[Chrisoldinho]

I think this could apply to a lot of people here, but I am really feeling the pinch with the economy in the UK driving everything upwards. My contigency money is near 0% now on a month by month basis and i'm working most hours god sends to increase my income.

As such I cannot afford extravogancies like Solar Panels, and I would even question Power Saving Light Bulbs due to the initial outlay (I can buy 6 normal bulbs for 99p yet each equivalent power saver is at best 3x that).

I try to be environmentally friendly where possible by recycling etc but what other things could I do that could reduce my carbon footprint, and if possible save me money at the same time.

I am already turning off most electrical equipment at the wall when not in use.

Thanks all,
Chris.

[IAN P]

Tesco were giving those energy bulbs away not so long ago,some greedy sod got a load and went straight to ebay with them.

£10.90 for a pack of 10 here.

http://www.low-energy-light-bulbs.co.uk/

[Corey USA]

Cut your luxury consumption You will save 100%. During the day leave your windows open and drapes shut. this will allow air in and keep the worst of the sun out. Especially on the south side. If your a movie junkie and continue to buy new, Switch to used but do not exceed the number of actual movies you would buy new the savings in reduced cost helps.

[Bilbob]

And low energy bulbs last longer, are cheaper to run, and cost less than a quid each... if you are looking to save money you would be a fool not to really... the longer you continue to run your old ones, you are literally burning money

[RockySpieler]

Drive slower on Motorways and Tail gate lorries to reduce drag. Easily save money on fuel and reduce fuel consumption / C02 emissons per mile.

It will also reduce your stress level, trying to chase every gap.

[waf-tastic]

You could see if you can get a grant for insulation http://www.freeinsulation.co.uk/areas.htm. Saves a lot on the heating bills if you're not already adequately insulated.

All the usual things like short showers instead of baths, cook less (hey, it's summer - eat more salads )

[Chrisoldinho]

Thanks for all the replies here guys, some really useful tips to save the pennies.

I'm driving my car much slower than ever before changing gear at much lower revv's and trying to not harsh accelerate. Consiquently the car still has 1/2 a tank left after 1 week where it would otherwise have about a 1/4 at best.

The energy saving light bulb idea is something I am going to consider definately....

Chris.

[dekoded]

I'm in a similar situation, as I'm sure many of us are!

What I find frustrating is that trying to switch to renewable energy costs so much in terms of initial investment, the payback time for most 'green' energy is normally very long as well.

I've been cycling to work for the last 6 weeks and intend to keep this up as long as possible, it's only about 4 miles each way so doesn't take any longer than using the car, I just have to allow time at each end of the journey to change clothes!

There is a cycle to work scheme which apparently pays for 50% of the cost of a bike, so anyone who needs to buy a bike for their commute could consider it.

I've been thinking about converting my domestic lighting to a 12v system, but I don't know how feasible this would be, and as I already only use low energy bulbs I probably would never make any savings.

Because anything that creates heat tends to use the most energy, kettles, ovens, irons, washing machines and tumble dryers etc so I'm trying to reduce the use of these appliances as much as possible as they should make a much bigger impact on my energy usage than a few 11watt bulbs.

I'm thinking about buying an eco-kettle as my current kettle, although very good at boiling water, is stainless steel without a water level which makes measuring the water more difficult, I could just use a cup to fill the kettle I suppose.

I purchased an eco-eye electricity meter last month and I'm in the process of measuring electricity usage of all my electrical equipment, after entering the cost per kwh it can display the current cost of your electricity usage, it really makes you think about what you use!

I work at a Plumbers Merchant and found out about free cavity wall and loft insulation which we had done several months ago and really seemed to make a difference to our gas bill, there are also government grants for free high efficiency heating installations, if you don't already have a condensing boiler then it could save you loads of gas, if you have a conventional system with tanks and cylinders then it's relatively simple to have solar panels installed.

[dekoded]

I've just found that having my ps3 switched on, just idle with the menu displayed costs £10 per month!, the standby cost was undetectable.

