with drying clothes and curtains, and don’t use the right radiator size to fit a room. All of these things can mean that your central heating is failing to heat the room effectively and can waste money.  Interestingly, underfloor heating has been making a come-back in recent years, 2,000 years after it was last used extensively in Britain. Providing a gentle and even heat, underfloor heating is unobtrusive with no radiators and the heat is where people need it most, at ground level.

Heating water
 
Roman Villa: Romans visited public baths where the water was kept hot with a device called a ‘testudo’ – a bronze semi-cylinder with an open end which linked to the hot pool and was placed close to the furnace of the hypocaust (underfloor heating system) This effectively re-heated the water with the same air going into the hypocaust and heating the room. Water was then circulated back into the pool at the top of the opening and replaced by cooler water at the bottom by convection;

British Semi: Compare this multi-tasking heating system to common British houses, which often shut the hot water tank in a cupboard where it fails to heat the rest of the house. Andrew Wilson comments: “This prompts the question, if the Romans used the same heat source to heat both their water and the room, why don’t we?”

Tip – if your hot water tank is in a cupboard make sure the heat isn’t being lost, fill any holes in and around the water tank so the warmth doesn’t escape.

Water efficiency

Roman Villa: The Romans had a keen sense of putting different qualities of water to varying uses.  Many of their cities were fed drinking water by an aqueduct served by a spring, river or by groundwater.  At the same time, they were also heavily reliant on rainwater cisterns for laundry and household cleaning;

British Semi: Thanks to our heritage of Victorian water schemes, which aimed to purify all water to drinking standard, we use the same quality of water for drinking as we do flushing the toilet.
Dick Strawbridge comments, “In modern water schemes the potential for trapping and storing rainwater is all too often overlooked.”

Building materials

Finally, Romans were highly energy efficient when it came to recycling building materials. Abandoned properties were systematically stripped of their metal fittings which could be melted down and used again. Pottery could be reused for building materials – old amphorae (the traditional Roman vase with two handles) might be used as hollow aggregate to lighten the concrete of a vault; drains might be made from amphorae; broken ceramics might be crushed as an ingredient in water-proof cement linings for aqueducts, cisterns and baths.

E.ON’s new website – eonenergyfit.com/ – features an online calculator that will determine the ‘energy fitness’ of a property and can provide specific recommendations to help improve its rating. The new online tool will show lots of ways to get energy fit, based on what people say about their home and the way they live.