Key learning points

1. Thermal insulators can reduce the energy needed to heat a building.
2. Improving a building's insulation makes it easier to heat it using only renewable resources.
3. Thermostats can control temperature automatically in different rooms and help reduce unnecessary heating.
4. The greater the temperature difference between the inside and outside of a house, the faster it warms up or cools down
5. Planting near a house increases the outside temperature on cold days and decreases it on hot days

Keywords

• Thermal insulator - a material that transfers energy slowly by collisions between moving or vibrating particles

• Renewable resource - a resource that will not run out because it is replenished more quickly than we use it up

• Thermal conductor - a material that transfers energy quickly by collisions between moving or vibrating particles

• Thermostat - a device that can control the heating in part of a building to keep it at a chosen temperature

Common misconception