My Greener Home

Putting to rest an urban myth about leaving the heating on

2012-01-23T06:12:00.000-08:00

We are often told that people have "heard" that it is more energy efficient to leave your heating on, than to turn it off during the day when you are out and at night when you are in bed. The argument is that the energy taken to warm up the room from cold is greater than that needed to keep the room warm by leaving the heating on all the time. This has never sounded particularly believable to us so it is a relief to find that the Royal Academy of Engineering has finally put this myth to death.

The RAEng has published a very interesting paper on "Options for heating homes in a low carbon economy". It's much more interesting than it sounds! On page 17, they do a study on a 1980's house measuring the energy taken to heat a living room. They measure the energy required to heat it twice a day, and then to keep it heated. This is the key paragraph:

An experiment on this room showed that, by keeping the heating on all day, the peak power demand could be reduced from 4.2 to 1.6kW but the overall energy consumption went up from 13 to 38kWh/day.

So never again should anyone subscribe to this urban myth. It doesn't pay to keep your heating on. Incidentally, if you want a device to allow you to manage the heating of individual rooms check out our programmable radiator valves.

Get Ready For Snowmaggedon - Again!

2011-12-15T03:53:00.000-08:00

The Daily Mail has been publishing claims that the UK will once more be plunged into freezing temperatures this winter. According to the paper, local councils are already stockpiling grit across the UK. The Daily Mail also highlighted a long range weather forecast made by forecaster James Madden for Exacta Weather. James’ predictions have been picked up by various national media - he says he expects “the most frequent and heavy snowfalls to occur across many parts of the UK during November, December and January...”. If James is correct, we all need to be fully prepared for another big freeze.

There was also some shocking and strange weather related news from the Telegraph recently. They claim that Met Office weathermen kept some of their forecasts for last winter totally secret! Their journalists claim that the Met Office was well aware the UK was “facing an exceptionally cold winter”, but did not make forecasts available early enough to help the public. Apparently predictions were secretly given to the Government in October, but they weren't publicly released due to “facing severe criticism over the accuracy of its long-term forecasts”. When the public were finally given warnings a month later, it was just a matter of days before the UK saw some of the coldest temperatures on record. The Telegraph say “motoring and passenger groups” blame the delay in releasing information for considerably hindering preparations for the freezing weather.

In the meantime, the BBC is said to be “publishing independent assessments” of the Met Office’s performance on its website! As ever, it may take a while before the matter is fully settled in public. It does seem to be a rum state of affairs when the press is accusing the Met Office of literally hiding vital forecasts.Whatever the press and forecasters say, I’m getting my home ready - whether we freeze or have a milder winter, I’ll still save money and stay far warmer. Insulating letter boxes, window and door frames and any single glazing is essential. I installed automatic heating controls long ago to avoid those shocking bills - it means I don’t waste money heating rooms that are not in use at certain times of the day. And our living room is now a haven of warmth, with the sofa now resplendent with our new cosy sheeps wool comforters and faux-fur hot water bottles. It feels really festive in there now, with the fireplace and the Christmas tree. The hot water bottle goes on my wife, the TV goes on and voila, the perfect way to unwind. Photo by Gary Scott.

Third Ofgem Report: We Can Do More To Cut Our Carbon Footprint

2011-10-24T04:57:00.000-07:00

Ofgem is the Government body responsible for monitoring and reporting on carbon reductions as far as the major domestic gas and electricity companies are concerned. They’ve just published their 3rd annual report, which details the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) that that larger gas and electricity suppliers are bound to between 2008 and 2012. The target is set for domestic emissions, i.e. - home use. After 3 years worth of reports, suppliers had only achieved 67% of the target, despite the fact we are less than six months away from 2012. Of those, insulation and lighting schemes made the biggest savings - in fact up to 87% of the total reductions made.

While this is good news that they have looked at insulation and lighting, it also means that what they haven’t substantially tackled is home heating and everyday electricity use. Which of course is the main areas where they make their money. I really believe we have to take matters into our own hands now. Relying on the energy companies to cut carbon emissions is not enough - after all, they have a vested interest in selling us more fuel, at higher prices. And they certainly haven’t had any qualms introducing some very unwelcome price increases during the bitterest of winters.

If you read my guide to taking your own steps to cut your billsNOW you can get yourself ready for the winter. It’s really easy - a good starting place is to monitor your home electricity use. Power meters tell you where you are wasting electricity so that you know where to use standby power savers. The logic is beautifully simple: why pay for a useless standby light when you’re not actually using an appliance? The second key step is to cut your heating bills using heating controls. The latest state of the art technology ensures you use only what you need, when you really need it and you’ll find the savings stack up for years. These two simple steps can be the start of noticeably lower bills and the great feeling that you are doing the very best you can to help the environment at the same time.

Photo credit: Coins by Michal Ufniak

2011-10-04T02:18:00.000-07:00

This autumn, I’m delighted to be launching a new range of fascinating courses which give you the opportunity to learn more about rural and country skills. They are all run by experts in their field with years of practical experience to pass on. The courses are all tremendously inspiring and social events - a great way to meet like minded people. Wherever possible, there is a fantastic healthy lunch made using home grown organic ingredients. All the courses are held at Assington Mill, Suffolk, with farmhouses dating from the 17th century and even its own owl observation tower which was built on a previous course.

If you’ve ever fancied keeping some bees on your land, then Beekeeping for Beginners is a must for you. On the day, you’ll learn all about their care, and the type of equipment you’ll need to get started. You will see beehives up close, but they won’t have their usual inhabitants in them.
Anyone who has ever wanted to keep chickens should sign up now for Hen Keeping In Your Garden. You’ll get a wealth of information about caring for chickens at home, and on this course, there will be hens to hold and stroke.
Smallholders will love the Pig-Keeping Introduction course, again, plenty of practical advice from a seasoned expert (and the most delightful squealing piglets to hold if that’s your idea of heaven).
Then there’s Sheep for Smallholders, with comprehensive information on keeping sheep and lambs, including handling techniques.
Anyone who has ever owned a chainsaw will tell you although they might well come with instructions, some real life advice never goes amiss. Our Chain-sawing for Amateurs day might as well be called ‘everything you wanted to know but didn’t know where to ask’. The expert tutor covers maintenance and keeping your chain saw sharpened plus of course and safety techniques and equipment.
The Coppicing Traditional Woodland Management course allows you to learn all about this art hands on, coppicing in nearby woodland. You’ll also gain the theory of just why it’s so beneficial for trees and wildlife, as well as producing materials for crafts and your home fireplace.

It’s Official - 30% Energy Bill Hike on the Cards!

2011-09-21T03:51:00.000-07:00

The Guardian has recently published a shocking report claiming the UK is due for yet another outrageous spike in its home energy bills. The newspaper states that we are all due for an enormous 30% rise by 2020 on our home electricity and gas bills. Ben Moxham is the senior policy adviser for energy and the environment to Prime Minister David Cameron. The Guardian claims that Mr Moxam believes that the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is wrong to think that the 30% rise would be offset by reduced energy consumption. The newspaper further claims that he wrote a handwritten note to other senior Number 10 advisers to that effect. The note is reported to have also been seen by The Telegraph newspaper and apparently reads that the “"DECC's mid-case gas price scenario sees policies adding 30% to consumer energy bills by 2020 compared to a world without policies."

