Earth Notes: Saving The Planet @Home

Want to do your bit at home to improve your quality of life, save money, cut down on waste and carbon pollution and save the planet?

"The majority of your neighbours are undertaking energy saving actions every day."

This site is not about selling you 'hell' or 'hell-avoidance', but rather all about practical things that I have done or thought about to make my own life (and that of my family) a little better and lower-carbon without wearing a hair-shirt, and many of them are things that you could do too... (But note that the average European probably has to cut their carbon-footprint by 80% to stand a chance of averting the worst of climate change!)

Catch yourself doing something right and do more of it!

Things That We've Done

We've crunched our carbon footprint, we've become a SuperHome, pondered other things that we might do, but most of all there's been quite a lot of fun learning. Maybe it's my engineering mindset, but I've made a hobby out of conservation and meter watching, and had fun out of 'tuning' life a little, and the rest of my family humours me!

See a full list of articles in the site guide, but here's some things to start with that we did:

• made my home study/office carbon-neutral including reducing energy consumption from my Internet-facing servers at home from over 600W to under 4W
• switched our electricity supply to a "100% green" tariff with Ecotricity so that what we do consume is as green as possible
• cut our electricity consumption and added grid-tied solar PV microgeneration to the point where we are net exporters to the grid
• weatherproofed/weatherised our home amongst our other conservation measures such as using thermostatic radiator values and aerogel insulation and upgrading to energy-efficient appliances
• built a little off-grid solar system that provides lighting and mobile phone charging and power for my Internet server
• toyed with wind power (turbines) and found that wind doesn't really work for most of us urbanites
• built a compost heap or three and we grow a tiny amount of veg in our postage-stamp garden...

Things That You Can Do

Effective changes that can be made at home are based on lowering energy/resource demand:

• Lighting: low-energy light bulbs (eg CFL / compact fluorescent and LED preferably at 60 lumens per Watt (60lm/W) efficiency or better). If rewiring, then look at 12V light circuits connecting to PV/battery systems.
• High-efficiency white goods (eg fridges) and other electrical goods at home and at work; look at energy consumption in use, eg per wash or while on, and in 'standby' mode if you won't be turning them off at the wall.
• For cooking: investigate CO₂ savings with induction cookers and microwave ovens.
• Clothes washing: alternate ideas with drying (eg on a line), and low-temperature (cold/30°C/40°C) washing and do full loads. Also, simple changes in habits and textiles (wool is brilliant compared to cotton for whole-life costing as well as washing/drying/ironing). Re-use fashions!
• Low water-use toilets, showers.
• Insulation and thermal mass (over-cladding buildings).
• Close curtains at dusk to retain heat (and on hot sunny days to keep the sun/heat out).
• Turn down your heating thermostat 1°C for up to 10% saving; 18°C to 21°C is about right during the day (and hypothermia is only really a risk when temperatures at home are as low as 5°C, but spending more than two hours at 12°C raises blood pressure), and nearer 14°C at night when sleeping. Only heat rooms that you are using. Use a timer to avoid heating when no one is home! Wearing the right clothing helps keep you comfortable at lower temperatures.
• Don't have your hot water thermostat set higher than 60°C/140°F, and 'instant' water heaters avoid losses from a tank for new systems.
• Don't leave gadgets and appliances on standby/charging, turn them off (maybe with a smart power-strip or trailing adaptor) or unplug them; you might trim as much as 30% off your electricity bill.
• Check your mains electricity use at home with tools such as the Kill-a-Watt meter, or just read your supply meter daily or weekly. Gas too.
• Minimise the electricity you use at times of peak grid load (eg 4pm to 9pm in the autumn/winter in the UK) since more carbon-intensive and expensive fuels may be burnt in 'peaking' plants, and the grid is under most strain too. Intensity at peak time circa 2009 is probably ~0.6kgCO2/kWh, as much as 50% over typical levels.
• Reduce, re-use, recycle.

Every kWh of electricity saved avoids production of ~0.43kg of CO₂ in the UK.

