Archive for the ‘Water Saving’ Category

Energy Efficient Washing Machine? We just Sust-it

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

Energy Efficient Washing MachineAfter 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.

Washing Machine Fruit Bowl

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Top 10 Water Saving Tips for Summer…

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

Top 10 Water Saving Tips

Summer has well and truly arrived this week and with the warmer temperatures comes an increased pressure on water resources across the country.  Here in the UK, the average person uses around 150 litres of water per day in their homes, much of which is accounted for by wasteful and inefficient practises.

Taking a few simple steps to increase water efficiency around the home however will not only save more of this precious resource, it will also lead to savings in energy bills and the CO2 emissions associated with them.

There are numerous items you can buy for the home which will help save water such as Water Butts, Shower Timers or Water Saving Shower Heads but there are also plenty of ways to save water which cost nothing so we’ve put together our Top 10 Water Saving Tips so everyone can do their bit over the thirsty summer months.

1. Don’t leave the tap running while brushing your teeth, shaving or washing your face.

2. Take a short shower rather than a bath.

3. Only use a dishwasher or washing machine when it’s full.  A half full machine wastes water and energy.

4. Fill a saucepan of water for washing vegetables rather than leaving the tap running.

5. Once it has cooled down, use left-over water from cooking to water plants around the home and garden.

6. Check the toilet for leaks by putting a little food colouring in the toilet tank.  If colour appears in the bowl within 30 minutes and after no flushes, there is a leak which should be fixed.

7. If you are on a water meter, use it to check for leaks.  Take a meter reading, avoid using water for 2 hours and if after checking the meter again there is an increase, you have a leak.

8. Use a bucket of water and sponge for washing the car rather than a hose.

9. Water outdoor plants and gardens early in the morning which will slow evaporation of moisture and is also a good defence against slugs and garden pests.

10. Place a layer of mulch around trees and plants which will slow evaporation of moisture and reduce the need to water them.

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Top 10 Free Energy saving Tips….

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

Energy Saving Top 10

We recently added the new Efergy Elite Electricity Monitor to our energy saving category which 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.

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Tap: The Bottled Water Alternative……

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008

Tap Bottled Water

We’ve been busy adding lots of new products to the range over the past month or so but one range which we’re particularly keen to promote comes from the new campaign Tap.

In the past we’ve written about the silly practice of buying bottled water which has traveled hundreds or thousands of miles to the UK and how damaging this is to the environment.  We even made a video about it.  But now there is an alternative for bottled water lovers everywhere in the shape of Tap.

Tap is a new ethical enterprise taking on the bottled water industry.  It is a campaign and fundraising initiative committed to getting people to re-think bottled water through a range of clever little products designed to make drinking tap water fashionable, easy and safe.

Just to recap, Tap water in the UK is one of the highest quality tap waters in the world.  Testing by the Drinking Water Inspectorate in 2006 reported that 99.96% of 4.5 million samples tested passed water quality sampling.  In blind taste tests most people can’t tell the difference between tap and bottled water.  Tap even carried out their own survey on London’s South Bank and from a pool of 250 people 84% failed to identify tap water.

The products in the tap range have been designed to promote a sustainable lifestyle that gets people to re-use and recycle.  The Do It Yourself Water Pack includes 10 labels to encourage drinkers to re-use their water bottle 10 times before recycling which would result in saving 100 bottles of water.  The other item in the range is a sleekly designed re-usable water bottle which has been designed to last for years rather than thrown away.
All the products carry the message that Tap water is just as good as the imported stuff and with 70% of the profits from the campaign going towards water and sanitation projects in the developing world, we’re 100% behind this campaign which will hopefully do for bottled water what Anya Hyndmarch did for plastic bags.

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Tap vs Bottled

Friday, August 3rd, 2007

Bottled water

There was an interesting article in The Guardian yesterday by Leo Hickman regarding the carbon footprint of tap water. Apparently piping water around the country to our homes produces around 0.5% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions or 4m tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents every year. They also calculated the footprint of delivering 1 litre of water to our taps which came in at 0.298 grams of CO2 equivalents or greenhouse gases.

In a strange co-incidence I was out in town last night and noticed for the first time people were drinking Fiji bottled water. I had read somewhere how Fiji water was growing in popularity in the US but until last night had never come across it in the UK before. Seeing it made me remember an article I’d read online by Pablo at Triplepundit where he calculated the ‘true cost’ of a bottle of Fiji water.