It’s safe to say we all know that politics can be a murky world at the best of times. So for this and a myriad of other compelling reasons, I believe that now really is the time to start giving your home a green makeover as far as energy bills are concerned. After all, it’s unlikely that bills will ever go down over time! There are so many easy ways you can cut your bills at home.

Here’s five easy ways to get started:

1. Laundry is one surprisingly great place to start. Tumble dryers are the most expensive large domestic white goods appliances to run. Instead, use a modern line dryer or clothes airer and pay nothing for electricity, tumble dryer fabric softeners and tumble dryer maintenance or repairs. Extend the life of your appliances using a Scalewizard to prevent limescale costing you a fortune in unnecessary repairs.

2. If you’re not using a chimney, seal it up now with a chimney balloon - your warm air is escaping and cold air is rushing in! Meaning you’ll want to turn the heater up sooner rather than later.

3. Use an energy meter to see where you could save electricity.

4. Powersavers effortlessly turn your appliances off when they’re not in use. Don’t rely on your memory - most of us forget. It’s an expensive habit which you can easily avoid.

5. Use home heating controls to make sure your boiler and radiators are operating at maximum efficiency. Modern state of the art controls mean you can maintain a pleasant temperature without burning money on fuel bills, even when you are not at home to turn things on and off.

Photo credit: Currency T-Shirts by Piotr Bizior.

Foxes Don't Like Radio 4

2011-08-26T01:56:00.000-07:00

The Independent recently ran an amazing story about how playing Radio 4 stopped wild foxes from rustling swans. Bird wardens in Dorset have discovered that hungry urban foxes are actually quite picky when it comes to their choice of radio station. Although hungry for a much needed meal, the foxes in question would not try to breach the swan’s perimeter fence if the wardens blasted them with the sound of Radio 4!

The theory is that when the foxes hear spoken radio programs, they believe it is human voices and therefore stay away. Although one farmer who gave the wardens the tip believes it is because they simply prefer other stations. Whatever the reason, they are no longer bothering the swans, who are now safe to paddle about on their Dorset lagoon. If you keep chickens at home, modern sturdy chicken coops are so well constructed that they should go a long way towards keeping out the most determined foxes. Electric fences can also help. You may also want to try Radio 4 for final layer of heavy duty protection.

It’s basically a question of buying the right equipment and having the right advice in general on how to care for your chickens. So I have produced an easy, free online guide to keeping chickens that fills you in on all the basics. Chickens are a lot less work than you might think, and give you the chance to teach your children about nature. You may even find it all ties in with the topics they are learning at school. You also get a free, endless supply of delicious free range organic eggs, and you can provide a much needed home for an ex-battery hen. They do make lovely pets, and you’d be surprised at just how much personality is waiting to get to know you behind those beady eyes!

Exciting News For Going Green At Home!

2011-07-19T08:03:00.000-07:00

The Guardian reported that the Government’s Department of Energy and Climate change expect that 14 million householders will be soon be able to get help towards making their home more energy efficient. As part of the Government’s ‘Green Deal’, within the next 10 years this massive number of homes is expected to qualify for a complete green home makeover as far saving energy saving is concerned. This is terrific news for everyone, and the methods to be included in the scheme include some of those that can really slash electricity and gas bills. You can easily pay less by fitting adequate insulation alongside draught proofing like Secondary Glazing and Chimney Balloons. Solar water heating will also be a priority among the 23 energy saving methods suitable for home use.

All in all, a whopping 25 million homes are due to undergo an assessment under these new proposals. Whether you are able to get Government help or not, all of these methods will substantially reduce your bills and they are all a lot easier than you might think to install. For example, many people don’t realise that they are literally burning money because their loft insulation just isn’t thick enough and doesn’t cover enough area in the loft. The philosophy is simple: invest a small sum today, reap the cash rewards for years and years to come. In an age where fuel prices are always surging up, it makes perfect financial sense. Even if householders don’t eventually qualify for help, what it will do is focus people’s attention on more ways to save money and benefit the environment. Many energy saving methods are cheap, and fuss free to fit, and once the savings have been pointed out, for many people the decision is already made. And that whole process of highlighting the ways to save can only be a good thing.

Photo credit: ‘Unique 2’ by Svilen Milev.

Green Investment Bank Plans Miss The Point?

2011-07-01T01:47:00.000-07:00

The Government has recently published it’s latest Update on the design of the Green Investment Bank (GIB). This outlines how the new GIB should play a pivotal role in the transition to a low carbon economy. The good news is that there finally appears to be a national commitment to substantial investment into mitigation against the effects of climate change. The bad news is that there is no new support for small companies included in the proposals.

My Greener Home is in a fairly unique position - we’re a relatively small company but we simply don’t need the kind of funding the GIB might have promised. Yet I still believe the Government is making a fundamental, grave error in assuming that small and medium sized companies should not be given new funding opportunities. It seems completely illogical to exclude one of the very sectors that consistently provide a wealth of vital green innovations.

The update sets out the areas that the GIB will fund: Power; Renewable heat; Energy efficiency; Transport; and Waste and water. These include the very sectors in which innovation and new products often spring from small to medium businesses. For example, there are plenty of products which can dramatically improve energy efficiency around the home which have come from “smaller players” within the market. This seems a dramatic oversight on the Government’s part, given its stated commitment to the UK becoming a low carbon economy. The Climate Change Act requires the UK to reduce UK greenhouse gases by 34% within the next 19 years, and by 80% by the year 2050, compared to 1990 levels. Surely any actions which support this initiative should be embraced. Instead the GIB appears set to focus on larger scale projects, which seems baffling since larger corporations may not have the same need for funds to assist in research and development as their smaller cousins.

3 In One: Save Money, Go Green & Give To Charity

2011-06-28T01:21:00.001-07:00

The Independent newspaper recently ran an article highlighting a fantastic new website called ‘Double Impact’. The site allows anyone with a Facebook account to donate to charity for free by taking simple green steps. Instead of giving money, you first choose your favourite charity and then ‘earn credits’ by doing easy everyday tasks in an environmentally friendly way. You might earn money for a good cause by saving electricity or by shopping locally saving petrol; in fact there are a multitude of ways to take part. Your log your actions online to translate them into credits, which in turn are donated as real money to the charity you have chosen.

Online ways to donate to charity without paying a penny are not new - for example, the superb ‘Hunger Site’ has been successfully running for a number of years now. This website lets you donate to a number of worthy causes, including Rainforest Conservation in a very novel way. You simply visit the site, and then click on a ‘button’ on the page. Your click then triggers a cash donation to each worthy cause, paid for by companies who display their advertising banners on the page. The ‘Hunger Site’ takes no personal details and there’s no ensuing spam - you can literally, visit, click and leave again.

It’s exciting though that someone has gone one step further now to come up with a way to be green, save money and make that important donation free of charge. For example, you could easily install energy saving light bulbs and standby powersavers to substantially reduce your electricity consumption at home. Another great way to cut your electricity bill is to work out exactly which activities consume the most power using an energy meter. Once you know what is pushing your bills up, you’re arguably in the best position to take steps to reduce them!

Another idea could be to take the concept of ‘shopping locally’ that little bit further. If you grow your own vegetables you can save a small fortune on organic veggies at the supermarket. It’s far easier than you think and children love gardening, giving you some willing little helpers to make light of the little work involved.

