Eco Gadgets
Water Saving Tap Inserts
You may have noticed when visiting upper class hotels and smart homes that they have taps that deliver a spray instead of a full flow. This is really good for quickly washing hands or brushing teeth as it delivers the water not only at a rate appropriate for this type of function but also the… [Continue Reading]
Green Cone Food Waste Digester
Some councils are suggesting that the Green cone Food Waste Digester is a good idea to deal with your food waste instead of putting it into landfill. Ideally we would have little or no food waste –or we could put it on a compost heap –but although compost heaps can deal with vegetable peelings and… [Continue Reading]
Energy Saving Advice
Solar power pros and cons
There are both advantages and disadvantages of having solar power systems in your home such as:
PROS
- Solar power is completely renewable. The sun comes up every day and is a reliable and constant source of energy.
- If people use electricity, gas or oil to power their heating and energy needs then none of these are renewable resources. When fossil fuels are finally depleted they have gone forever. Our children and grandchildren are unlikely to have the choices we have.
- Solar energy delivered via PV Cells and solar panels are absolutely quiet. The boilers run by other duels can be quiet noisy and intrusive.
- The use of solar energy creates no pollution – other fuels such as oil and gas release harmful greenhouse gases when used in combustion.
- Solar panels require very little on-going maintenance. There are no moving parts so they will not wear out, though they probably need and annual clean/
CONS
- Solar panels involve quite a large capital outlay at the outset, though in the long term you will always save money by harnessing this free resource.
- Solar panels do not produce energy during the hours of darkness and have reduced effectiveness on cloudy or stormy days, though the sun will reliably return. The farther north you live and the further away from south your roof faces will mean that your panels are less effective.
There are government incentives to fitting solar panels even though the rates are reducing over time, and it is a good time to contact an experienced installer such as SEHBAC Solar Panels to ask for advice.
Water Storage
Who would have thought that the UK would have a problem of drought? Even in the north there have been major problems of reservoirs with low levels. The government is looking at ways of storing more water when it does rain – for example, by building more reservoirs – it would even make sense to bring back into service reservoirs thought to be redundant up to 30-40 years ago. Saving water is something some of us will be forced to do through hosepipe bans for example, and it is always a smart action for those on water meters, but it now can be seen to be just good sense. When it rains heavily there can be a large amount of water falling in a short time – which just usually means that it runs off very quickly – down the gutters and away. [Read More...]
Environmentally Friendly Fuels
Biomass Boilers
Wood has become a popular fuel and more and more people have installed wood-burning stoves and boilers. Stoves are usually used to heat one room but boilers are designed to be connected to a central heating and hot water system – using a biomass fuel boiler could save you up to £600 in electricity. Biomass… [Continue Reading]