A community in transition to a low carbon, sustainable, resilient life.
Tell us...your own energy descent
Hello All,
What did you do to reduce your reliance on fossil fuels (as far as energy at home goes) since you have become aware of the environmental problem, peak oil, transition town movement or the unleashing in April 2008?
The Energy group would like to invite everybody to share the things they have done. Please add to this discussion stories, suggestions and lessons you have learned. Yes, please Brag brag brag! Whether it is filling the kettle with less water, closing the doors, putting thick curtains, insulating your roof, solar hot water panels or installing a small micro-generation station in your back garden, we want to know!
And when you do some more keep telling us...
Right! I will begin-
Since I have become aware of the need to really reduce our energy use in the house we have changed all our light bulbs to energy saving ones (about 35 bulbs), we fill the kettle with the right amount of water, we use wood to heat the house for most of the year and use oil only during the coldest period (Jan, Feb). In our old house we installed solar hot water panels. However our current house is in a shaded place at the bottom of the hill so we will be looking into installing a better wood burning system.
Thank you for you cooperation,
Nir
on behalf of the Energy group
What did you do to reduce your reliance on fossil fuels (as far as energy at home goes) since you have become aware of the environmental problem, peak oil, transition town movement or the unleashing in April 2008?
The Energy group would like to invite everybody to share the things they have done. Please add to this discussion stories, suggestions and lessons you have learned. Yes, please Brag brag brag! Whether it is filling the kettle with less water, closing the doors, putting thick curtains, insulating your roof, solar hot water panels or installing a small micro-generation station in your back garden, we want to know!
And when you do some more keep telling us...
Right! I will begin-
Since I have become aware of the need to really reduce our energy use in the house we have changed all our light bulbs to energy saving ones (about 35 bulbs), we fill the kettle with the right amount of water, we use wood to heat the house for most of the year and use oil only during the coldest period (Jan, Feb). In our old house we installed solar hot water panels. However our current house is in a shaded place at the bottom of the hill so we will be looking into installing a better wood burning system.
Thank you for you cooperation,
Nir
on behalf of the Energy group
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Rowena on -
We have....changed all light bulbs including downlighters (yes, low energy ones exist and can be bought at the electricians in east grinstead near the cinema), replaced the open fire we had in the sitting room with a wood burner - it is fab and we now get much more heat for our wood - plus no draft, became very frugal with the heating as our house is 'a leaky old conversion' our best attempts have been to switch off the CH for all but the shortest time on the coldest nights, instead using the wood burner, the aga that we still have (yes we do, but it is off in summer, what to do with these things that one already has that are not optimal but are useful?) and individual thermostat controlled electric powered oil filled radiators - doing this all optimally is aided by the 'owl' electricty monitor that we bought in last year when I bought a job lot via the energy group to sell wholesale (Nir has one too), and remembering to close curtains at dusk in colder months. We also installed solar thermal a couple of years ago and are pleased with it - helps significantly with water heating costs (all our heating is off mains gas so we see the oil tank guage going down very clearly). Lifestyle wise we probably bath and shower less often (!), have old water bottles in the toilet cisterns (same effect as hippos), installed rain butts - and use the water, and we try to fill the kettle correctly but don't always manage it! We filled up the roof insulation and insulated around the underside of the bath (the recycled plastic bottle wadding is excellent as you can squish it in the corners and do it all without any protective gear). We have had to replace a couple of windows since we moved in and went double glazed, but we also had our upstairs windows 'reconditioned' and and extra 'sandwich' layer of plastic and glass added to each by a company in Hildenborough - this has made some difference but has not been as good as we hoped. Have also bought several lined velvet curtains off ebay - these are the best at keeping drafts out - as is 'blackout' fabric - the kind you have for children's rooms, especially if you sticky velcro it all down the sides also (you may get the picture that our house was indeed very heat leaky when we moved in!)
that is all I can remember us doing to the house......
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Permalink Reply by anna lydford on -
Thanks for some great ideas.
