Enrico's 10:10 journey

Insulation

2010-05-29T13:01:00.000+01:00

Finally got the people to come round and look at the cavity wall insulation this week. It seems that they are pretty busy due to all the deals that are on offer from electricity companies and what-not for doing your cavity and loft insulation.

Anyway it's all scheduled in to be done so I should be able to make some more progress towards my 10% reduction for this year as the winter draws in.

The vegetable garden is now growing growing nicely. We've had quite a bit of salad leaves, radish and herbs 'n' stuff already this year with lots more stuff to come. Planted some more fruit bushes too, the challenge will be to keep the birds from getting to all the fruit before we do. There are a new set of allotments being opened in our village soon, but unfortunately not sure we've got the time to be able to make the most of that.

On the negative side - I have just come back from a long-haul flight....

11 free days of electricity

2010-04-06T21:29:00.001+01:00

Bought one of those plug-in power meters a few months back, and finally got around to using it a couple of weekends ago. The device measures the power usage of individual appliances so you can get an idea of the amount of energy that they use.

My initial tests were interesting, and has led to me being able to make electricity savings equivalent to 11 free days of electricity a year (sounds much better than 3% energy saving, but that's what it is)!

Anyway these are a few of my findings:

Internet router (Netgear) - used 7.5W idle or if I was doing some heavy downloading on my Mac
iMac - 0.6W when powered down, 2.6W in standby, 78W on but idle (screen on), about 92W in use
Separate computer speakers - 3.4W on standby, on or in use!
Each of my cordless phones - 2W (have four, but only really use 1)
Tabletop radio - idle 4W, in use 7W
...... you get the picture.

Anyway, by turning off the router when not in use, removing three unused cordless phones and unplugging a few things when not being used (like the radio and computer speakers etc) I can save enough electricity to get 11 free days a year. Fab!

Needless to say that the electricity meter will get a lot of use around the house (and parents/parents-in-law houses) over the coming months and should pay for itself fairly quickly - but the main object of the exercise has been the eye opener.....

Fag-packet calculation - if every one of the 25 million households in the UK can make a 20W saving to their overall power requirement for the majority of the day, that equates to 500 MegaWatts saving (which is normally about one of the turbines in a typical coal or gas fired power station).

Oh dear HP

2010-02-27T22:16:00.002Z

I set up my new printer today - an HP Photosmart something-or-other with a Touchsmart screen. The printer is nice, it looks sleek. It is Energystar complaint (hooray) and the quality of printing is excellent. So why the title of this post? Well......

I took a good look at the packaging, something which has been at the forefront of my mind recently. I went to the extent of doing an inventory of all the stuff in the box and frankly it made me very cross.

Here is a list in no particular order:

1x box
2x polystyrene blocks
2x user manual, 96 pages each (only 8 pages in English. I read 2 pages. Printed in Malaysia)
7x bits of blue tape
2x film covers on bits of the printer
3x thin poly-bags covering various bits of the printer
1x plastic cover over the plug pins
1x sheet of A4, printed in Malaysia. No English on it so no idea what it's for
1x sheet of A4, printed in Singapore (says can't use some software in Firefox)
2x normal poly bags containing stuff like the power supply (1 with no recycling symbol on it)
1x sheet of stickers with the printer cartridge number on it (2 stickers, only need 1)
4x cartridges, each with a hard plastic cover and a film cover
1x cardboard wrap holding the cartridges together, also with a plastic wrap around
1x electric lead + cable tie
1x PSU + cable tie
1x USB cable + cable tie
1x packet of photo paper (wrapped in plastic)
1x sticker thing I had to peel off the printer (serves no useful purpose)
1x film sticker + sticker over the screen
1x big plastic insert in the cartridge holder in the printer
1x CD and CD sleeve
1x paper leaflet remingding you again which cartridges you have
1x small cardboard reminder telling you about the cartridges again
oh, and a 1x printer

So.... if you include the cartridges then about 10 things (including the box and one of the manuals) that I will keep. 12 things which have gone in the bin and the rest has gone into the recycling STRAIGHT AWAY.

