Following my last blog post we have been busying away over the weekend making a few new videos for the website.
For our first foray into product videos we decided to go with some of our favourite picks from across the store so for your viewing pleasure we bring you the premiere of the Paper Potter, Eco Kettle 2 and Presso Coffee Maker movies below!
After a good old innings our hand-me-down washing machine finally threw in the towel last week and retired from service.
Being fans of all things second hand and vintage we did ponder initially on searching Freecycle or Ebay for a cheaper, older model but soon came to the conclusion that a new energy efficient machine was the wisest long-term move in terms of saving energy and money.
Having gone on about Sust-it on here before and to friends over the years, this was the first time I personally had the opportunity to use the site for advice on making a purchase. The conclusion?? Fantastic, Sust-it is in my opinion, a highly useful resource for anyone looking at electrical purchases.
465 washing machines are in the database and all are ranked in terms of their energy efficiency. Best available prices are listed on everything also so you can match your budget to the most energy efficient model.
To be honest, having not made a major new electrical purchase in several years we were a little worried our cash-strapped January budget wouldn’t stretch to a very efficient model but after browsing the site for a while we opted for the BEKO WM7335 which is ranked 5th out of 465 in terms of annual running costs.
Sust-it gave us a full comparison of the environmental and financial running costs – litres of water used, power used, annual CO2 emissions and running costs per year. The BEKO WM7355 has annual CO2 emissions of 103.01 kg based on 250 cycles. The old machine (which was very old indeed) was taken away for recycling and was a Hoover model not listed on Sust-it. The best performing Hoover washing machine on there emits 120.18 kg CO2 a year so at a rough estimate we’re at least 15% more efficient at washing clothes than we were last year.
Gone but not forgotten – before waving him off to recycling heaven, we also managed to do a spot of recycling ourselves and transformed the old glass door into a handy bowl for all that fruit we’ve resolved to eat in 2010.
We recently added the new Efergy Elite Electricity Monitor to our energy saving products category. This is a device that allows you to track how much power the electrical devices in your home or business are using. This in turn helps users to adjust their electricity usage by learning which devices are power hungry and where electricity is being wasted or can be saved.
For me, this is one of the best energy saving devices on the market as it educates users on the relationship between switching on electrical appliances and the electricity, cost and carbon emissions associated with that action. Over time you soon learn where to make savings and how much savings you are making, the average user knocking between 3 and 15% of their electricity bills.
There are other, simpler and free ways we can all save energy and below is a list of our Top 10 ways to save energy in the home for free!
1. Let the sunshine in – clean windows and pull back curtains during the day to benefit from as much natural light and warmth from the sun as possible.
2. Defrost your fridge and freezer for greater energy efficiency.
3. Descale your kettle so it will boil faster.
4. Cleaning the coils at the back of the refrigerator will also help improve efficiency.
5. Leave the car at home and walk or cycle to work – saves energy and allows you to enjoy the warm weather.
6. Clean your oven door – you’ll be able to check on food without opening the oven door.
7. Adjust your thermostat to account of the warmer weather or better still switch it off altogether.
8. Check the arrangement of furniture so that they don’t block any heating sources and waste energy.
9. Take a shower rather than a bath. It saves water and the energy associated with transporting and heating that water.
10. Turn off the tumble dryer and let clothes dry outdoors in the warmer weather.
If you’ve ever spotted a piece of vintage furniture on Ebay but were put off bidding by the costs and logistics of transporting it across the country, there is now help at hand in the shape of new website Shiply.
In simple terms, how Shiply works is – if you have something that needs transporting like an Ebay item, you list it on the Shiply website and then receive bids from thousands of haulage companies who are already making similar trips across the UK or Europe (in effect working like a reverse auction).
The benefits of using Shiply are two-fold – you get the best price for the job and can make significant savings of up to 75% off your bill and its better for the environment too as you’re helping to make use of the 25% of all lorries which travel empty on British roads every day.
Clever and green – Shiply makes a lot of sense – we like it!
It could have been a nicer welcome back to the office this week but just like everyone else across the country we’re feeling the chill here at ECOutlet central as temperatures drop to below freezing. No fear though, we’re made of sturdy stuff and have contingency plans in place which we’re happy to share so everyone can keep cosy eco-friendly style over the next few months!
Back in June new plans were unveiled for the redevelopment of Battersea Power Station on the banks of the river Thames in London. The proposal which includes a new power plant fed with biofuels and waste and who’s only emissions will be water vapour will sit next to massive office and housing development which will be naturally ventilated by a striking 300 metre tall chimney.
