Energy Saving Trust – Commit to save your 20%

Nov 6, 2006

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Action of the middle of the week, just in case any of you haven’t seen this one.

Energy Saving Trust – Commit to save your 20%

Not that I found it particularly enlightening – we already have most of the things that we would need to commit to save our 20%, so I don’t know whether that means we’re already saving, or whether it means we can’t save a further 20%? It’s not very forthcoming in that way.

Of course, the way we could best save would be to live rather nearer my work, but I’m working on that, honest.

If you follow the link and make a commitment, I’d be very grateful if you’d leave a comment to say so, just so I can judge whether these little articles are really of any interest to anyone! (Not that it will make me stop, what do you take me for???)

It’s where it is

Home Ed Inspiration, Ideas, and Activities

Click the links below and scroll through my collection of ideas, workshops, excursions, and more to discover practical everyday activities you can do together in and around your home classroom.

Home Education Inspiration

Home Ed: Ideas and Activities

Home Ed: Topics and Discussion

Exploring Neurodivergence in Children

Comments

16 responses to “Energy Saving Trust – Commit to save your 20%”

Kath
6 November 2006
We “signed up” to something similar to this on an energy saving stall at a fair in the summer. Looking at the things on the site you linked to, we can only get up to 8.7% because we don’t own this house and can’t change boilers or put in insulation. We are changing what we can in small steps.
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Claire
6 November 2006
I’ve just had a look at that and tbh, the energy saving measures they mention we already practice. I think the biggest saving we could make would be to ensure we turn lights out when not in the room (OH and small person are the worst for this). The only things that are left on all night apart from household appliances such as fridge/freezer, are computer stuff ie servers, routers, firebrick.
So I am left wondering, as are you, does it mean we should save another 20% (and if so, where???)
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Jax
6 November 2006
well, I’m going to save a tiny tiny bit by shutting my laptop down now instead of surfing while watching tv 😉
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rosie
6 November 2006
I’m already saving as much as I can. This sort of guilt tripping makes me a bit pissed off (not with you, Jax ;))because its industry that needs to do it more than domestic consumers. They want us to freeze to death? Ok, maybe its not aimed at me, personally! *calm down, rosie*, *OK*
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Jan
6 November 2006
I do use the car for short journeys too much. When we first moved here I used to walk down to the village quite regularly, but I wouldn’t think of it now (it is a mile each way btw, and uphill all the way back) But actually, I don’t use the car all that much as there are plenty of days we don’t go anywhere at all.
And we don’t keep the house very hot, but that’s because it’s a big draughty place. My mum put shiny foam stuff behind the radiators that are next to external walls and that seems to have made quite a difference. We don’t have cavity walls, but we really ought to check on the loft insulation. We’re quite good at low energy bulbs and getting better at not leaving things on standby.
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Bob
6 November 2006
Interesting little statistic I heard at the weekend, that apparently came from something in the New Scientist. If you switch from a normal car to an electric car, you’ll save something like 1 tonne of greenhouse gas per year. If you switch to a vegetarian diet (possibly a vegan one) you’ll save 1.5 tonnes of greenhouse gas per year, at least partly because there’ll be fewer cows farting the super greenhouse gas methane on your behalf.
Sorry to be vague, but it was definitely: electric car = X, diet change = 1.5 X.
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Lucy
7 November 2006
I do find these interesting – also doing most of the things except the boiler – I imagine that would be an expensive change to make! There is an ecological footprint quiz that takes diet into account – http://www.earthday.net/footprint/index.asp# if anyone wants to explore that further 🙂
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Hazel
7 November 2006
I too would like to do my bit, but get a bit put off by the fact that as a family we try to make changes to save our bit of the environment, whilst big companies are wasting more in a second than we could save in an entire lifetime.
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rosie
7 November 2006
Thanks for that, Bob… vindicated by farting cows!
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Raymond
7 November 2006
I read somewhere recently that the farting cow problem is due to their “modern” diet. Apparently they don’t ruminate (as much) these days due to their (partly) artificial diet – so skip a vital stage in their gastric cycle, resulting in much more gas than days of yore. A suggested remedy is to feed them garlic. Yikes.
On the energy saving front, we do still waste lighting and don’t always remember to switch off e.g. the Sky+ box at night. I have installed eco bulbs – but not everywhere, yet. My policy is to replace worn out items with efficient ones – rather than replace working items. When our boiler packs up, we’ll get an energy efficient one.
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Jan
7 November 2006
Wouldn’t you have to be a vegan to avoid the farting cows issue? Or is it only beef cattle that fart?
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Jax
7 November 2006
Maybe milk isn’t quite as intensive as the cow is reused iyswim?
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Bob
7 November 2006
I tried searching the New Scientist web site (for “diet + electric” rather than “farting cows”) and it didn’t produce anything so this mystery is as yet unsolved. Time to call Scooby and the gang…
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Ron
8 November 2006
I tried – I don’t have flash.
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Tim
8 November 2006
“THINKING of helping the planet by buying an eco-friendly car? You could do more by going vegan, say Gidon Eshel and Pamela Martin of the University of Chicago.”
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Jax
8 November 2006
Not going to do us much good – we eat next to no red meat anyway. In fact, apart from the occasional fish cake I think the kids practically are vegetarians at home, and I dare say the milk cow thing isn’t quite as bad as the beef.
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