Apart from the TOTAL AND UTTER WASTE it actually made for a pretty appalling customer experience (and the sheer madness of having stuff printed in different countries). I had to sort out all the useful stuff from the crap, and deal with it. Setting up was a pain, purely because of all the unwrapping etc that I had to do (the software wasn't terrible, but not easy either).

SORT IT OUT HP - the box proclaims the Eco-credentials of the product, but the customer experience debunks it.....(see the mess below)

If you like the idea of electric cars....

2010-02-22T21:06:00.001Z

Check out Robert Llewellyn's "Gearless". You may remember him from either Red Dwarf (he payed Kryten) or Scrapheap Challenge. Anyhoo, Gearless is a series of short videos detailing Robert's experiences with a plug-in electric car, namely the Mitsubishi iMiev during the year for which he has it to test and experiment with....

He also does a nice video podcast called "Carpool", the premise being every week he gives someone interesting a lift (in his hybrid car). There have been some interesting guests, including Dale Vince of Ecotricity (check out the Zerocarbonista blog) and Chelsea Sexton of the film "Who killed the electric car", which I have yet to watch (but I will do soon).

Second flight of the year

2010-02-13T12:52:00.000Z

Taking my second flight of 2010 tomorrow, which reminds me I need to check back over 2009 to see what I did last year (when I get some time - a commodity which is becoming ever more scarce and precious).

Going around the house today to see how I can cut out some of the rubbish and clutter from our life - trying to minimalise my life. I became a fan of "becoming minimalist" on Facebook the other day, and there is a good website ( http://www.becomingminimalist.com )which you may find interesting.

I also stumbled across an interesting "shared goals" community www.43things.com which provided me with some inspiration (there is also an iPhone app if it takes your fancy).

Enrico

Last year's petrol usage

2010-02-09T20:17:00.001Z

Finally got around to totalling up my petrol usage for 2009 (and 2008, yes I am that sad).....

In my trusty 1.1L Peugeot I used:

2009: 1470 litres of petrol, and travelled 14534 miles. That's an average of roughly 45mpg
2008: 1370 litres of petrol, and travelled 13917 miles. That's an average of roughly 46mpg

I'm keeping the same records this year, so can again measure my progress against previous years and work out ways in which I can make at least my 10% pledged reduction. This probably means some more working from home when I can, and increased use of the train though probably in the summer - it's just too depressing to walk to the station at either end in the cold and dark......

Not a great start

2010-02-01T20:26:00.000Z

Taken the meter readings today, and it's not good.

We have used more electricity per day this January than we have in any other year. Gas usage is also not far off the highest January figure (graphs updated). I can only think that the abnormally cold weather has played a part here, as we have been at least as frugal this year in terms of appliance usage as we have in any other year AND we have had the wood-burner topping up the heating for the first time.

Looks like we'll have to redouble our efforts to ensure that we meet our targets.

When can I get my electric car?

2010-01-30T22:00:00.000Z

Proper electric, i.e. plug-in, cars are almost here. And about time too. Will they be worth the wait? I'm going to try and test-drive some in 2010 with a view to being one of the first in the UK to own and use one.

The front-runners at the moment appear to be Citroen with their C-Zero and Mitsubishi with the iMiEV. They are both basically the same car, just badged differently. The one I'm really waiting, and wanting, to see come to our shores is the Tesla Model S (arriving 2012?).

Question burning in my mind though - electric car or public transport by smokey diesel train?

My Eco Logs are here

2010-01-29T19:14:00.002Z

They are a bit smaller than I had thought. They burn quite oddly, sort of exploding as they do to look like a pile of smouldering mashed potato.

Anyway, here are a couple of photos for you.

What they look like ready to go on the fire....

....and providing me with useful heat....

Eco Logs

2010-01-24T17:58:00.000Z

Just ordered some Eco Logs: the ones made from compressed sawdust. Will see how good they are. I've a mind to borrow a laser thermometer and see quite how hot they get compared to normal logs. It'll be interesting to see if the claims re: burn time are true aswell.

