Finally got the people to come round and look at the cavity wall insulation this week. It seems that they are pretty busy due to all the deals that are on offer from electricity companies and what-not for doing your cavity and loft insulation.
Anyway it's all scheduled in to be done so I should be able to make some more progress towards my 10% reduction for this year as the winter draws in.
The vegetable garden is now growing growing nicely. We've had quite a bit of salad leaves, radish and herbs 'n' stuff already this year with lots more stuff to come. Planted some more fruit bushes too, the challenge will be to keep the birds from getting to all the fruit before we do. There are a new set of allotments being opened in our village soon, but unfortunately not sure we've got the time to be able to make the most of that.
On the negative side - I have just come back from a long-haul flight....
Saturday, 29 May 2010
Tuesday, 6 April 2010
11 free days of electricity
Bought one of those plug-in power meters a few months back, and finally got around to using it a couple of weekends ago. The device measures the power usage of individual appliances so you can get an idea of the amount of energy that they use.
My initial tests were interesting, and has led to me being able to make electricity savings equivalent to 11 free days of electricity a year (sounds much better than 3% energy saving, but that's what it is)!
Anyway these are a few of my findings:
Internet router (Netgear) - used 7.5W idle or if I was doing some heavy downloading on my Mac
iMac - 0.6W when powered down, 2.6W in standby, 78W on but idle (screen on), about 92W in use
Separate computer speakers - 3.4W on standby, on or in use!
Each of my cordless phones - 2W (have four, but only really use 1)
Tabletop radio - idle 4W, in use 7W
...... you get the picture.
Anyway, by turning off the router when not in use, removing three unused cordless phones and unplugging a few things when not being used (like the radio and computer speakers etc) I can save enough electricity to get 11 free days a year. Fab!
Needless to say that the electricity meter will get a lot of use around the house (and parents/parents-in-law houses) over the coming months and should pay for itself fairly quickly - but the main object of the exercise has been the eye opener.....
Fag-packet calculation - if every one of the 25 million households in the UK can make a 20W saving to their overall power requirement for the majority of the day, that equates to 500 MegaWatts saving (which is normally about one of the turbines in a typical coal or gas fired power station).
My initial tests were interesting, and has led to me being able to make electricity savings equivalent to 11 free days of electricity a year (sounds much better than 3% energy saving, but that's what it is)!
Anyway these are a few of my findings:
Internet router (Netgear) - used 7.5W idle or if I was doing some heavy downloading on my Mac
iMac - 0.6W when powered down, 2.6W in standby, 78W on but idle (screen on), about 92W in use
Separate computer speakers - 3.4W on standby, on or in use!
Each of my cordless phones - 2W (have four, but only really use 1)
Tabletop radio - idle 4W, in use 7W
...... you get the picture.
Anyway, by turning off the router when not in use, removing three unused cordless phones and unplugging a few things when not being used (like the radio and computer speakers etc) I can save enough electricity to get 11 free days a year. Fab!
Needless to say that the electricity meter will get a lot of use around the house (and parents/parents-in-law houses) over the coming months and should pay for itself fairly quickly - but the main object of the exercise has been the eye opener.....
Fag-packet calculation - if every one of the 25 million households in the UK can make a 20W saving to their overall power requirement for the majority of the day, that equates to 500 MegaWatts saving (which is normally about one of the turbines in a typical coal or gas fired power station).
Saturday, 27 February 2010
Oh dear HP
I set up my new printer today - an HP Photosmart something-or-other with a Touchsmart screen. The printer is nice, it looks sleek. It is Energystar complaint (hooray) and the quality of printing is excellent. So why the title of this post? Well......
I took a good look at the packaging, something which has been at the forefront of my mind recently. I went to the extent of doing an inventory of all the stuff in the box and frankly it made me very cross.
Here is a list in no particular order:
1x box
2x polystyrene blocks
2x user manual, 96 pages each (only 8 pages in English. I read 2 pages. Printed in Malaysia)
7x bits of blue tape
2x film covers on bits of the printer
3x thin poly-bags covering various bits of the printer
1x plastic cover over the plug pins
1x sheet of A4, printed in Malaysia. No English on it so no idea what it's for
1x sheet of A4, printed in Singapore (says can't use some software in Firefox)
2x normal poly bags containing stuff like the power supply (1 with no recycling symbol on it)
1x sheet of stickers with the printer cartridge number on it (2 stickers, only need 1)
4x cartridges, each with a hard plastic cover and a film cover
1x cardboard wrap holding the cartridges together, also with a plastic wrap around
1x electric lead + cable tie
1x PSU + cable tie
1x USB cable + cable tie
1x packet of photo paper (wrapped in plastic)
1x sticker thing I had to peel off the printer (serves no useful purpose)
1x film sticker + sticker over the screen
1x big plastic insert in the cartridge holder in the printer
1x CD and CD sleeve
1x paper leaflet remingding you again which cartridges you have
1x small cardboard reminder telling you about the cartridges again
oh, and a 1x printer
So.... if you include the cartridges then about 10 things (including the box and one of the manuals) that I will keep. 12 things which have gone in the bin and the rest has gone into the recycling STRAIGHT AWAY.
Apart from the TOTAL AND UTTER WASTE it actually made for a pretty appalling customer experience (and the sheer madness of having stuff printed in different countries). I had to sort out all the useful stuff from the crap, and deal with it. Setting up was a pain, purely because of all the unwrapping etc that I had to do (the software wasn't terrible, but not easy either).
SORT IT OUT HP - the box proclaims the Eco-credentials of the product, but the customer experience debunks it.....(see the mess below)
I took a good look at the packaging, something which has been at the forefront of my mind recently. I went to the extent of doing an inventory of all the stuff in the box and frankly it made me very cross.