A couple more inovations to consider:
THE ECOCAMEL SHOWER HEAD costs about £24.oo and simply screws into your shower fixing, we found that if gives a good shower and the manufacturers claim - backed up with independent testing - that a family of four can save up to 56,000 litres a year, not to mention saving the cost of energy used to heat it ... you can save up to £ 240 a year on annual utility bills!
www.ecocamel.co.uk for more details and technical info.
For buildings that d'not offer the obvious energy saving solutions and for larger projects - Parity Projects offers a very comprehensive survey which analyses alternative ways to save and generate energy.
The survey is not cheap - depends on size of property - and the company (headed by Russell Smith) is very busy but we are expecting them to eventually come up with some great ideas and also help project manage their implimentation.
www.parityprojects.com
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Permalink Reply by Phill on
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We also live in an old house, and every time we re-decorate a room we make the extra effort to install more insulation behnd the walls (the old plastering is horrible, so it's being slowly replaced). The windows are all old, so these are also being replaced with new ones, special gas types now.
We have started installing LED lights - the new kitchen went from 6x 40W halogen to 11W CFL to 3W LED and although expensive they are superb (A1 electrical). Have installed these in the new bathroom as well. All new appliances A rated or better(only replaced as required, but the kitchen was a complete refit and the 1970's oven (half not working) had to go!.
Fitted Solar Hotwater, and have dual flush loo's, and eco shower heads, and taps (the taps add air to "fluff up" the water..... takes longer to fill the kettle now!). Room stat fitted, and radiator stats, and time controller thing. And we have jumpers, and woodburners - and only use wood we have cut ourselves from friends houses.
Fitted 1Kw of Solar PV (then ran out of roof space). We measure our electric usage with a Wattson meter (like the owl, but also measures the microgeneration, and logs usage). if we have a big -ve number we are "giving away" electric,so then put on the washing machine (thus we wash using locally made free electric!)
The Wattson lives in the lounge and has a large LED display reminding you of your usage.
We have more lights to change, but need to find dimmable bulbs in the correct style - its painful!
Last year we dug out our old well, and am now pumping water out into some huge IBC tanks (meter cube tanks in a metal cage) which we use for watering the garden and for the animals (the prefer "Sandhurst Spring" to tap water!). Am thinking about using this for the main house supply. We also have "drip irrigation" for all the pot plants around the house.
We have a large veggie patch (just finished eating LAST years onions), fruit tree's and just installed some fruit bushes. And of course a greenhouse. I wanted a poly tunnel, but the council planners are not keen.
I also installed an off grid wind turbine more as an experiment than anything, but it's great. Am going to add some solar PV to this later this year. Just in the process of shifting the control box's and re-wiring it all. all my workshop tools (and well pump) are running off this, and every time we get a power cut it's pretty handy.
We also keep chickens (for eggs) and Alpaca's (for Fleece, compost, and to save mowing the grass, and they are great fun), and worms (for their wee, it's great for the tomatoes!)
I work from home, and when I do have to drive it's a small plastic car which is reasonably frugal on fuel.I would love an electric one, but living in the sticks I need more range than you can get today.
We try and use "eco" products. my current favorite is GreenPeople shampoo - ultra concentrated so a small bottle lasts ages, and having used it for the last year I now notice the chemicals in other stuff.
I have started collecting old games which don't require electricity. e.g. shove ha'penny, bagatelle, and old one arm bandit. Must admit that are ok, but I also have a modern pinball which is way more fun!
Some of the stuff we've done was rubbish, some great, however until you try you don't know! and it's great to demonstrate to people who are interested and to de-bunk urban myths (or correct sales and marketing people).
One of my mates was so impressed with the PV he bought a 2Kw system, and a Wattson. I also managed to talk a couple of people OUT of buying a wind turbine (not suitable for their location and once they understood how it works they realised it was not suitable for what they wanted either). I'm still working on one neighbour who wanted to install a wind turbine, but when I explained that he would be better of changing his light bulbs he agreed, but would not pay £100 for new bulbs (but was willing to pay £5000 for a windmill) this has been an ongoing conversation for the last 18 months, and when I point out he would have seen all his money back by now he still does nothing.
Phill
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Permalink Reply by Rowena on
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Phil, this is very interesting and I would love to know more about your solar pv - do you know what sort of payback time you have for how much you put in and how much does it actually power? When we looked into it it seemed prohibitive but I know the costs have been getting better.