Overall, it could be a superb, environmentally friendly way for the whole family to play their part. And I’m convinced the scheme’s use of the internet will be a sure fire hit with today’s technologically savvy young learners. And best of all, you can use your activities to take them back to nature; learn about clever ways to safeguard the environment; and how to keep their bills lower ready for the day they finally head off to their first independent home.

Photo credit: Money Box by Bill Davenport.

How To Plan Your Greener Getaway

2011-06-17T07:50:00.001-07:00

The Independent recently published an interesting series giving its readers 100 ideas for great holidays. Around about this time of year, I don’t know about you but my thoughts often begin to drift towards the moment I step off the train or plane for a much needed break. I like to be just as green on holiday as at home, and although most hotels nowadays do make some efforts towards safeguarding the environment, I like to go a step further. One part of The Independent’s series outlined some helpful green ideas. You may be able to choose a ‘green’ flight which uses fuel-efficiency measures to limit emissions. Or even take one powered by bio-fuel. Taking a high-speed train could also help if you plan to explore your destination, instead of using a domestic flight.

Another good resource is a website called responsible travel.com. This site has a carbon comparison flight search which tells you what’s really going on with each individual airline. There’s also plenty of practical information to help you choose a destination. The aim is to highlight those holiday locations which value both the local environment and the people living there. Once you’ve found a lower carbon flight and the perfect destination, there are still plenty of easy things you can do to create a greener getaway.

Books are an obvious choice for long-haul flights, and there’s nothing like sinking into a good read on the beach. You can charge laptops and phones using a suitcase friendly solar power charger instead of drawing on the local electricity supply. A dynamo shaver is another travel gem, replacing the cost of buying batteries or remembering adaptors.

My top tip is to pack a solar powered torch. They come in incredibly handy in all sorts of situations on holiday, especially with children, and again, no batteries means one less thing to remember to pack. Finally, another piece of tried and tested travel advice is to pack a solar powered tyre inflation gauge for your hire car. It’s a very convenient and safe way to check the tyre pressure on an unfamiliar car, without having to search for a garage when you first pick it up.

Photo credit: Carribean Flight by Jan Willem Geertsma.

Greener Shaving: A Win Win Solution

2011-05-23T02:00:00.001-07:00

The Independent reports that a major American brewery has launched an attention-grabbing way to encourage men to save water at home. The campaign is timed to run during the days and weeks before this year’s environmental awareness Earth Day on the 5th of June. It wants us chaps to actively stop shaving, and pledge to grow a beard. The reason is that our shaving uses up a tremendous amount of water every day.

If the company’s calculations are correct, all of us using a wet shave razor are likely to use a whopping 108 litres of water a week shaving from Monday to Saturday. If we also shave on Sundays, the figure jumps to 126 litres. And all that water has to be pumped to our homes, increasing the household carbon footprint. There’s also the environmental impact of chemical based shaving foams, and landfill waste or litter from discarded disposable razors. All in all, using conventional razors has been estimated to consume 30 x more energy than using electric shaver would.

Although it’s a fun campaign and who knows, perhaps this year's newest look will indeed be the ‘Earth Day beard’, I can sadly see just one little problem. Many of us are just not going to be able to go to work sporting a new beard over the next few weeks. And that means daily shaving. You could always use an electric shaver, but you’ll still have to pay for the electricity and it generates more carbon emissions. Or you could use a battery powered one, but then there’s the cost of replacing the batteries, or paying for the electricity to recharge recyclables. Not to mention how to dispose of the old batteries. So my proposal for the run up to Earth Day and beyond is simple: use a dynamo shaver instead. It gets you neatly around all these problems. It costs nothing to run and you’ll save water; plus the cost of shaving products and blades; and the cost of electricity.

Beat The Drought With A Water Butt

2011-05-16T07:52:00.001-07:00

As long as a month ago The Telegraph reported (predicted?) that a British drought is looking more and more “likely” after the sunny weather we’ve all been enjoying lately. The downside of the sun-kissed days is a warning from the Telegraph about the very real possibility of hosepipe bans this year. There were also concerns for fish affected by lower levels of water in our rivers. The Environment Agency correspondingly warned a fifth are “exceptionally low” and reservoirs are depleted by up to 20% compared to average levels. By May, the newspaper were certain we will face a drought this year, with the threat of hosepipe bans was raised yet again. Despite reassurances from the water companies, we could soon find ourselves suffering the exact same situation as we have for so many years before.

Gardeners needn’t despair. You can still enjoy your beautiful blooms and home grown produce right throughout the summer - without breaking the law. You can effortlessly beat any hosepipe ban using a water butt to collect rainwater for feeding all the plants in your garden. A garden Steelpump is ideal to conveniently pump water from the butt for you to use for everything from irrigating the garden to washing the car. You can also easily install a simple greywater recycling valve to turn the used water you’d normally pump away from your home into a very precious commodity this summer. These ingenious valves do not contravene hosepipe bans in any way.

All of these methods are quick and simple, and they all share one more highly desirable feature. The more water you recycle, the less you need pumped to your home. And this means less carbon emissions are produced, lowering your household carbon footprint. So all in all, I’m looking forward to more hazy days in my garden with lush plants and foliage, plus a healthy supply of home grown herbs and veggies.

Photo credit: Watering Can by Michael Law

Keeping It Green In Our Sunny Garden

2011-05-12T01:40:00.000-07:00

The Independent recently reported that our April weather has been hotter than Los Angeles and drier than Madrid. It’s an amazing thought. We’ve seen pretty consistent sunshine recorded at some point every day from the 6th April onwards. The Independent duly noted an unsurprising surge in people flocking to city parks on their lunch breaks. Every year we all do the same thing; we rush to get outdoors as soon as we can, and more in touch with nature. I’ve been spending every moment I can soaking up some rays, happily pottering about in the garden, and frankly I can’t even remember what winter feels like now.

For me, my gardening is just an extension of the green lifestyle I live indoors. I suppose my “lawn is my second living room”, I try to conserve as much as I can and avoid harming both the little world within its borders and the bigger world outside. Now is probably a good time to mention water butts, well in advance of any hosepipe pans this year. Water butts lower your carbon footprint by giving you stored rain or even recycled ‘household’ water for your lawn and plants. That way you don’t create emissions by having yet more tap water pumped to your home. Your garden furniture doesn’t have to be plastic or ‘regular timber’. Sustainable wood products gives you a smart yet rustic feel instead. I love watching the light change as the evening gently falls, sipping wine or cordials on my new picnic bench. It’s so much more pleasant than trying to balance a glass on a wobbly plastic table top.

You can now also avoid the ubiquitous clashing plastic sandpit for the children. The great thing about a wooden one is when they’ve outgrown it, you then recycle it into a rustic vegetable bed, or large raised flowerbed. (And yes, they still have lids to deter both creatures and cats). If you really want to make your children’s day, go the whole hog and opt for a sustainable wood playhouse. Again, in the looks department they win hands down over gaudily coloured plastic playhouses next to your prized flowers and foliage. The space inside is also far more atmospheric for outdoor games, little secret picnics, making up inventive stories, and all the other things that children do to stretch their imagination outdoors.

Photo credit: Sunflower by ’Kay82’.