My 28" WS Philips CRT TV costs £5 per month, my Denon AVR-1706 costs £5 per month, my Mac Mini costs £4 per month, an 11watt low energy bulb costs £1 per month.

All the above is based on an electricity charge of 0.086p per kwh (actually 8.540p but this was the nearest figure I could enter on the eco-eye), which was the lower of the two costs as the initial cost is approx 14.090p per kwh which is only for the first 222 units used. This means that the costs above are obviously only approximate.

The actual bill for the last quarter (23 feb - 23 may) was £116.47 which was for 1178 units used in total, 222 at the higher rate and 956 at the lower rate.

We have 51 ( ) electrical items plugged in all the time, a few don't use anything when not being used such as the cooker extractor and lamps but they are used on pretty much a daily basis.

With the house simply 'ticking over' when we are not at home the eco-eye displays around £15 per month, when we are home watching TV with some lights on this increases to around £25.

FRIDGE
MICROWAVE
STEREO
KETTLE
BOILER
WASHING MACINE
TUMBLE DRYER
OVEN
TOASTER
EXTRACTOR FAN
TELEVISION (LCD)
FREEVIEW BOX
IPOD DOCK
MAINS NETORKING PLUG a
VGA CONVERTER a
TABLE LAMP
FLOOR LAMP
PHONE ( downstairs landline )
o2 WIRELESS ROUTER
BELKIN ROUTER (wired)
TELEVISION ( crt )
AV AMPLIFIER
MAC MINI MEDIA CENTRE
PLAYSTATION 3
LG DVD RECORDER
KEF SUBWOOFER
GARDEN POND PUMP
AERIAL BOOSTER ( 4 WAY )
HDFURY HDCP CONVERTER
HDMI SPLITTER ( 2 WAY )
WIRELESS HEADPHONES ( SENNHEISER RS120 )
pROJECTOR ( SANYO Z2 )
TV ( PORTABLE CRT )
AERIAL BOOSTER ( 2 WAY )
PHONE CHARGER
RADIO ALARM CLOCK
PHONE ( upstairs landline )
BABY MONITOR CHARGER
TABLE LAMP
OUTSIDE SECURITY LIGHT
MAINS NETWORKING PLUG b
VGA CONVERTER b
BELKIN WIRELESS ROUTER
NAS DRIVE
TIME MACHINE BACKUP DRIVE
TV/MONITOR ( lcd )
MOUSE CHARGER
MAC MINI
IRON
BABY MONITOR (sensor)

[johntheexpat]

Originally Posted by Johnnie

I've been thinking about converting my domestic lighting to a 12v system, but I don't know how feasible this would be, and as I already only use low energy bulbs I probably would never make any savings.

You may well be better off waiting a while until the next generation of LEDs comes onto the market rather than the current* 12V route (even if you are considering a 12V lights battery system recharged with solar panels). For more info, do a search of this forum 'LEDs'

*pun intended

[Corey USA]

Originally Posted by Johnnie

I've just found that having my ps3 switched on, just idle with the menu displayed costs £10 per month!, the standby cost was undetectable.

My 28" WS Philips CRT TV costs £5 per month, my Denon AVR-1706 costs £5 per month, my Mac Mini costs £4 per month, an 11watt low energy bulb costs £1 per month.

All the above is based on an electricity charge of 0.086p per kwh (actually 8.540p but this was the nearest figure I could enter on the eco-eye), which was the lower of the two costs as the initial cost is approx 14.090p per kwh which is only for the first 222 units used. This means that the costs above are obviously only approximate.

The actual bill for the last quarter (23 feb - 23 may) was £116.47 which was for 1178 units used in total, 222 at the higher rate and 956 at the lower rate.

We have 51 ( ) electrical items plugged in all the time, a few don't use anything when not being used such as the cooker extractor and lamps but they are used on pretty much a daily basis.

With the house simply 'ticking over' when we are not at home the eco-eye displays around £15 per month, when we are home watching TV with some lights on this increases to around £25.

