The results of this research, which was carried out in conjunction with energy company E.ON, showed that the Romans had a far greater understanding of energy efficiency, using underfloor heating instead of inefficient radiators placed near windows is just one example. As Professor Andrew Wilson from the Institute of Archaeology explains: "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.”
TV presenter Dick Strawbridge worked with Professor Wilson, comparing the two building methods using criteria highlighted by E.ON as part of its Energy Fit campaign. The findings were analysed and E.ON has given the follwing summary:
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