I got my logs from Fuel Sell - hopefully they deliver in a reasonable time....

Eco Fuels

2010-01-23T17:14:00.000Z

Have been considering using alternative sources, more sustainable ones hopefully, for some household heating. I've known about 'Eco Logs" for a while (made from compressed, waste sawdust), but recently came across a couple of alternatives:

1) Hemp logs - link

2) Straw logs - link

3) Leaf logs - link

I guess I'll have to try them all to see how good each alternative is (and how the eco-nomics work out). My gut tells me that the Eco (sawdust), Straw or Leaf should be better overall than the hemp, mainly because they are made from waste products rather than grown as a crop as hemp is. Any comments or opinions on the environmental impacts of each would be most welcome.

Still snowed in

2010-01-09T15:24:00.000Z

This is a low-carbon snowman. Instead of lumps of coal for eyes we used sunglasses. He's also built with 10% less snow than last year's one(!!).

Being our and about playing in the snow is the best way to save on heating bills. It's a double whammy: a) you don't need the heating on as hot when you are out and b) when you come in from the cold it feels a lot warmer than it would have done if you had been indoors all-day.....

Arctic Weather

2010-01-07T19:15:00.000Z

It was -18 degrees here last night. MINUS EIGHTEEN!!!

This cold snap means it's going to be difficult to make a flying start to making a 10% reduction in home gas and electricity usage, but we'll give it a really good go.

In fact, we've had snow so bad here that I got stuck in my car and couldn't get home on tuesday night. Had to stay with a friend for the night about halfway home (which was lucky). I still haven't been able to get the car home, as the next day the roads leading home were still blocked, so I drove back to work on the main roads and got the train home.

Brrrrrrrrr. Must go and put an extra jumper on......

2010 - time for the challenge to start

2010-01-03T17:04:00.000Z

Right - this is where is all gets a bit serious. I've taken my meter readings on 1st Jan and have everything in place to work out whether I am meeting my 10:10 pledge. Still looking and thinking about other ways to lessen our impact....

For example, on sunny winter days the conservatory in our house (which is south facing) gets pretty hot, so opening the interior doors into it allows it to add to the heating of the house. Every little helps. Also have begun to set the thermostat a couple of degrees cooler at night which should help.

Cavity wall insulation

2009-12-06T21:23:00.000Z

The neighbours had their cavity walls filled this week - you can barely see where the insulation way "injected" through the masonry, so it's about time I had it done on our house too.

Some friends nearby have also had it done, and they swear that they felt the difference almost immediately, but had to have the installers round again when they found that they had a terrible condensation problem in the loft where the insulation had overflowed and prevented air from getting into teh roofspace and circulating.

Anyway, in the New Year it is one of the things at the top of the "to-do" list.

Enrico

Very good november

2009-12-05T10:49:00.000Z

Just looked at our energy usage in november, and compared to previous years it is very good (I've updated the graphs - click on the images on the right on this page).

I know november has been quite mild, but our gas usage has been half of what it has been in previous years - turning the thermostat down by a couple of degrees has obviously made a big difference.

Enrico

My butt on guardian.co.uk

2009-11-27T11:31:00.001Z

Was browsing the interwebs on my iPhone the other day and I happended on a picture of my butt on the guardian.co.uk website (on their "Green Living" blog).

It is safe to click on the link, as the butt in question is of the water storing variety....

The water-butt thing is something I have been doing for a while, I have half a dozen of them linked up with plans for more. I even started a group on Flickr a while ago as an experiment to see whether you could get poeple posting pictures of things as dull as water butts, and they did.

Enrico

Measuring....

2009-11-21T14:13:00.001Z

I bought a energy measurement thingy today which tells you how much electricity is being used by stuff that's plugged in to it.

So you can expect me to be terribly boring and tell you how much electricity each of my TVs/PCs/gadgets etc. use........ Ah, the fun I have.......

Enrico

Huzzah!

2009-11-19T19:33:00.000Z

Just noticed today that my company's new travel booking system puts the CO2 impact of any flight on the itinerary sheet. Makes it staggeringly easy to measure impact over the year.