FRIDGE
MICROWAVE
STEREO
KETTLE
BOILER
WASHING MACINE
TUMBLE DRYER
OVEN
TOASTER
EXTRACTOR FAN
TELEVISION (LCD)
FREEVIEW BOX
IPOD DOCK
MAINS NETORKING PLUG a
VGA CONVERTER a
TABLE LAMP
FLOOR LAMP
PHONE ( downstairs landline )
o2 WIRELESS ROUTER
BELKIN ROUTER (wired)
TELEVISION ( crt )
AV AMPLIFIER
MAC MINI MEDIA CENTRE
PLAYSTATION 3
LG DVD RECORDER
KEF SUBWOOFER
GARDEN POND PUMP
AERIAL BOOSTER ( 4 WAY )
HDFURY HDCP CONVERTER
HDMI SPLITTER ( 2 WAY )
WIRELESS HEADPHONES ( SENNHEISER RS120 )
pROJECTOR ( SANYO Z2 )
TV ( PORTABLE CRT )
AERIAL BOOSTER ( 2 WAY )
PHONE CHARGER
RADIO ALARM CLOCK
PHONE ( upstairs landline )
BABY MONITOR CHARGER
TABLE LAMP
OUTSIDE SECURITY LIGHT
MAINS NETWORKING PLUG b
VGA CONVERTER b
BELKIN WIRELESS ROUTER
NAS DRIVE
TIME MACHINE BACKUP DRIVE
TV/MONITOR ( lcd )
MOUSE CHARGER
MAC MINI
IRON
BABY MONITOR (sensor)

dang all i have plugged in all the time is
fridge
stove
CPAP
1 lamp
phone
rest I unplug or hit main power on power strip

[Corey USA]

Why aren't other people trying the only one true effective way of reducing your carbon footprint, which involves USING LESS, which is a 100% effective way with no hidden gimmicks or unforeseen catches that lead you to use as much or more than your currently using.

Biofuels is prime example of green gone wrong.

here are other example of things I been doing that I thought were good with out reducing the amount I consumed only to find out later that the efforts were pointless due to unforeseen issues.

when Recycling I would put everything recycleable into the recycle bin, only to find out 3/4 of what I was putting in wasn't actually getting recycled once it was taken to the recyclers. Why? The recyclers do not recycle everything, they specialize in only a few of the materials. Example: paper which there is 4 primary types(cardboard, stationary, newspaper, shinny paper, these can be recycled if the recyclers has the right equipment. Our recyclers only takes newspaper, cardboard) most of my paper was magazines meaning that my paper was going into the landfill after my effort to recycle it.

Garbage waste I was making sure never to litter and to make sure I was putting in in my trash can thinking that it was going to go to the incinerator to create energy. Only I found out that the garbage company that our landlord uses only takes a 1/5 of all there trash to the incinerator while the rest winds up in the landfill. I found this out when I was reporting to the garbage company, regarding the illegal waste disposal of tv's and industrial materials in our dumpster by our landlord's staff. Thats when one of the "unforeseen" was pointed out to me regarding efforts, that I have been trying to make to reduce my carbon footprint, without reducing consumption of resources. It just can't be done without unforeseen consequences that equates to no effort or worse than business as usual.

[ad47uk]

Originally Posted by Bilbob

And low energy bulbs last longer, are cheaper to run, and cost less than a quid each... if you are looking to save money you would be a fool not to really... the longer you continue to run your old ones, you are literally burning money

Low energy bulbs also give poor quality light. To be honest the amount you save in year with low energy bulbs is pittence,

My utility company have just sent me two, a 11watt and a 13 watt and according to the blurb the sent with them, I will save £8 a year on average by using these bulbs. I rather have decent lighting and pay the £8 per year.


I have repackaged them and they are being sent back, sending out bulbs to people is not very carbon footprint friendly

[PoisonJam]

Someone already covered driving more efficiently, which is what I was going to suggest with rising fuel prices.

Something people tend to forget about energy saving bulbs is that they do also last a lot longer than regular bulbs! I've seen claims of 10 times longer and I have no reason to dispute this as I've never had to change one yet. In my opinion they're a much better investment than regular bulbs.