News

Sources and Links

• NEW 2013/06/07: Look carefully and you can see solar PV output denting UK electricity demand: claims an extra dip (2GW/5%) in GB demand is visible near noon for 2013 vs 2012.
• NEW 2013/05/15: Transmission operators sign UK-Norway power link agreement for 1.4GW NSN link.
• 2013/04/01: Renewables will triumph and natural gas will help.
• The German government will apparently start subsidising solar power storage from April onwards.
• IRENA Global Atlas of renewable energy.
• Why Malthus Got His Forecast Wrong.
• Clarification on planning rules for solid wall insulation paves way for Green Deal launch: confirms solid wall insulation - which is commonly fitted to the exterior of a building, potentially changing the look of a property - is classified as a "permitted development."
• European Power: 2012 in Review: Coal-fired power dominates UK generation mix.
• I may have coined the unofficial nickname OfShaG for the new UK shale-gas regulator's office!
• DECC: Energy Bill.
• In the EU27, almost half of renewable energy comes from wood & wood waste.
• Ed Davey: my long battle for a 'grand energy bargain': Energy secretary admits lack of decarbonisation target is a blow, but insists deal will not hit Treasury - or household bills.
• Green Deal ORB: find an assessor.
• Retail cost breakdown for one UK electricity supplier (Scottish Hydro) circa 2012: 50% wholesale energy, 24% distribution, 10% government schemes, 6% customer service, VAT 5%, profit 5% (2012/08).
• 2012/11/05: New move to make EPCs appear in all advertising: "From January 2013 all sales or lettings advertisements in the commercial media should show the EPC rating of the property being advertised. There is no requirement for the full certificate to be displayed but the A-G rating needs to be clearly shown."
• 2012/10/29: London Array powers up first offshore wind turbines.
• 2012/10/18: Green Deal: Gov.UK overview and the Green Deal Cash Back Website (£100 for loft insulation including top-up to £650 for solid-wall insulation for example).
• 2012/10/17: Cornwall and Scotland hold UK's wave power potential: rows of wave 'farms' up to 1,000km long facing the Atlantic could generate around 11% of the UK's current power generation. While the theoretical resource is as high as 18GW, around 10GW of capacity is more realistic. "It was surprising that the best sites were so far offshore — our analysis indicates that it is worth going so far offshore to harness the more energetic waves."
• 2012/10/12: DECC: Green Deal Quick Guides.
• 2012/10/08: The sickening truth about wind farm syndrome.
• 2012/10/05: Water may top the case for renewables (and note that nukes are thirstiest non-renewable generation technology).
• 2012/10/02: Solar-generated electricity in the UK increases by 840 percent in one year to 0.5TWh (with 1.38GWp installed capacity) in the second quarter of 2012 from 0.05TWh 2Q2011.
• 2012/10/02: Why the RHI probably won't encourage domestic solar thermal installations.
• 2012/09/26: Drax spending $1bn to convert 50% (2GW) to biomass burning.
• 2012/09/24: What is energy efficiency doing to power demand?: in US, "more than half of utilities estimate that energy efficiency has reduced their load growth by up to 1% per annum, with nearly an additional quarter estimating a reduction of up to 0.5%, and "(Conservation is another matter, Macquarie notes. Efficiency measures are things that get built into systems; conservation is behavior, and utilities see conservation behavior being strongly driven by the economy, and thus only temporary.)" and "... decreasing correlation between power demand and GDP."
• 2012/09/24: Ian Marchant, chief executive of Scottish and Southern Energy, says that CfD pricing should target something nearer onshore wind or gas (and nuclear generators should focus on cost control) not the figures touted in the press: "... we should have as our anchor price £75/MWh and, as a country, we should walk away at anything over £90/MWh, if not less," the difference being £70 per household per year.
• 2012/09/24: Heating controls often aren't used effectively: "Research indicates that households can save an average £59 per year on heating bills just by installing a room thermostat. By upgrading every home to have a room thermostat and a full set of thermostatic radiator valves the Government estimates that it would reduce carbon emissions from domestic heating by 8 per cent (about the same as estimated savings from loft insulation)."
