This weather is dictating my domestic aspirations. Clear? It is too wet to cut the grass, too cold to wash the car, & too dark to fix the shed. The heaters are on full but the house is still so cold I'm wearing two jumpers & a woolly hat & gloves just to feel comparatively warm. I'm wondering if the climate now is just varying degrees of unbearable cold.

Insulation, efficient boilers, central heating, double-glazing. Do you follow? They all cost a small fortune. If only I had just one of these home improvements, my energy management would be so much easier, & I would be... warm. Warm enough to get inspired to get out & fix something, wash something, go to work knowing that the journey back would be filled with hope, as going home would mean going to a warm home.

Then I saw a poster advertising a green loan. The sell was essentially was about getting us to reduce carbon footprints. Ok. Good. Does that mean I do not freeze in my own home? Yes, apparently, & now, I know, getting a green loan really does work. It allowed me to install a range of energy efficiency measures. And now my house is warm, & it costs far less than when the heaters were maxed out to the point where I seriously considered that a beer an hour every night in the warm pub would have been cheaper trying to keep above freezing at home.

Governments promote carbon saving projects in the hope they will have an effect on the natural environment. What's great about saving carbon is that it means organisations are established. So energy management community groups are set up. That means people like us get offered free advice & guidance on basically how not to have a home like a fridge.

Thanks to green loans, energy efficiency, & all the associated products, are not the preserve of the wealthy. You just need to get in touch with the right people. Friendly people who want to help you & help reduce our use of valuable natural resources.

Like all loans, a green loan must be paid back, but those payments are often less than the previous extra expense. And hey, all the time my house is warm, & costs me less than before to keep it that way. The loan will be paid off well before I need to make payout any more for home energy efficiency.

Yet the great thing about home energy management is that you often will not even need a green loan. Some products that will reduce carbon footprints & save you money can be 100 percent reimbursed after installation through a range of rebate schemes.

I hope I do not take my warm home for granted. But really, there was no need for it in the first place, sitting their shivering getting very little done. And so... So far so good. We should expect energy efficiency to be a priority in all homes, not a luxury for only those who can afford it.