Cutting My Home's Electrical Carbon Footprint
It’s not as if I am not aware of my carbon footprint or the potential effects of global warming. After all I work here in this very environmentally aware atmosphere and my house is just a few hundred yards from the sea and not much above it, all of which helps to focus the mind. However it wasn’t until I watched An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore on DVD that I was really spurred into action, and if you and your family and friends haven’t seen it I really do urge you to do so.
My house was built in the mid-Victorian era and was something of a disaster environmentally until I extended and largely rebuilt it 20 years ago. Even so by modern standards it leaks too much energy and I am going to seriously address these problems in the near future. In the mean time I have been measuring it’s carbon footprint in terms of electricity consumption using an Electrisave Wireless Monitor (now Owl Wireless Monitor). This hi-tech yet strangely simple device consists of a sensor which clips over the cable between the electricity meter and the fuse box. This is connected to a small wireless transmitter which sends signals to the only visible bit, the monitor head. The head unit can be fixed to the wall or stood up on any flat surface (see photo) within radio range. The important thing, as I discovered, is to place it some-where where it will be seen by members of the household as they move from area to area, in my case the central hall.
It works by displaying either the amount of electricity being consumed, the cost per hour or the amount in tons of CO2. This has an interesting psychlogical effect on those passing it. A higher than normal reading acts as a reminder to turn off the piece of equipment in the room you just left, the outside lights, or whatever. Even a lowish reading has the same effect after a bit as the family strive, unprompted by me at least, to keep the numbers down.
It’s that lowest number that is the important one. When you think your house is in tick over mode – first thing in the morning, last thing at night or when you have just come home and everything major is off – you can still find it’s using lots of power, more than 1kw when I first started measuring it. That has since been cut by a third by tracking down phone chargers and other odd bits of kit left on standby. There are some things I can’t realistically do much about but one thing I can change is the standby load created by my computer and it’s ancillary equipment and the other big drain, the TV, DVD, video and A/V amp stack in the living room. Just turn them off at the wall I hear you say and that is by far the best answer. However this is not an easy option for many as the switch is often obscured by furniture and requires ridiculous amounts of bending to reach.
There is a solution – a Power Saving Intelligent Mains Panel. I have been trying these both at home and at work. Basically it consists of an anti surge extension board with a clever new feature built in. By plugging a master device into the appropriate socket all peripheral devices plugged into the other sockets will respond to the master machine’s on and off commands. With a complex computer set up like the one I have at work this means when I tell my computer to shut down at night it goes off and so do all the other items on that circuit. It’s quite amazing and nothing can be left on accidentally wasting standby power. It worked just as well at home on my A/V equipment and had the added bonus of only needing one remote control to turn it all on and off, not five.
Both these pieces of equipment require some investment but having been able to watch the numbers change I know they will pay for themselves many times over and should lower my electrical carbon footprint by about 25%.
Meanwhile our centre manager Terena Plowright has been testing an LED Lenser Fire Power Head Torch. Part of her job consists of caring for the sheep, goats, ducks and George the horse, all of which require attention come rain or shine, in the light and in the dark. Here is what she said about it:
“Extra hours in the day are something that are invaluable and this torch has granted me that wish. Last night, in the dark, I was able to feed the sheep and the goats, check the horse and move around inside sheds with ease – all because I was wearing this LED head torch. It gave me vision that allowed me to be confident when crossing rough ground, and the peripheral vision meant I was well balanced and could see the position of my dogs clearly. The light beam does not flicker and being adjustable meant I could alter it as needed for different tasks, even the on/off switch is easy to operate with cold hands. Best of all though, wearing it on my head left my hands free and not having to constantly move it from place to place gave me the freedom to move quickly, get the job done and get home to my dinner.”
And Maddy Harland has been trying a new compact sprouter:
“Being a fan of indoor growing, especially in winter, I used little round tiered sprouters and then switched to jars with muslin cloth. The little round ones don’t hold that much and jars take up a lot of room on the draining board and only have one sprout variety per jar. So, when I saw the Easy Health Sprouter I was keen to try it out. The advantages of this product are many. Each tray is divided into four sections so I can sprout four types of seed in one tray and get a great variety growing at the same time. I can also add trays on top, allowing me to grow crops like cress, wheatgrass and barley in soil as well as multiple sprouts in succession. I can also stack the trays at least four high. The sprouter itself comes with two trays plus a handy watering measure so I don’t overflow the bottom reservoir. It has a tinted lid to keep the warmth in and promote germination. I then remove it when the spouts are ready to photosynthesise on the last day. An excellent product that I will keep using for years.”
So see the light, cut your carbon and your bills, grow sprouts and be happy.
John Adams