Finally - Labelling That Shows The Greenest Appliances

2011-04-26T05:33:00.000-07:00

There was some great news lately that from June this year new appliances will have to carry a new style of labels that better indicate how much power they use. Energy efficiency labels aren’t new. However on the new European Energy Labels there are finally two extra categories to indicate products offering outstanding performance: A+ and A++. The colour scheme for each category will be the same - the best performing products will be the darkest green, and the worst will be red. You’ll also be able to see exactly how much electricity each appliance uses every hour in kWh. The lower the figure, the more money and energy you’ll save. It’s also going to be compulsory for new appliances to carry them from June throughout the EU.

Having the A+ and A++ categories makes sense, as for many years most of the dishwashers and washing machines sold have reached the A rating. This means we can’t tell the better ones apart by using the old style A to G dark green to red rating. Putting in the kWh per hour also makes sense. Many people might think a B rating is quite good for a tumble dryer. What they can’t tell from the rating is that A rated dryers often use half the electricity of B rated ones. Which means quite simply the B rated machine costs twice as much to run.

On the subject of tumble dryers, the greenest and cheapest option is really simple. I use a clothes airer instead. Since I’m already paying to heat my home, I like to ‘double up’ by using the warmth to dry the washing as well. In the summer, I use a cleverly designed clothes drying tent. You can put it on the balcony or in the garden, go out to work and if it rains your clothes obviously stay dry. Both methods cost absolutely nothing to run and both significantly cut your carbon footprint.

Photo credit: 'Graph 1'by Christian Ferrari.

Our Favourite Pet - The Pooches Give The Kittys A Run For Their Money!

2011-04-15T08:35:00.000-07:00

The Telegraph recently published a fascinating article which claimed dogs are now rapidly overtaking cats as the nation’s most popular pet. Apparently this reverses a long standing trend. Previously, statistically speaking, it seemed that cats had held the upper hand! Smaller dogs in particular seem to be becoming more and more popular.

Whether your home is host to a much loved dog, cat or a combination of both, your pets' lives can easily be just as green as everyone else’s in your household. Pet bowls are often sold made from plastic, yet there are health concerns about the use of plastic for food storage and baby bottles. Bisphenol-A (BPA) is a chemical found in certain plastics, and it has been banned in Canada. Heeding these concerns that BPA might pose a risk to people, many pet owners are now switching from plastic to steel pet bowls just to err on the side of caution until more is known.

There are also now more products made from recycled plastic, which of course helps safeguard the environment. Dogs can now even have their own cosy kennel made entirely from this material!

One more family pet that you might not have considered keeping is the chicken. We have re-homed ex-battery hens and they make fantastic family pets. We also get a plentiful supply of free, fresh organic eggs into the bargain. The experience motivated me to write a free online guide to owning chickens. All pets take some time and money to look after properly but chickens probably aren’t as difficult as you might think. Keeping them at home has now become so popular that you won’t have any trouble finding all the supplies you’ll need, like modern chicken coops. I also personally don’t think that you can beat their educational value. Chickens help my children learn about the natural world and where some of their food comes first hand.

Photo Credit: Walking With Dogs by Dora Horvath.

Spring Gardening Tasks

2011-04-11T05:36:00.000-07:00

With the weather showing firm signs of Spring, I’ve been out in the garden doing some essential gardening tasks in time for this season and the next. I found the Royal Horticultural Society had some excellent advice online for greenhouse growing at this time of year. If you don’t have enough space or you’d like a second ‘greenhouse’ small enough for the patio, I recommend an aluminium coldframe. I’ve been using one to plant out a fresh crop of vegetables and keep them safe. Although the weather is picking up, the one thing that is certain about the British spring is that it can be changeable. I simply don’t want to risk my new shoots succumbing to sudden cold or hungry insects, so snug they stay inside their coldframe. It works a treat.

I’ve also been getting the garden organised for a really great summer. I’ve installed a space saving Garden Wall Store to safely lock the family bicycles out of the way. Outdoor toys and the patio set have all gone neatly into a Garden Chest. Best of all has to be the new patio planter. This going to look stunning as the season unfolds. I’ve put in plenty of bulbs and some delphiniums so soon there should be a positive riot of scent and colour.

I’ve also put in one more feature that the children are very excited about. They always love playing in the garden and are keen to help out with gardening jobs. To see them developing a keen appreciation for nature is so rewarding - it’s so exciting when they name a butterfly, or carefully plant a seed into a pot. This spring, they’re going to get to play outdoors in a purpose designed, sustainably manufactured super newplayhouse. If you remember playing in a special den when you were young, you will no doubt appreciate just how special this is going to be for them. I can’t wait to see if they let me join in their games of pirates and spaceships (work permitting).

Long Way To Go For Home EPCs

2011-03-28T03:45:00.000-07:00

The UK consumer rights group ‘Consumer Focus’ recently produced a revealing report into the use of the home Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). Their survey asked just over 2,000 adults how they had used information from EPCs and whether they found them easy to understand. The results demonstrated that estate agents are not always playing their part, particularly in the rental sector. Despite energy efficient homes saving hundreds of pounds on bills every year, there seems to be a long way to before the EPC influences the choice of new home.

Just 14% of buyers considered energy efficiency to be important, with 18% of respondents saying EPCs had influenced their decisions. Only 17% said they acted on the recommendations within their EPC. However EPCs don’t seem to be a factor during negotiations about prices for selling or renting. On the whole, the EPC had little relevance to the decision whether to buy (or rent) any particular property. Estate agents were heavily criticised for not providing EPCs alongside other marketing materials. It was even recommended that Trading Standards get involved to make them comply.

48% of respondents didn’t even see a EPC before signing their contract, and a further 8% weren’t sure if they had seen it before committing. 79% of homebuyers received information, whereas only just under a third had within the private rental and social housing sectors.

When it comes to the impact of energy performance, there were two clear things that people wanted to see happen. Many thought that seeing the current energy bill for the property would be useful, accompanied by information on how they could then save energy. 76% of those who did see an EPC said it was well laid out and easy to understand.

Renewable Heat Incentive launch

2011-03-25T07:14:00.000-07:00

Energy Secretary Chris Huhne recently gave the good news that he has launched a new UK Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). The initiative aims to support emerging technologies, and translates into some great news for everyday households. Special RHI energy tariffs are due to come into force from 2012. And even before then, there is government financing for those looking to install energy efficient heating systems.

The 'RHI Premium Payment' aims to help with the cost of 25,000 installations of eligible energy efficient heating systems. Customers installing these new systems will then be automatically entitled to the RHI tariff from Oct 2012.

Another plus for consumers is that the same deal will apply to anyone who has installed eligible equipment as far back as since July 2009, qualifying automatically for the same RHI tariff from Oct 2012.

This should be a superb incentive to anyone thinking about installing energy efficient heating, alongside the obvious cash savings on everyday bills. Read more about it here.

March Gardening Tasks

2011-03-18T06:15:00.001-07:00

Sunnier days are just around the corner and for many of us the weather has certainly been improving of late. I’ve been out and about in the garden, and indoors I’ve found some excellent tips online for the best ways to apply your green thumbs this month. There is the Times online year round gardening guide and then the Royal Horticultural Society’s website, both offering timely ideas to make the most of your outdoor space. This month, the Times also won me over with a whole article devoted to the many reasons why vegetable beds are such a ‘must have’ for the modern gardener.

I have a bulb and seed box, so that I can leave everything in the outhouse but know that it won’t be ravaged by mice and insects come springtime. It’s definitely going to be coming out with me this weekend, when I’m planning to plant hardy annuals in a raised patio planter. You don’t even needs a garden for this - planters are also fantastic for balconies, roof terraces or even in your porch.