Early energy saving bulbs had their problems - taking a long time to "warm up" - but are much improved now. In my experience don't go for cheap, supermarket brand bulbs as the ones I've tried take ages to warm up and have a lower quality light. I find Philip's bulbs to be the best.

Do you use any devices that use AA/AAA batteries? I used to use regular NiCd rechargeable batteries, which don't hold their charge at all, in my compact camera. This wasn't ideal as I'd have to charge them every time I went to use the camera and this meant planning in advance. Now I use Uniross Hybrio batteries which hold their charge for months. They can only be recharged up to 100 times but I find myself recharging them much less often than NiCds! They will also charge in regular battery chargers so if you already have one... A pack of 4xAAs can be had from Play for about £7 I think. The cost of about 8xAA batteries except you get up to 100 charges. Oh, they also come pre-charged from new!

Anything with a heating element obviously uses far more energy over the same time span as something like a TV or AV amp. This includes irons, electric ovens and heaters, hair dryers and curling tongs/straightening irons so make sure these are on for no longer than they actually need to be. I know I have a habit of letting the oven or iron "pre-heat" for far too long and go off to do other things... Keep showers as short as possible and try and avoid baths completely, especially if you have to pay for your water!

Can you car share with anyone, assuming you drive to work? One person driving on alternate weeks would mean car mileage and driving duty is split fairly. I really, really wish I had someone to do this with. 90% of my £100+ fuel costs per month is used commuting to and from work so it would save me around £50/month and it'd also reduce the wear and tear and miles on the clock on my car! The biggest downside, though, is both parties have to be very reliable and never sleep in/be running late and make likely to make the other one late. Arrange to warn each other early if there may be any difficulties that morning.

[PoisonJam]

Originally Posted by ad47uk

I have repackaged them and they are being sent back, sending out bulbs to people is not very carbon footprint friendly

You don't have an elderly relative that could benefit from them? How about a place where the "quality" of light is less important? I'd be interested to know what brand of bulbs they've sent out as I have found some to be poorer than others.

I think most people sent them will use them.

[silverdale]

Originally Posted by Chrisoldinho

I think this could apply to a lot of people here, but I am really feeling the pinch with the economy in the UK driving everything upwards. My contigency money is near 0% now on a month by month basis and i'm working most hours god sends to increase my income.

As such I cannot afford extravogancies like Solar Panels, and I would even question Power Saving Light Bulbs due to the initial outlay (I can buy 6 normal bulbs for 99p yet each equivalent power saver is at best 3x that).

I try to be environmentally friendly where possible by recycling etc but what other things could I do that could reduce my carbon footprint, and if possible save me money at the same time.

I am already turning off most electrical equipment at the wall when not in use.

Thanks all,
Chris.

I've tried replying to this but the system won't let me

[chipxtreme]

Tesco were doing energy saving bulbs a while back for something like 11p I think. Still you can get them for about 50p each if you shop about. I've never used nothing but energy saving bulbs for years now.

[Phill1978]

Originally Posted by RockySpieler

Tail gate lorries to reduce drag.

taligating lorries as its bloody dangerous and has been advised by road safety groups for people not to do this

[cheekymonkeyme]

Tesco are doing their energy saving lightbulbs 4 for 39p and morrisons have a similar offer.

[Olivia G]

Energy saving lightbulbs are only dull for the first few minutes. Then you can't tell the difference. & they last much longer

[whatsupdoc]

Originally Posted by Olivia G

Energy saving lightbulbs are only dull for the first few minutes. Then you can't tell the difference. & they last much longer

Plenty of people will argue with that last!

An inferior product that contains highly toxic mercury vapour and which can also cause radio interference.

[visitor22]

Homebase were selling the Philips Genie 5 for £1.50 and the other day 5 for £1.00 ! (After I had paid £1.50)

The Genie is the top of the range low energy bulb, gives out the SAME light as its replacement.

Philips Genie UK bulb is A rated and 10 years use, EU 8 years.