Things That I've Done
I've done a lot of things, some of which I hope have crunched my carbon footprint, and I've thought about some more things that I'd like to do, but most of all I've had 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' my life a little.
See a full list of articles at the end of this page, but here's some things to start with that I 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 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 more 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 and found that it 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, eg BrightLightSolar's kits and upwards.
- 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 (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). Only heat rooms that you are using. Use a timer to avoid heating at all when no one is in or awake!
- 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 and those from Energy Optimizers Direct, or just read the 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.