I’ll be doing a fair bit of potting and I do recommend a small investment in a potting bench. You will appreciate not having to crouch awkwardly onto the ground, or ending up with soil and newspaper all over the dining room table. My spring shoots are going to go under garden cloches and a Victorian glass bell jar to protect them from the same hungry mouths and the elements. Finally, I’ll be mowing the grass and pruning, then transforming all the cuttings into rich organic compost.

Photo Credit: Parsley by Jean Froidevaux.

Public Sector Told To Cut Carbon Emissions By 25%

2011-03-15T02:24:00.001-07:00

In amongst all the negative stories that float around the internet these days, there’s been a piece of fantastically positive news too. It comes courtesy of the Guardian newspaper, who reported that the government is intent on ordering every single public sector body to cut its carbon emissions by 25% over the next five years. The project will be called the ‘25:5 Campaign’ and it seems like good news - a reduction of all carbon emissions by 25% by 2016. The campaign does seem to have attracted a little controversy, with the newspaper alleging there is some resistance from the Treasury. As always, five years is a long time in politics, but lets all hope this project manages to come to fruition to help reduce the overall amount of carbon emissions contributing to climate change.

Large scale plans like this one may or may not be realised, and there is always plenty more to be done. Whatever governments, companies and institutions contribute, there’s still loads of positive steps you can take at home, in the office, in schools and more. I always think the whole concept is just such a ‘win win’… From very little initial outlay, every small change goes on saving money year after year - and cuts your carbon footprint straight away. One easy way to start is to use the online Carbon Calculator , to see how much you’re producing.

At home and in the office, one incredibly easy way to cut bills and emissions is to simply use a standby power saver. Some appliances can use up to 70% of the power when they’re on standby? You could save up to 10% on your bills and some come with a handy remote control. For busier lifestyles, there is even a USB device that lets you control your appliances from your PC/Mac/laptop, over the internet or via your mobile.

And for those with children, another easy step to make is simply talking to your child’s teachers. You can encourage them to visit My Greener School. The website has plenty of lesson planning resources; greener living guides; and useful products to cut the school’s running costs.

Photo Credit: Enough Pollution by Zsolt Zatrok.

Zero Carbon New Homes Just Won’t Be Carbon Neutral

2011-03-10T06:14:00.001-08:00

There was some sad news from The Independent recently about major setbacks to an important green initiative. The Government may not fulfil promises that all new homes will be built to carbon neutral specifications by 2016 after all. The newspaper claims some new homes may be allowed to produce just 50% of the carbon emissions originally planned. Perhaps the worst part is that they would apparently still be somehow classified as ‘carbon neutral’! It was estimated that a new three bedroom semidetached house could have a carbon footprint of 2.3 tons. Currently, the average for the same property type is estimated at a whopping 7 tonnes.

In spite of this gloomy news, there is still every reason to be positive. There are now more ways than ever to easily cut your carbon footprint at home; at work; when you’re travelling; and much more. I’ve published an online guide to Sources of Carbon where you can quickly discover just where those emissions come from. The biggest problem is our heating at home - and this is one of the most tried and tested areas for ways to cut carbon and seriously reduce your energy bills. Proper insulation goes a long way and I’ve also written an easy online loft insulation guide. It really is a must - it can save you an average £200 every year and reduce carbon emissions by around one whole tonne. A lot of heat is also lost through single glazing. You can remedy this for a tiny fraction of the cost of installing double glazing using DIY Secondary Glazing film kits. You can also prevent heat loss through letterboxes, door and window frames and any fireplaces using a variety of modern draught stoppers.

Then there’s the fantastic Househeat range and the new eTRV. These are sophisticated heating control devices which automatically cut your energy use and therefore your bills. They allow you to ‘zone’ your home, controlling the exact temperature in each individual room. They can even monitor when your doors or windows are open and reduce the temperature accordingly. Finally, radiator panels are another stroke of genius - pop them behind each radiator to reflect ordinarily lost heat straight back into your room.

Photo Credit: Home of the Candle by László Bácsi

Young People Are Leading The Way

2011-03-02T03:56:00.000-08:00

The Independent recently wrote about the runaway success of a children’s wildlife television show called ‘Deadly 60’. The show follows adventurer Steve Backshall as he tracks down 60 ‘deadly animals’ in exotic locations all over the world. Steve’s ‘deadly’ animals aren’t always dangerous to people - they can instead be deadly for their prey. Which gives Steve plenty of licence to include a wide variety of fascinating creatures, for example, the chameleon as it captures and devours a diet of insects. 3.2 million children have seen the show in the UK, demonstrating just how incredibly keen young people are to learn about the natural world. For parents of older children, the Eden Project’s Real Cool Futures campaign is well worth a visit on the computer at home. It aims to harness this interest by promoting green careers for secondary school students. The website has career information for students; teaching resources for schools; and there is also an interactive database of case studies and film.

Young people will both inherit the world we leave them and become the next generation to take care of it! It is so encouraging that they are keen to learn and there’s never been a better time to foster their interest in ecology. To help them, you can speak to their teachers about the resources available at My Greener School. It’s a website packed with lesson planning ideas, factsheets and products for schools to teach all children of all ages. At home, invest in children’s books about the earth and sustainable living - there are some fantastic titles to teach about wildlife and the earth’s minerals. Finally, I recommend encouraging their interest in growing vegetables from an early an age as possible. From my experience, children absolutely love this activity and of course it has terrific educational value. If you don’t have a garden, you can still use whatever outside space is available with a planter or growhouse. They will fit neatly into all sorts of places - for example your balcony, porch, or roof terrace.

Photo credit: Father and Child by Horton Group.

A load of old rubbish : Recycling is now more important than ever

2011-02-17T06:40:00.001-08:00

The Telegraph recently reported that more than half a million homes in the UK have lost their weekly bin collection since the last election. There is definitely an increased trend towards fortnightly collection, which can become a real problem. To put it bluntly, no-one wants to face an overflowing bin or piles of ugly full bin liners sat next to it every morning! On the theme of rubbish, there is also an interesting new campaign underway, mounted by a charity called the Campaign for Real Recycling. They would like to see UK householders separate out their own recycling waste into various categories before it’s collected by local councils. At the moment, the councils do collect mixed recycling, but the campaign is calling for a legal review which would mean the Government obliged councils to start ‘separated waste’ collections. One way or another, in the UK we certainly seem to be sifting through our rubbish piles right now, if you’ll pardon the pun. Whatever the outcome of the changes for your household, here are some tried and tested easy ways to cope better between collections.

A Trash Basher is a wonderfully handy gadget to compress the contents of your wheelie bin, so you can get more in between collections. Tuck this rubbish bin next to a full size recycling one inside a Rowlinson double wheelie bin store. Your outside space will still be attractive and you won’t be bothered by foxes. Flatten cans with a foot operated Can Crusher to make more space in your recycling bin. Next, make sure your kitchen becomes a zero waste place! Recycle food waste by storing it temporarily in a hygienic and practical kitchen caddy with compostable liners. Periodically empty the caddy into your garden compost bin. Finally, any remaining waste can often be turned into free fuel - paper logs for your fire.

Chicken Out!