We also think the camel shower head is well worth the £24 you pay for it (makes our low water pressure much more bearable though I'm not sure whether it saves us much on hot water!)
we also have had no sucess finding dimmable low energy bulbs - I don't think they exist?
thanks for all these interesting posts and I hope they keep coming - great idea Nir.
Rowena
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Hi there Rowena,
First the easy answer yes you can get dimmable CFL bulbs, here's a sample. http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Lighting_Menu_Index/Lamps_an... or http://www.lightbulbs-direct.com/category/34/dimmable/ you can get 2 types normal dimmer switch and ones where you flick the switch on and off rapidly (these were the first to appear).
Also beware that these are often slightly larger than the standard fittings (but they are getting smaller).
Go the whole hog and get some LED's http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Lighting_Menu_Index/Lamps_an... we have the 3W "warm white" (cold white is very harsh) and are very pleased with them.
So PV.
I paid £5500 for 1Kw Pete paid about £9000 for 2Kw.
We both get paid 12p per Kwh for all the electricity we GENERATE (Ecotricity) which is around £100 / £200 per year. Now we can either use this electricity or send it back to the grid. (Its possible to get paid for what you send back rather than what you generate). Ecotricity make a basic assumption that you will use 50% of what you generate.
Both of us are at home all day, so we get a chance to shift our usage pattern (e.g. big -ve number on the Wattson then washing machine goes on, for free!) which means we are able to reduce the amount of electricity we buy in during the day to almost zero (the kettle takes more than my system can generate so I have to keep buying it back at each coffee break!)
My bill this year should be below £100, but this is due to a combination of better power management (Wattson helps), lower running cost items, and the PV.
The government are looking to encourage PV by increasing the rates the power comanies pay for microgeneration (as in the rest of Europe) so with luck we will see a massive increase in take up.
I will say that the back of my house (which just faces open fields) does look a bit like a junk yard with all this retro fitted "junk" bolted on the roof. Best advice here is planning out the what and where at an early stage (should have done it when re re-roofed!) as we could have done a neater job and fitted more on!
I'm currently seeing about £200 per year net advantage with the PV, but this can only get better as electrcity prices increase.
We had rubbish water pressure, as we were on a shared pipe, had to run a new supply in, should have dug out the well years back, and used that!
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Permalink Reply by Mike Grenville on -
Good question. Here are a few things I've done:
- given up my car and cycle everywhere or take the train
- rebuilt our conservatory with double glazing and multi-layer thickness roof
- investigated green logs made from Rapemeal
- replaced light bulbs with low energy
- added a PoweDown plug so that all peripherals on my computer turn off when the computer does (such as the speakers and monitor)
- monitor electricity with an Owl Monitor and investigated usage of devices left on
- turned the central heating down (more!)
- converted our back garden from lawn to vegetables
- added more fruit trees to the front garden
- stopped mowing the remaining front lawn
- added veg in with flower beds in the front garden
- increased the amount of local food we eat
hmm - dosn't seem a lot now I write it down. Hopefully there is more I haven't thought of.
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Hi Mike,
You mention the power down plug.
Here's another tip get some cheap timer plug in things (3 for a tenner types) these use a tiny amount of electricity (around 1W)
For example I plug in the Wireless router such that when we are usually not going to be on-line it's powered off (you can manually override it if you want). This saves 8W for the router. the same timer also powers down all the PC and Printer stuff, which although all "off" are still using quite a bit of power.
Must investigate Rapemeal logs. Anyone out there make those soggy newspaper logs?
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Permalink Reply by Mike Grenville on
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These are where we got the Rapemeal logs:
http://www.greendragonfuel.co.uk/
We bought a whole pallet to sell and still have loads so please buy through me if you want to try some!
£10 a box
Turning off my router is hard as if I'm here then I'm online plus I am not the only person using it though it is something to think of turning off when I know that others are not around.
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Permalink Reply by Keith Obbard on -
Hi
Although we are strictly concerned with energy, I personally look at all my transition activity as a means to the end of preventing climate change, so my personal EDAP is geared towards reduction of my fossil fuel use and to balance my CO2 budget.