Don't know yet whether it is a simple kg per mile calculation, or if it is more sophisticated and takes into account the type of aircraft etc., but very welcome in any case.

Enrico

High Impact Week

2009-11-09T07:30:00.000Z

This week I'm having a high-impact week, unfortunately, by flying to Korea (I have to say that Incheon Airport in Seoul has the best arrivals experience that I have ever seen - immigration, baggage reclaim and customs were a breeze).

All this reminds me that I need to go back through my diary this year and to calculate my airmiles and hence impact due to air travel.

Even though all my air travel is work-related I still want to measure it and reduce it for 2010.

Enrico

Mayoral support for 10:10

2009-11-03T19:24:00.000Z

Article on BBC news today about Boris Johnson saving the founder of the 10:10 campaign from some "oiks".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8340865.stm - amusing and disturbing in equal measure.....

Enrico

Small steps

2009-11-02T20:27:00.000Z

I am looking at all angles of our food's carbon impact now, and the research is showing up some suprising and sometimes quite disturbing & counter-intuative information.

For example, which is environmentally better (for a UK resident):

a) buying UK produced lamb
b) buying New Zealand produced lamb

Aha, I hear you say. That's easy, the UK lamb as you don't have to transport it halfway around the world. You'd be wrong.

New Zealand lamb is fed purely on grass and clover growing on the hills and mountains, wheras farming methods in the UK mean that animal feed (produced using a suprising amount of petrochemicals) is used in the UK. Also, a suprising amount of electricty is used in farming, and a great deal of electricity is produced in New Zealand using hydro-electric rather than the mainly fossil-fuelled UK. The result being that UK produced lamb has a larger carbon impact than the stuff produced in far-away lands and shipped halfway around he world.

(note: this difference may evaporate once we clean up our energy generating capability in the UK)

Anyway - the small step (of the title of this post) is that the wife has managed to source, from our local farm shop, flour that is produced within a ten mile radius of our house. So at least our bread is now mostly local....

Enrico

Milk

2009-10-30T19:12:00.000Z

Did you know what the carbon impact is of a pint of milk? No, neither did I.

Anyway, apparently the humble pinta contributes 800g of carbon to produce it, but you can knock 60g off that if you recycle the plastic bottle it comes in.

To put it another way, it's equivalent to me driving about 6km (or roughly 3 and 3/4 miles) in my trusty Peugeot 206. Or it's roughly equivalent to a unit (1KW/h) of electricity - most calculations come out betwwen 400g-to-1Kg per unit depending on whether it's coal or gas you are burning.

I've got a sneaky suspicion that when I calculate the carbon impact of food miles/production then this will far outtsrip my household electricty usage (meaning I need to take a closer look at this aspect of my overall impact than I have hitherto been doing....)

Enrico

Measuring up

2009-10-27T21:45:00.000Z

I've now put up on this site some graphs tracking my home energy use. I've been sad enough to have been taking regular meter readings since I moved into our house, so I can now look back and see how we've been doing.

I've been thinking of the other key measures which I need to track to understand if I am making a 10% (or greater) difference and will start to track these too soon, such as:
- petrol usage (for both cars in the family)
- flights (exclusively for work purposes, but am counting as my impact)
- food miles (trying to work out a way to measure that....)
- consumer goods consumption (another difficult one to measure)

Enrico

The 10:10 Campaign

2009-10-25T20:21:00.000Z

A few weeks back my electricity company emailed me with some info about a campaign called 10:10, whose basic premise is for individuals to try and make a 10% cut in their environmental impact in 2010.

I thought that this was a good idea and so signed up immediately. Since then, the campaign has been gathering momentum with numerous individuals and companies (including the company that I work for) signing up.

I began to think about what is the best way for me to ensure that I do make an effort to make a 10% difference? After some thought I resolved to measure my progress publically in a blog, so I need to make the effort else the world will be able to see that I have not....

So.... here we are. On this site I will be tracking my progress, sharing my ideas & thoughts and writing about my journey.

Enrico