2011-02-10T05:01:00.000-08:00

Regular blog readers will know I keep free range chickens at home, and we love getting up to fresh eggs and the sight of our little hens scratching around. I haven’t mentioned our feathered friends for a while, so its probably about time I gave you an update from the world of the humble chicken.

The UK charity Compassion in World Farming reports that a ban on beak trimming for chickens which was due to come into force in January 2011 has been delayed. It now might take until 2016 to stop the practice in UK farming, where its used to stop egg laying hens ‘feather pecking’. It causes tremendous suffering to the hens yet when they are humanely housed it simply isn’t necessary at all.

It’s not all bad news for hens right now though. Gourmet chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is best known for his ‘River Cottage’ TV series but he also lends his support to the fantastically named ‘Chicken Out!’ Campaign. Hugh’s campaign aims to improve welfare standards for hens throughout the country and it has recently reported some good news. Brand new EU legislation is going to ban barren battery cages from January next year! But there are some threats to the ban coming into force, so do have a look at the Chicken Out! website - if you like me support the ban then now is the time to act.

Our own hens are doing well and we’re so glad we chose to rehome them. Our four former battery hens now have a wonderful life and we have a fantastic, on the doorstep supply of healthy organic eggs. I’ve written an online guide to owning chickens , and there are plenty of resources plus affordable modern chicken coops to get you started. It really isn’t a herculean task to enjoy giving a desperately needed home to an ex-battery hen and you and your family gain so many benefits. You’ll be producing your own organic food, without using the food miles used to transport eggs to and from the supermarket. Your hens will gobble up common garden pests and provide you with free compost. Chickens make the most fantastic family pets. From my family’s experience, the initial outlay is certainly no more than I’d expect to pay if we were (responsibly) bringing a new dog into the family. It’s been a terrific investment - our chickens are adored and our omelettes have been gourmet quality ever since.

Grow Organic To Save The Honey Bee

2011-02-04T04:05:00.001-08:00

The Sunday Times publishes some very useful gardening tips each new month. For February, its time to wrap up warm and get out there to prepare for spring coming just around the corner. The Times recommends sowing hardy varieties of peas outdoors right now, such as the tasty ‘Meteor’ pea. The Haxnicks Pea and Bean Planter is ideal, giving you adequate support and a graceful arc of pretty foliage. It’s also perfect if you don’t have a lot of space to play with. You could perhaps even fit one on a city balcony and they would certainly look fantastic on a roof terrace. I’ve written a whole guide to Growing Organic Vegetables - it’s far easier than a lot of people might think and more important than ever right now....

Sadly, there have been numerous headlines about the mysterious decline of the honey bee in the last few years. Their numbers suddenly began to plummet throughout the UK and Europe leaving beekeepers at a loss to explain what on earth was going on. There are now disturbing reports emerging that a new generation of pesticides called neocortinoids may be responsible. The Telegraph has published details of the latest research from the USA, where the American bees (pictured here) are also in serious decline. Researchers found a correlation between neocortinoids and increased susceptibility to disease for bees. The Telegraph points out neocortionoids are used for both agricultural crops and garden plants and have tremendous insect killing properties which are similar to those of nicotine.

This claim is controversial already and it’s still early days for solving the bee crisis. Until we are certain what has harmed our bees, there can be no better time than to implement a ‘no pesticides policy’ in your garden. Grow houses can help by keeping pests away and they’ll also help to protect your prized organic veg from the perils of the UK winter.

The Environmental Economist

2011-01-07T04:57:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my first blog post of 2011 - wishing you the all the very best for a very prosperous and green year ahead. I’ve been using some of the festive break to catch up on some reading, curled up on the sofa with my new favourite book. Strangely enough, precisely at this freezing time of year, I’ve chosen Prashant Vaze’s
The Environmental Economist - My Attempt To Live A Low Carbon Life And What It Cost. It struck me that in many ways, perhaps I was subconsciously focusing on the winter heating bills during these cold dark nights!

Prashant is an economist and it might sound like a bit of a dry title but frankly, I found it extremely witty - an honest account of one man’s attempts to make his somewhat older north London home more environmentally friendly. Rather than being the sort of book that berates you for not habitually wearing hessian for warmth, it is instead a very honest, very funny account of the sort of everyday lifestyle ‘adjustments’ and ‘epiphanies’ many of us will recognise. It apparently took him 2 years to realise his open fireplace actually had fitted flaps to prevent heat loss through the flue, and he began to realise that many of his previous ‘home improvements’ had in fact simply left his house with even more ways to lose heat.

Another aspect I liked was Prashant’s real-life comparisons of different energy saving products and how they might work in different types of homes - which ones could save money and under which circumstances. As an economist, he seems well placed to offer rational advice rather than try an emotional appeal to save the planet. He focuses on trying to find what is likely to be the most economically viable solution to save the greatest amount of energy. All in all, its not often I thoroughly recommend a ‘green tome’ but this one I do without any hesitation.

Essential Heat Saving Products

2010-12-23T01:42:00.001-08:00

Most parts of the UK have seen more freezing temperatures, ice and snow this week and The Guardian reports that the ‘cold snap’ is likely to continue for some time to come. Yet a short while earlier, The Telegraph The Telegraph had just reported that another two of the six biggest energy companies were nonetheless still going to put their prices up in January. This December has been the coldest recorded by the Met office during the last 30 years and it was estimated that this months’ gas bills alone were on average likely to be 47% higher than in 2009 due to the price increases combined with ‘the big freeze’.

Some of the most efficient steps I’ve taken to make my house warmer and more energy efficient have been both the simplest and the cheapest. I fitted good old fashioned PCV foam draught excluder strips to the frames of all my doors and windows. With less ‘gaps’ for the heat to escape through, every room in my house now noticeably retains more heat. Next I used film glazing to insulate some of the windows. You simply apply the film to the windows, and use a hairdryer to heat it just enough to create a totally smooth, ‘wrinkle free fit’. It’s quick and easy to apply yourself, and remarkably effective - if you have single glazing right now, this could be an instant and cheap alternative to the cost of installing double glazing. I do not have double glazing, so I created an extra layer of insulation for some frames with a product called Magnet Glaze. As the name implies, it uses magnets to secure a secondary plane of plastic sheeting to any frame to make the window even more efficient at keeping heat in. Finally, I fitted a draught excluder to the letter box. When you think about it, essentially, a letter box is a channel through the door, covered by a flap which has a little gap that lets cold air in and the heat out! You can insulate it with a straightforward letterbox brush draught excluder or use one with an added letterbox flap on the inside which conceals the brush and adds an extra layer of protection.

My outlay was very little. In fact most of these products cost under £10 but the house feels far warmer and I will notice a difference to my bills. I would say of all the simple things I’ve done to make the house more energy efficient, these spring to mind as some of the cheapest with a fantastic effect on both comfort and cost.

Save energy while its cold

2010-12-13T04:27:00.000-08:00

With the weather still extremely cold in many parts of the UK this week, the Independent ran two very interesting articles which might just surprise you. Apparently, this year is one of the warmest on record and the snow is a mere flurry compared to that of years gone by.

Astonishing as this all sounds, global temperatures are now generally reaching record highs. At the recent world climate talks, the Independent reported experts from the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organisation had highlighted 2010 as one of the three warmest years ever recorded. Furthermore, the last decade also won the dubious accolade of the warmest since climate records began.