In around 2006 I came to understand the issues, and in the last couple of years I have taken a few steps, some large, some small, towards my goal of being carbon neutral within 10 years.
I made use of Carbon calculators (I like the Resurgence one) to asess where I should make the most effective changes.
Some changes have saved a little money, some have cost quite a lot. Hopefully all have moved to reduce CO2 emissions.
Prior to 2007 we had filled our house with all the usual energy saving stuff like loft insulation, double glazing, cavity wall insulation, and we have now mostly low energy light bulbs, and any new items are as energy efficient as possible.
First step was switch from EDF to GOOD ENERGY as electricity supplier. (Our house is largely "all electric". IE No gas, No central heating).
Cost is about an extra £200 per year on an annual bill of about £1600
Saving 100% of the associated CO2 emissions. of 20,000 KWh, which I reckon is about 8.6 tonnes CO2
Fringe benefit = feel good factor
Second big step was to give up my bookeeping job and take work as a local garden centre assistant.
Cost = 40% reduction in my salary! (£400 per month - ouch!)
Saving = 500 miles car travel per month = 600 litres petrol per year = 2.16 tonnes CO2
Fringe benefit = No longer spend 2 hours per day driving my car, which equates to an extra day per week, which I can spend doing more useful and enjoyable things. Improved fitness from a more active job. I have lost 4 inches off my waist and am now the same weight as I was when I got married 35 years ago!
Growing our own fruit & veg.
Costs and savings are almost impossible to quantify, but it must save some fossil fuel and therefore CO2
By not using artificial fertilisers, not mowing the lawns quite so often, composting, and keeping a few chickens, we aim to reduce fossil fuel usage to a minimum.
Fringe benefit = Home grown food that is better than money can buy. Improved fitness, and a healthier lifestyle.
Personal actions, such as taking showers instead of baths, drying clothes outside, pulling curtains, only ironing shirts, etc, etc, we attempt to reduce electricty usage.
Cost = nil
Saving = 1000 KWh per year = £100
Fringe benefit = feel good factor
This year we have taken the plunge and invested in a solar hot water heating system. (Made in Eridge)
Capital Cost = £3500
Savings = estimated £150 per year of electricity = 1500 KWh. Also 250 litres oil for Rayburn = 0.67 tonnes CO2
Fringe benefit = Seen to be "doing my bit".
We have given up flying to anywhere we can go by train.
EG visiting my son in Scotland
Cost = Train fare can be similar to airfare if bought in advance.
Trains are reckoned to have 8 times less CO2 emissions than air journeys, so on 1600 miles
Saving = 1.2 tonnes CO2
Fringe benefit = Enjoy the scenery as we sit back with plenty of leg room.
My CO2 calculations are the best I can do, and may be totally wrong, but I suspect that there are other members of the group who will put me right!
I reckon my Carbon Footprint is about 7 tonnes. Still too high, but way under the UK average.
Next Step?
I am thinking about an electric car.
And considering swapping my oil fired rayburn for a log burner.
Keith.
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Permalink Reply by NIck Porter on -
Hi All,
I am brand new to this Transition group as I had only heard about it the other day. I have got to say that it is a fantastic idea.
My company is an accredited installer for Solar PV and we also install Solar Thermal, Ground and Air Source Heat Pumps. If anyone would like to know more about facts and changing legislations of Solar then please feel free to contact me. Or even if you're interested in the costs and savings please feel free to contact me.
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Permalink Reply by Brocas Walton on -
A little late but here are the energy saving measures we've taken at home:
Use the kettle to boil only water required
Heating turned to manual. We turn the heating on manualy only when necessary, using the boost setting which only comes on for an hour at a time and is still controlled by the thermostat set at 16 deg c.
Wear more jumpers!
Changed electricity to a green tariff.
Changed all light bulbs for which we can find replacements with low energy light bulbs (all fittings except 4 reading lights)
Shower for shorter time, use bath less.
When leaving the computer, put it on standby or switch it off.
Switch all appliances of at the wall when not in use - including cooker.
That's all I can think of right now.
© 2013 Created by Mike Grenville.