• 2012/09/20: GE Lands $63 Million in New [Durathon] Battery Orders and the UK's Atraverda finalized a supply agreement with ZENNRG to supply batteries for a smart grid, distributed energy storage application.
• 2012/09/20: Review: Home Energy Handbook: A guide to saving and generating energy in your home and community.
• 2012/09/07: Seeming £5/week limit on people's willingness to pay for Green Deal works "Is it ethical for tenants to pay for green deal energy-efficiency improvements to landlords' homes?"
• 2012/09/03: Is domestic voltage optimisation all it's cracked up to be?: just say no kids.
• 2012/08/31: New Met Office data shows the United Kingdom is warming in line with global trends: "Readings show the UK's annual mean temperature calculated over a thirty year time period has risen 0.52 degrees Celsius over the past two decades."
• 2012/08/08: The Rebound Effect: Large or Small? "We find that there are both direct and indirect rebound effects, but these tend to be modest. Direct rebound effects are generally 10% or less. Indirect rebound effects are less well understood but the best available estimate is somewhere around 11%. These two types of rebound can be combined to estimate total rebound at about 20%. We examined claims of "backfire" (100% rebound) and they do not stand up to scrutiny. "
• 2012/07/20: How the science of behaviour change can help with sustainability.
• 2012/07/13: Does the Green Deal offer value for money? (SuperHomes)
• 2012/07/11: "No matter the drilling method, natural gas is a much-needed tool to battle global warming." (US EPA data supports leakage rates closer to 1.5 percent [than 8% claimed elsewhere] for both conventional and hydrofractured wells.)
• See older news items...
• Videos:
  NEW 2012/12/04 Dinner Parties, Guest Bedrooms, and Multiple Offices in a 420 Square Foot Apartment, NEW 2012/12/08 Adam Hart-Davis talks about small-scale solutions to climate change, 2012/10/29 Close The Door, 2012/10/16 From U-values to conjugal bliss in under 3 minutes, 2012/09/09 Geophysical Limits to Global Wind Power "at the level of present global primary power demand (~18TW), uniformly distributed wind turbines are unlikely to substantially affect the Earth's climate", 2011/12/28 How does carbon offsetting work? (Adam Hart-Davis), 2011/09/26 A day in the life... dovetailing energy and water and time and money saving, 2011/09/06 Visualizing a plenitude economy, 2011/03/20 Wind doing good in a small US community (Siemens), 2011/03/19 Living in a Zero-Waste Home, OLD Isaac Asimov on the greenhouse effect in 1989, time history of CO2, simple and clear "smart grid" summary from Con Edison (New York), the Energy Saving Trust YouTube channel which is witty and watchable, December 2009 Human Power Shower - Bang Goes The Theory - BBC One, the excellent and light-hearted YouTube video on global warming "How It All Ends", the "We can fix it Together" call to action, and Adam Hart-Davis talking about the Masai and how small is beautiful.
• Here's how you can reduce your carbon footprint by 1 tonne per year; just four steps for the average Brit.
• Amongst other things the sust-it site ranks electrical goods such as TVs and fridges by energy consumption in sensible ways, which is a very valuable service.
• The Energy Saving Trust (generate your own energy); a member of the European Energy Network.
• There are various smart power-strips available to make it easy to turn off things properly and avoid bending down too often, or delving behind the sofa, such as from oneclick.
• The fantastic Freegle (was FreeCycle) for giving useful things a good home, as an alternative to charity shops or landfill.
• Free DIY repair manuals from iFixit.
• Without Hot Air (free) book by David MacKay; real crunchy numbers and a TreeHugger summary and 2012 video at TEDx.
• The Zerocarbonista blog by Dale Vince of Ecotricity, the very good and sometimes tongue-in-cheek TreeHugger.com blog/news site, the ForceField DIY alternative power generation board, BusinessGreen, the RealClimate Data Sources page, Renewable Energy World, the Cleantech Blog, the BBC's Green Room, the Green Thoughts blog, Green Energy News, Energy Central, Home Power magazine.
• Housing Energy Advisor and its forum.