Here is a list in no particular order:
1x box
2x polystyrene blocks
2x user manual, 96 pages each (only 8 pages in English. I read 2 pages. Printed in Malaysia)
7x bits of blue tape
2x film covers on bits of the printer
3x thin poly-bags covering various bits of the printer
1x plastic cover over the plug pins
1x sheet of A4, printed in Malaysia. No English on it so no idea what it's for
1x sheet of A4, printed in Singapore (says can't use some software in Firefox)
2x normal poly bags containing stuff like the power supply (1 with no recycling symbol on it)
1x sheet of stickers with the printer cartridge number on it (2 stickers, only need 1)
4x cartridges, each with a hard plastic cover and a film cover
1x cardboard wrap holding the cartridges together, also with a plastic wrap around
1x electric lead + cable tie
1x PSU + cable tie
1x USB cable + cable tie
1x packet of photo paper (wrapped in plastic)
1x sticker thing I had to peel off the printer (serves no useful purpose)
1x film sticker + sticker over the screen
1x big plastic insert in the cartridge holder in the printer
1x CD and CD sleeve
1x paper leaflet remingding you again which cartridges you have
1x small cardboard reminder telling you about the cartridges again
oh, and a 1x printer
So.... if you include the cartridges then about 10 things (including the box and one of the manuals) that I will keep. 12 things which have gone in the bin and the rest has gone into the recycling STRAIGHT AWAY.
Apart from the TOTAL AND UTTER WASTE it actually made for a pretty appalling customer experience (and the sheer madness of having stuff printed in different countries). I had to sort out all the useful stuff from the crap, and deal with it. Setting up was a pain, purely because of all the unwrapping etc that I had to do (the software wasn't terrible, but not easy either).
SORT IT OUT HP - the box proclaims the Eco-credentials of the product, but the customer experience debunks it.....(see the mess below)
Monday, 22 February 2010
If you like the idea of electric cars....
Check out Robert Llewellyn's "Gearless". You may remember him from either Red Dwarf (he payed Kryten) or Scrapheap Challenge. Anyhoo, Gearless is a series of short videos detailing Robert's experiences with a plug-in electric car, namely the Mitsubishi iMiev during the year for which he has it to test and experiment with....
He also does a nice video podcast called "Carpool", the premise being every week he gives someone interesting a lift (in his hybrid car). There have been some interesting guests, including Dale Vince of Ecotricity (check out the Zerocarbonista blog) and Chelsea Sexton of the film "Who killed the electric car", which I have yet to watch (but I will do soon).
He also does a nice video podcast called "Carpool", the premise being every week he gives someone interesting a lift (in his hybrid car). There have been some interesting guests, including Dale Vince of Ecotricity (check out the Zerocarbonista blog) and Chelsea Sexton of the film "Who killed the electric car", which I have yet to watch (but I will do soon).
Saturday, 13 February 2010
Second flight of the year
Taking my second flight of 2010 tomorrow, which reminds me I need to check back over 2009 to see what I did last year (when I get some time - a commodity which is becoming ever more scarce and precious).
Going around the house today to see how I can cut out some of the rubbish and clutter from our life - trying to minimalise my life. I became a fan of "becoming minimalist" on Facebook the other day, and there is a good website ( http://www.becomingminimalist.com )which you may find interesting.
I also stumbled across an interesting "shared goals" community www.43things.com which provided me with some inspiration (there is also an iPhone app if it takes your fancy).
Enrico
Going around the house today to see how I can cut out some of the rubbish and clutter from our life - trying to minimalise my life. I became a fan of "becoming minimalist" on Facebook the other day, and there is a good website ( http://www.becomingminimalist.com )which you may find interesting.
I also stumbled across an interesting "shared goals" community www.43things.com which provided me with some inspiration (there is also an iPhone app if it takes your fancy).
Enrico
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
Last year's petrol usage
Finally got around to totalling up my petrol usage for 2009 (and 2008, yes I am that sad).....
In my trusty 1.1L Peugeot I used:
2009: 1470 litres of petrol, and travelled 14534 miles. That's an average of roughly 45mpg
2008: 1370 litres of petrol, and travelled 13917 miles. That's an average of roughly 46mpg
I'm keeping the same records this year, so can again measure my progress against previous years and work out ways in which I can make at least my 10% pledged reduction. This probably means some more working from home when I can, and increased use of the train though probably in the summer - it's just too depressing to walk to the station at either end in the cold and dark......
In my trusty 1.1L Peugeot I used:
2009: 1470 litres of petrol, and travelled 14534 miles. That's an average of roughly 45mpg
2008: 1370 litres of petrol, and travelled 13917 miles. That's an average of roughly 46mpg
I'm keeping the same records this year, so can again measure my progress against previous years and work out ways in which I can make at least my 10% pledged reduction. This probably means some more working from home when I can, and increased use of the train though probably in the summer - it's just too depressing to walk to the station at either end in the cold and dark......
Monday, 1 February 2010
Not a great start
Taken the meter readings today, and it's not good.
We have used more electricity per day this January than we have in any other year. Gas usage is also not far off the highest January figure (graphs updated). I can only think that the abnormally cold weather has played a part here, as we have been at least as frugal this year in terms of appliance usage as we have in any other year AND we have had the wood-burner topping up the heating for the first time.
Looks like we'll have to redouble our efforts to ensure that we meet our targets.
We have used more electricity per day this January than we have in any other year. Gas usage is also not far off the highest January figure (graphs updated). I can only think that the abnormally cold weather has played a part here, as we have been at least as frugal this year in terms of appliance usage as we have in any other year AND we have had the wood-burner topping up the heating for the first time.
Looks like we'll have to redouble our efforts to ensure that we meet our targets.
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