Furthermore, the Independent also pointed out that in 1927, for example, a Boxing Day blizzard produced 20 foot snow drifts in the Chilterns and many villages close to Croydon were snowed in for a week. In 1947, snow fell from late January until mid-March, with 15 foot snowdrifts which sadly resulted in the untimely deaths of around 2 million sheep. The 1960’s also saw the winter of ’64 -’65 which produced some whopping 25 foot snowdrifts and cut many remote farms off for a staggering 2 months.

The irony is that many of us will be struggling to keep the house warm right now but this doesn’t have to mean increasing the amount of carbon dioxide ‘greenhouse gas’ that increased heating normally produces. Carbon emissions are one of the ways in which the earth’s temperature is believed to be heating up. There are indeed workable real-world solutions to cut your households carbon footprint and stay toasty warm. The beauty is they all save you money on your bills and many are simply a modern rework of a traditional idea. There are simple steps like using draught excluders, hot water bottles and then did you know that you can literally recycle much of your household rubbish into fuel for your fireplace at zero cost? There is indeed nothing particularly new fangled or radical in amongst these vintage ideas, but they all work a treat and will certainly help you to save money over the long winter months.

Save on Energy Bills

2010-12-07T03:37:00.000-08:00

With Christmas just around the corner and the recent icy weather conditions, many in the UK have been dismayed at bill increases by two of the UK’s biggest energy companies, British Gas and Scottish and Southern Energy. As early as late October though, The Guardian warned that the rise in the price of gas bills planned by Scottish and Southern Energy for the first of December could take average energy bills to over £1,200. They also predicted that other energy companies were likely to follow suit - and of course this has been borne out. Between the cold weather and the price increases, there has simply never been a better time to make sure your home is fully energy efficient to keep your bills as low as possible.

Bills comparison website USwitch.com recently published a step by step guide to legally rejecting your current suppliers price increases, changing suppliers and paying only the original prices in the meantime. If this appeals check the suggested steps carefully - there do indeed seem to be rules made by energy regulator Ofgem to protect consumers here, providing you follow a certain straightforward procedure.

There are also a plethora of energy saving products for your home which will help you save money on gas, electricity or duel fuel bills. You can make your radiators far more efficient with heat saving radiator panels, which keep more heat in your rooms. Then Househeat is an ingenious system to allow you to control the radiators temperature in individual rooms or areas like your hallway. In a nutshell, you’re simply losing money if you’re heating rooms when you’re not using them. You can also easily fit gas cooker hobs with a Gas Energy Saver to stop the flames rising up the side of saucepans where they contribute nothing to your cooking. It also converts any ‘unburnt’ gas -which you still pay for - into useful, productive heat. Finally, just one idea for saving hot water is the Nordic Ecoshower water saving showerhead, which can save an estimated 40-60% on hot water bills while still providing you with a fully satisfying hot shower.

A sports bottle beats pollution

2010-11-23T07:20:00.000-08:00

The Guardian recently published an article about the enormous environmental impact of bottled water. Global consumption has seen a huge increase between 1997 and 2004 and of course sadly it is mostly sold in the ubiquitous plastic bottle. Interestingly enough, the biggest consumer was Europe, with 53,661 thousand cubic metres consumed in 2004 - which The Guardian pointed out is something of an oddity since we have access to some of the cleanest tap water in the world today.

Bottled water undoubtedly creates ocean pollution through plastic waste reaching the sea. Yet these days plastic bottles are so easily recyclable, with many councils offering a kerb-side collection service. They also create more carbon dioxide emissions through their manufacture and transportation to the bottling plants and then to our shops. Although the obvious thing to do is to re-use the plastic bottles, in practice this doesn’t always work since many manufacturers are clear they are not suitable for this purpose!

To get out of this destructive cycle, why not use a genuinely safe re-usable bottle instead, such as the H20 Sports Filter Bottle? It makes great sense both financially and for the environment. Instead of paying anything from around 40 pence a bottle to even towards a couple of pounds for a bottle of water, you can have one for the princely sum of just one penny. Apart from the vast savings every week, since we do have clean tap water, it’s also far better to filter it using this bottle and cut out the endless line of plastic bottles for disposal.

Having said this, for most of us mere mortals, of course it is impossible to always get along without creating a little household waste. For those times when you are caught without a re-usable bottle or have other recyclables to take care, the stern looking ugly recycling container lurking in the corner of the garage is thankfully only a memory these days. There are now a wonderful variety of chic recycling containers that wouldn't look out of place in any kitchen, garden or outside space. And I think an attractive recycling bin or the re-usable Sports bottle would make a super Christmas present- especially for busy parents.

Pester power

2010-11-16T08:30:00.000-08:00

The Independent ran a great article recently focusing on a precious natural resource, namely children and ‘pester power’. As parents well know, this awesome natural force is carbon neutral, requires no power supply and is always available in thousands of different new flavours every day. The article gave a wonderful overview of how children are now beginning to influence their families to adopt a greener lifestyle. Its author Nick Duerden’s daughter had posed her father some very interesting questions, including whether they travelled to school by car or by bicycle, and why the family weren’t growing vegetables at home like they did at school. Children seem to be becoming a positive force for environmental awareness, perhaps in no small part due to the fact that some 67% of UK schools were reported to have now signed up the cutting edge Eco-Schools programme.

The programme is run by the Foundation for Environmental Education and is clearly a success story in many parts of the UK, where as many as 100% of some local authority schools have signed up. It costs nothing for schools to join and they gain valuable free resources on key areas such as tackling litter, healthy living and biodiversity. There are motivational awards for schools to aim for and the programme very much student-centred - which probably accounts for its popularity with modern schools and why Nick’s young daughter is so very keen on growing vegetables at home. If your child’s school hasn’t signed up, why not bring it up at the next parent teacher meeting? Whether they have joined or not, it’s easier than you think to continue the educational themes at home, for example, by growing you own. It can work whether or not you have a garden and you certainly don’t need to be an ‘expert gardener’. Many modern garden products are suitable for those who have never grown anything before. And as well as echoing your child’s schools’ work, you’ll also gain the added bonus of low cost organic vegetables and herbs without the tiresome trip to the shops.

Should we cut the 2020 carbon emission target?

2010-11-03T01:44:00.000-07:00

Things were looking good when the Guardian reported recently that EU Environment Ministers were meeting in Brussels to discuss whether to increase its 2020 target of carbon emission outputs reductions from 20 to 30% (against 1990 levels) across the EU. In the run up to the meeting, numerous large international companies had even signed a joint declaration urging for an increase. By the following day though, BusinessGreen.com ran the disappointing news that it had all resulted in only a commitment to 'discuss' the issue further in spring next year.

Carbon emission reduction is vital to curb the ‘greenhouse effect’ - the cocktail of emissions we produce is believed to raise the temperature in the earth’s atmosphere around the globe, leading us into climate change. Ever the optimist, I still believe in the meantime we can all take positive action nonetheless to reduce our own household carbon footprint. One easy action for this time of year is to look at something as mundane as your everyday laundry. Happily there’s a seasonal bonus for you to help towards the cost of Christmas every year. Tumble dryers are one of the most ‘energy-hungry’ home appliances, of course meaning more carbon emissions are produced. Its tempting to use them as the weather turns colder and damper but doing so four times a week means an estimated £130 extra a year on electricity bills. Yet a simple clothes airer does the same job without using any expensive electricity.

