February 23, 2012

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Sustainable living – Reduce Waste

November 22, 2011 By

We cannot help but become more aware of the problems of getting rid of kitchen waste. Our modern lifestyles seem to generate bins full of it and the government requires councils to recycle more and more of our waste. Recycling itself is a problem and the UK still has few markets for recycled goods so a lot of material for recycling is exported (not very green is it?)

What we should be trying to do for more sustainable lifestyles is to reduce the amount of waste we produce in our daily living as much as possible.

Here are some ideas of how you can reduce waste and make your home more sustainable

1) Don’t buy heavily packaged goods

If you have a choice buy products in refill packs or concentrated products. Reuse your supermarket carrier bags or use your own strong shopping bags.

3) Invest in sustainable energy sources such as solar panels for your home, ground source heat pumps or wind turbines on your land.

2) Buy less

Resist the power of marketing to persuade you to buy something you don’t need.  Don’t buy it. Or can you make it yourself ? Only need to use it once – can you borrow it? Buy in charity shops? [Read more...]

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Energy Saving Schemes and the Kitchen

March 4, 2011 By

Some energy providers are now rewarding their customers with cash incentives to conserve energy. This is a real win win situation for the energy company. They are recognized for being responsible by acknowledging our climate change problem and as trying to make changes. They can also promote their company by advertising there scheme and anything offering a cash reward will surely get people’s attention. A good example of a company currently doing this is Scottish Hydro. They offer a reward that works on the basis of customers getting fifteen pounds credited to their bill if they reduce their energy consumption by ten per cent. For a twenty per cent or more reduction customers will get a twenty five pounds credit. The scheme goes by the name of ‘Betterplan’ and is a good example of how a company can use an energy saving scheme to gain a good reputation and gain recognition. One way of signing up to a reward scheme and making it work for you is to have energy efficient appliances in your kitchen. The kitchen has to be the easiest place in the average person’s home to save energy. Some may ask is it worth joining a scheme aimed at saving money and then going and spending on new appliances. Well, yes it is worth it as you will quite quickly earn your money back in savings and then after everything you save is a real bonus. There is also the satisfaction you will have knowing you are doing something that is really making a difference to the environment. [Read more...]

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Rewards for being energy efficient!

February 28, 2011 By

In the US a fairly new scheme has been launched to reward people who make the decision to invest in energy efficient appliances. It is referred to as an energy efficient tax credit. The purchasers of energy efficient appliances are entitled to claim up to fifteen hundred dollars in the special tax credit, this is the limit for a two year period. There are special requirements of the appliances bought. They have to have the ‘Energy Star’ logo and they also have to be included on the government’s lists of included items. For instance ceiling fans are not included on the scheme even if it is installed in your kitchen. For people in the US who want to take part in this scheme the advice is to read up on the scheme and make themselves fully aware of all the rules so not to end up disappointed. Tax rules do change regularly so it is very important to be up to date on the current situation. [Read more...]

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Who regulates and oversees energy efficiency in our products?

February 22, 2011 By

The Energy Saving Trust, along with other bodies is the organization that is heavily involved in making us more aware of climate change. The way they go about this is by offering advice to building professionals on how to build an energy efficient home, they also provide the same sort of advice to housing associations and other housing services. They provide support to people who are planning to conserve energy whilst travelling by car or van. The Energy Saving Trust, provide a product labeling scheme where they label energy efficient products that have their seal of approval. The accreditation for this scheme is deemed robust and only truly efficient appliances will earn the right to display the ‘Energy Saving Trust Recommended’ logo. The logo is now widely recognized and a sign to lookout for when shopping for energy saving appliances. The Energy Saving Trust are joined by other industry experts when deciding whether a product really deserves to bear the logo.

The Energy Saving Trust is a non-profit organization supported in a joint effort by the government and private sector companies. The fact that they operate on a non-profit basis further supports the fact that the people involved in the processes are sincere and their work is morally good. The Energy Saving Trust operates within the UK and support all areas that request their support. [Read more...]

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Understanding energy efficiency appliances

February 18, 2011 By

If you decide to purchase an energy efficient appliance for your home you will find there is a lot of variety. Each appliance would have been rated in line with just how efficient it is.

UK law states that shops selling appliances have to display energy rating labels on every product that will emit Co2. The label does have a lot of information on it and it is best to try and understand it before you hit the shops. The cost of running the appliance for one cycle can be found with the information on the label. [Read more...]

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Energy Consumption in a Kitchen

February 7, 2011 By

In the average home the kitchen is the room where the most energy consumption would occur. So, of course with global warming being a hot topic the issue with all these wonderful time saving devices is, how much energy does it use? Can we justify using all this energy just because it saves us time? Should we sacrifice the time to save the energy? Well it can be quite interesting when you learn that although the average dishwasher does use electricity, it uses less water than hand washing dishes by hand. So, one side of the argument weighs the other side out. Both electricity and water are both important and valued so we need to converse both. We could say that it is fine to use the dishwasher as it saves water although it is using electricity.

There are many ways in which you can use a washing machine in an energy efficient way. A well known factor is what temperature you program your cycle to use. The lower the temperature selected the better, as the machine will use less energy to get the water to the desired temperature. Whether you have a cheap washing machine that you don’t expect the drum bearings to last a long time on or an expensive washing machine, you should not under load your washing machine as it will mean in the long run you will do more washes and therefore use more energy (as well as wear out the parts quicker). Make sensible decisions when loading your washing machine and organizing what to wash. [Read more...]

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