A CR Smith Conservatory Earth Hour

The WWF’s Earth Hour event was a great success, with millions of people across the world turning off the lights for an hour in a mass demonstration to show their support in the fight against climate change.

I was at a party in a friend’s conservatory when we plunged ourselves into darkness for the hour between 8.30pm and 9.30pm on Saturday March 28. We had such fun with the lights off we never realised the hour passed and carried on in darkness for the rest of the evening.

At the party we were discussing what we do in our lives to be green, when someone commented that it was contradictory to hold a ‘green’ protest in a conservatory. There are many people that hold a misplaced view that conservatories eat up energy and are difficult to heat – modern, CR Smith conservatories are simply not like that.

Conservatories are built on the ground so a lot of heat can escape quite easily if there isn’t a strong insulation system. All CR Smith conservatories have fully insulated floors and walls and Argon gas filled double-glazed units in the windows. We use 60mm thick insulation which is strapped to the inner skin of the brick with a 50mm cavity. Beneath the floor, 80mm for concrete floors and 100mm for a suspended timber floor, Damp Proof Membrane (DPM) is laid to eliminate rising damp. A minimum gap of 150mm is then left to allow air circulation throughout. All of this ensures that heat cannot escape easily in a CR Smith conservatory.

CR Smith Double Glazed Windows are Good for the Environment

The WWF is promoting a big switch-off to energy users. It hopes that a billion people in a thousand cities across the globe will switch off their lights from 8.30pm to 9.30pm on March 28 for its Earth Hour.

Edinburgh is one of the 375 cities that has pledged to take part in the mass event which hopes to make world leaders do something about climate change.

The support behind this campaign shows how keen people are to go green. There are things you can do in your own home that will make a massive difference. Up to 18% of your household energy could be escaping every year if you are living in a poorly insulated home with single-glazed windows.

CR Smith Lorimer windows are manufactured using low emissivity glass and filled with argon gas, which prevents energy being wasted, saving yourself and the planet a little. So not only do CR Smith windows look good, but they’re also good for the environment!