The transparent eco dome structure if built would double as a solar powered ventilation system, as air heats up in the dome it rises and pressure draws it up and out the top of the chimney. Cool air is then drawn into the dome at ground level thus maintaining a naturally temperature controlled environment. The architect behind the plans reckons it will decrease energy demands by 67% and be the UK’s first truly carbon zero development.
The site has been open to the public during August and we paid a visit yesterday to have a look for ourselves. The power station is colossal and it’s a real shame the structure has been allowed to fall into the poor state that currently exists. In order for the redevelopment to take place the famous towering chimneys are going to have be knocked down and rebuilt which is worrying particularly as some groups have voiced concern over whether that would actually happen were the redevelopment to go ahead. The plans are however very impressive and it would be amazing to see this neglected area of the capital transformed into a revitalised landmark and one which could be a leading light for future carbon neutral developments across the country. You can see the plans for yourself by visiting the Battersea Power Station website where a number of films take you through the history and the vision for redevelopment.
I came across this a couple of days ago on Smartplanet and thought it deserved another mention, the lightbulb ‘Pepsi’ challenge carried out recently by the Energy Saving Trust.
The Energy Saving Trust recently sent up a pair of booths in a large shoping centre, one was lit with the old style incandescent lightbulbs and the second one using energy saving bulbs. 761 shoppers took part in the lightbulb challenge and out of the test group 53% couldn’t spot the difference between traditional and energy saving bulbs and 64% or 2 out of every 3 people said they preferred the light given off by the energy saving bulb. The video clip is up on the top right hand side or you can view it here on youtube.
The main problem people had with energy saving bulbs in the past was the quality of the light given off by them was sometimes of poor quality or too harsh but that’s a thing of the past now. As shown by this test most people can’t tell the difference these days and as energy saving bulbs are now available in lots of different shapes and sizes nobody has any excuse not to make the switch.
My top tip for anyone who dislikes harsh/bright light, one of my personal pet hates, is to stick a piece of yellow lighting gel available from any photographic shop around the inside of a lampshade and the result will be a much warmer/cosier effect. If you’re still using old style light bulbs at home check out the energy saving section on here as we’ve recently uploaded a whole new range of Memolux energy saving bulbs.
This period of the year is traditionally the time when we give our homes a little overhaul and spruce things up with a spring clean. For the domestic among us we’ve come up with a few short tips to help make the yearly workout a little more eco-friendly:
The first I heard about Energy Saving Day or E-Day for short was last night when the Tip of the Day from Friends of the Earth dropped into my inbox. As I dip into the green press on a daily basis I was surprised to learn this event is already upon us and therefore suspect other people might also be unaware. So for anyone else out there not in the know, it’s taking place from 6pm today Wednesday 27th until 6pm tomorrow evening.
The aim is to highlight the potential for making energy saving measures in the course of a typical 24 hours and everyone across the UK is invited to save electricity by leaving any electrical items not in use switched off and to leave them off for as long as possible. Everyone can get involved tonight and tomorrow by making sure as many lights as possible are turned off, TV’s are not left on standby, computer’s are switched off and mobile phones are not left charging all night. Any action however small you can think of will make a difference.
And what’s interesting about this event for me is the whole experiment is going to be recorded and the energy savings accumulated will be visible on the homepage of the E-Day website throughout the course of the day. The site includes a dial displaying the amount of electricity currently in use across England, Scotland and Wales which is updated every minute. The plan is for the homepage to show the electricity consumption across the UK on a normal day compared to the electricity we are all using over the 24 hour period which is E-Day. Hopefully this event has been well publicised and I’m just a rare case in being slightly late on the uptake, either way the figures will speak for themselves and it should be an informative experiment.
There’s a nice little multimedia demonstration on the Greenpeace website at the moment called EfficienCity. This virtual town is a demonstration into how communities across the UK are using decentralised energy as a means to reduce their carbon emissions and produce cheaper and more secure energy supplies.
Taking a look around EfficienCity, there’s lots of video demonstrations, animations and slide shows which demonstrate how localised efficient energy systems work. Local Hospitals, Leisure Centres and Breweries for example meet their own heating, cooling and electricity needs through the use of CHP (Combined Heat and Power) systems and feed back any excess into the local community. There are explanations and examples of localised Biomass Plants and CHP Plants in operation as well as video demonstrations on tidal, wind and wave power.
This virtual world is not too far from reality in the UK though as cities including Manchester, Eastleigh, Southampton, Woking and Birmingham are all currently pursuing decentralised energy schemes. For more information on decentralised power including an explanation of CHP, take a look on the Greenpeace website which gives a good insight into how it all works and also points out how decentralised energy could meet the UK’s energy needs much better than the planned 10 new Nuclear reactors the government recently gave the go-ahead for.
Watch out for the virtual seagulls though, they make my ears hurt…..