Pablo’s calculations are based on transporting a 1 litre bottle of Fiji water from Fiji to San Francisco (8,700 km) so I have scaled up this part of his data to take into account the increased journey to London from Fiji (22,000 km). The result is the total amount of water required to produce and transport one bottle of imported water amounts to 7.84 kg (or litres) and the amount of greenhouse gases emitted in making it to the bar last night comes in at 484 grams. That makes the bottled water 1624 times more carbon intensive than tap water if my calculations are correct (please feel free to check!).

From the website…We all make assumptions. For instance, we assume that bottled water is better than water straight out of the tap. But is it?

Erm…no I think is the short answer to that question. Here’s a list of other reasons why drinking bottled water is environmental madness.

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Seasonal, sustainable and simple..

Friday, July 20th, 2007

Acorn House

To celebrate my birthday this week I was treated to dinner at the much acclaimed eco-friendly resaurant, The Acorn House. Over the last year or so I’ve read lots of reviews about the place so was very excited to be finally paying it a visit to see if it lived up to expectations.

I receive nil points as a restaurant critic for forgetting my pen, paper and camera so loosely speaking for starters we had raspberry risotto (different, unusual..we thought) and mozzarella with figs followed by sustainably sourced Sea Bream and a lemon infused veggie pasta option. All absolutely deliciouso and for me up there as maybe the best vegetarian food I’ve ever had in a non-veggie restaurant.

Acorn House’s eco-friendly credentials stem from the numerous practises they have put in place to be as environmentally conscious and sustainable as possible. These include composting or recycling all waste, avoiding industrial farming, using green electricity, not using air freight, buying locally sourced sustainable and organic produce, providing in-house filtered tap water over bottled water (Belu is available if bottled water is requested) and a monthly changing menu based on in-season food. Another nice touch and a good example of Acorn House’s attention to detail is the complimentary matchox we received on leaving and which turned out to be a pack of seeds to take home and plant. Everything was spot-on, I cant wait to go back for more..

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Turf walls…

Monday, May 21st, 2007

NT Grass Wall

Over the weekend we paid a visit to the Southbank area of London to check out the National Theatres fly tower where artists, Ackroyd and Harvey and around 20 assistants have recently covered the north and west facing walls in a carpet of grass.

It’s not to all tastes but I’ve always been a fan of the brutalist architecture of the National Theatre and its really exciting to see this 70s concrete building given a temporary facelift and transformed into a vivid living installation. At the time though it was slightly disconcerting to see the grass being sprayed with a hosepipe, not so green after all we were thinking but having done some reading up since then, I’ve discovered that the water in use is in fact the ‘ground water’ that collects in the National’s carpark and is being pumped from the basement to the fly tower. After undergoing some testing, they discovered it was fine for watering the grass and for many other uses around the building. Previous to this, it was being piped straight to the sewers so the project has inspired the theatre to use the collected water in other areas thus saving on its annual water bill and introducing a new energy-saving feature to the building, effectively a very big water butt!

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ship in a bottle…

Wednesday, April 25th, 2007

Bottle world

Our latest video ‘Ship in a Bottle’ can be viewed by clicking play on the top right-hand column. Alternatively you can view it on our youtube page.
The following points go some way in explaining why drinking bottled water is environmental madness:

  • Tap water in the UK is amongst the safest and purest in the world
  • Bottled water is on average 1000 times more expensive than tap water
  • The Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) showed tap water met stringent water quality standards in 99.96% of cases during 2005
  • Labelling of bottled water carries no requirement to reflect its chemical or bacteriological content
  • 2 billion bottles of water are consumed in the UK every year
  • On average Britons consume 37 litres of bottled water per year
  • 22 million tonnes of bottled water are transported between countries every year
  • Britain imports 25% of its bottled water, the majority from France
  • The bottled water industry in the UK is calculated at generating 33,200 tonnes of CO2 annually
  • Most water bottles are made using PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) - less than 15% are recycled and PET takes up to 450 years to break down in landfill
  • In 2004, the plastic bottles that delivered 26 billion litres of water to Americans required more than 1.5 million barrels of oil
  • An estimated 2 gallons of water are used for every gallon of water purified to put into the bottle
  • One third of the money spent on bottled water would be enough to halve the number of people without ready access to clean, safe drinking water

To quote Bod Geldof – Bottled water is bollocks

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