Earth Notes: Saving The Planet @Home
Site updated 2024-12-08 13:44 GMT.Want to do your bit at home to improve your quality of life, save money, cut down on waste and carbon pollution, and get the planet back how it used to be?
Did you know that the majority of your neighbours are undertaking energy saving actions every day
? That is also one of the most powerful messages to encourage people to save.
On Earth Notes
Featured: On the IKEA SMAKLIG Built-in Induction Hob: Review (easyread frugal review)
Is an induction hob better than cooking with gas? How about health and carbon? #induction #cutCarbon #airQuality
We bought the SMAKLIG in April 2013 for our kitchen insulation and redecoration refit. We are happy with our choice. We're no longer burning fossil fuel to cook. We may be protecting our lungs too, as an unintended bonus.
On Website Technicals (2024-12) (blog site tech)
16WW Heat-pump Control (frugal microgen research tech)
Octopus Heat-pump Journey (frugal microgen research tech)
Octopus Heat-pump Journey (frugal microgen research tech)
16WW Heat-pump Control (frugal microgen research tech)
On Solar DHW, Sunamp, PV Divert (microgen tech)
Random: On Website Technicals (2018-03) (blog site tech)
Tech updates: Auto Ad imbalance, incremental build, readability, tags, ad borders, TechArticle and Report, SoftwareSourceCode.
LIVE GB Grid Carbon Intensity (mobile), live grid-tie PV generation and off-grid PV electrical system stats, heat battery top-up control.
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OFFLINE Download to your computer before a long journey with poor connectivity. Unpack and read offline. (Also see Zenodo.)
Things That We've Done
We've crunched our carbon footprint. We've become a SuperHome. We've pondered other changes that we might make. But most of all there's been quite a lot of fun learning. Maybe it is my engineering mindset, but I have made a hobby out of conservation and meter watching. I have had fun out of 'tuning' life a little. The rest of my family humours me!
See a full list of articles under search at the top of the page, and here's some actions to start with that we took...
- made my home study/office carbon-neutral including reducing energy consumption from my Internet-facing servers at home from over 600W to about 2W
- 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 (OpenTRV) 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 servers consolidated onto a single Raspberry Pi that postpones work until the sun shines
- toyed with wind power (turbines) and found that wind does not 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...
- Saving electricity (and gas) in all sorts of ways, including,
- 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. Choose an energy supplier that provides 'green' energy and supports renewables.
- 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 capacity (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 (or something smarter) 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 adapter) 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 was ~0.6kgCO2/kWh, as much as 50% over typical levels.
- On the flip-side, make good use of energy when it's abundant such as saving up computing work until the sun is shining for low-carbon results.
- Reduce, re-use, recycle (including electricals).
- See some thoughtful tips at MoneySavingExpert.com.
News
- 2024-12-03: At the end of 2023 there were (a) 9,627 onshore and (b) 48 offshore wind sites in the UK.
- 2024-11-29: UK records 1 GW of new solar in 12 months as pipeline swells:
Government data records 17.2 GW of deployed solar capacity in the United Kingdom at the end of October 2024. Planning applications for three plants with combined capacity exceeding 1.8 GW submitted in November 2024...
- 2024-11-13: Empowering Great Britain for a clean and flexible energy future with the next generation of interconnectors:
... Ofgem has today approved five major new undersea energy links ... Two of the projects will also create Great Britain's first ever Offshore Hybrid Assets (OHAs) which can directly feed energy generated by offshore wind farms into both our own and European grids...
: interconnectors to Germany, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and OHAs to Dutch and Belgian offshore windfarms. - 2024-11-05: UK grid operator calls for 47 GW of solar by 2030, deployed at 4.6 GW per year: by 2050 NESO advises very roughly 50GW offshore wind, 50GW solar PV, 25GW of onshore wind, 25GW of battery [NESO2024clean].
- Archived news...
References
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