The clothes horse is enjoying a renaissance for precisely these reasons. But don’t worry about an ugly ‘contraption’ lurking in your hallway. A modern clothes horse looks like a chic towel rail, with muted wood tones to offset your décor and doubling up as a towel rail means there’s no wrestling it in and out of your understairs cupboard. A wall mounted clothes dryer can be equally aesthetic, in period white or pale wood but my particular favourite has to be the Victorian style ceiling airer. Also known as a pulley airer, these reproduction designs look wonderful, with a cast iron and pale wood frame. The pulley means you can whoosh the washing high up out of the way when you need to and the whole thing has such a wonderful timeless aesthetic that works with any décor. All in all, drying then means zero bills and zero emissions, and more money towards a good Christmas...

Saving Water Saves Money

2010-10-19T07:38:00.001-07:00

There was an interesting point raised on the award winning thisismoney.co.uk - a consumer had ‘emailed in’ to complain they had carefully saved water by recycling it but their water company did not reward them with a lower bill. This does raise a question people often ask - does saving water really mean your bill will be lower? For example, you can clearly see how saving electricity or gas would mean lower bills, but most people are not aware of the ways in which saving water could indeed help keep more of their pounds in their pockets.

The consumer’s complaint hinged around the fact that they were using less water by collecting it to recycle for use in the garden. However, their water company didn’t cut their bill in response to a letter pointing this out. I felt the website tackled the question very sensibly, by explaining how to ask your water company to take steps to reflect your careful water use.

It pointed out you can simply contact your water company and ask to have a water meter fitted - for most households this would be free of charge. Your water bill would then be a vastly more accurate reflection of how much you actually use. There are some homes where it is impossible to have a water meter fitted - for example, some very densely built apartment blocks. In this case, ask for an ‘Assessed Charge’. The water watchdog Offwat have some very good information on this type of billing - again it can often reduce your bills.

Some small water-saving changes are cheap, fast and money-saving, even before you've changed to a meter or assessed bill. The H20 water bottle filters out impurities, and avoids unsuitable re-used plastic bottles leaching any chemicals into the water. It also means you or your child can have a healthy bottle of filtered water for approximately 1 pence per bottle- compare that with shop bought plastic bottles, which tend to sell from 35 to 70 pence in the shops! Another of my favourites is the Eco Showerdrop. It tells you how much water you’re using and just how long you've been in there! At the very least, you could probably save on the cost of hot water by using one of those.

Then there are water butts to catch rainwater for re-use any time you need water but it doesn’t have to be of drinking quality. They range these days from compact space saving designs like the mini butt kit, or you can go the extra mile by filling up more and more 183 litre tanks of the modular Rainwater HOG.

October Gardening Tasks

2010-10-11T02:49:00.000-07:00

As autumn begins, the Times online gardening section has some terrific advice for those of us pushed for time to get out and about in the garden. It suggests of course raking in fallen leaves round about now, but if you are just too busy, enlist the help of a young relative to do it for you in return for some pocket money. What a lovely idea, a great way to allow children to connect with the natural world, and see the wonderful colours of the leaves gradually changing throughout the month. Its an essential task, apart from wet leaves making paths and patios unsafe under everyone’s feet, its also important to make sure your lawn and beds are free from a ‘leaf mat’. Fallen leaves quickly ‘mesh’ together, trapping moisture on top of the grass or soil. The ‘mat’ prevents sunlight reaching the plants and unfortunately creates the perfect environment for both garden pests and plant disease.

In case you are tempted to have someone come around with a leaf blower, maybe take the advice of one gardener who likes to mow her fallen leaves into a fine mulch then collects them. Without even beginning to mention the appalling noise the blowers make, she points out leaf blowing is essentially throwing money down the drain. Fallen leaves can easily be collected and composted, producing organic compost containing excellent nutrients for plants. This is the ultimate in organic gardening - it is exactly what happens ‘in the wild’. Over here in the UK, you can make the task even easier by using a biodegradable leaf sack. These are jute sacks which let you (or your young helper) pop all the fallen leaves inside, then sling them in a corner and literally forget about the whole thing until spring. When the winter recedes, you’ll have your perfect supply of compost for all your gardening needs. The bag itself gently breaks down, leaving you with no polluting plastic to contend with, only your new fresh rich compost.

The joy of a domestic fireplace

2010-10-07T01:23:00.000-07:00

Did you know that over a quarter of a century ago some 20% of American homes were thought to be burning wood for heating? A 1984 article in Time magazine highlighted some of the drawbacks of what sounds like a potentially green heating strategy. Back in 1984, there were potentially hazardous particulates in the air, and apparently on a day to day level these caused common colds, sore throats and burning eyes.

Fast forward to today when we now know that poorly functioning wood burning stoves are a major health and environmental hazard worldwide. In response, The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves involves the United Nations Foundation and various American state agencies. It aims to put 100 million cheap-to-buy, cleaner burning and energy efficient cooking stoves into homes worldwide in the next ten years.

However, this doesn't mean domestic fires, AGAs or other wood burning stoves should be abandoned - they can be still be green and save you serious money towards Christmas! As the weather starts to turn colder, simply give them a green make over. Use clean burning Eco Firelogs made from recycled cardboard and install a wood burning stove fan to get more heat from burning your natural fuels. You can also literally turn your daily household rubbish into money by recycling it into fuel. Use simple briquette bands and paper log makers to turn it all into safe, free heating fuel.

Use Eco Laundry Aids

2010-09-29T07:17:00.000-07:00

Did you know that DEFRA (the Department for the Environment and Rural Affairs) were proposing to phase out non-organic phosphates by 2015? Non-organic phosphates are chemicals found in many household cleaning products. The trouble comes when they’re introduced into the water cycle by leaving our homes in our dirty water via normal household waste pipes. Excessive amounts in the water cycle leads to overgrowth of algae and other aquatic plant life - often in water far away from our own home. This in turn will of course have an effect on the ‘food chain’ in the water concerned - and other agencies are concerned it may even affect our own food intake.

The American Environmental Working Group were warning about evidence of widespread levels of chemicals from cleaning products in the water cycle as long ago as 2007. They pointed to modern studies which found some of the chemicals from cleaning products harm wetland and marine wildlife. Triclosan was highlighted as one chemical which causes disruption to the thyroid gland in frogs. Worryingly, it was also pointed out that there are great similarities in the ways both human and frog human thyroid glands function. The article also pointed to disruptions to the breeding cycle of fish associated with certain levels of chemicals, which of course then enter the human food chain.

Clothes washing detergents and fabric softeners which include non-organic phosphates are easy to avoid. In fact, you don’t have to buy detergent at all. You can now do a quick and easy ‘green makeover’ on all your laundry and don’t worry, there’s no time consuming work to do. Eco Balls just go in the washing machine to safely remove dirt from clothes. Laundry airers save on expensive electricity used to run a tumble dryers and I really love the vintage look of Victorian style airers. When you need to dry things very fast, Dryer Balls save a lot of electricity and time. They go in with the clothing and cut down the average tumble drying time by 25%. They also save you using fabric softener and make the ironing easier. Overall, you’ll spend less money, use less energy and there’ll be no waste chemicals coming from your pipes.

Inspiring Changes

2010-09-22T02:15:00.000-07:00

The Independent ran an article recently which highlighted lots of inspiring examples of people making various little everyday changes to begin to live more sustainably. Sometimes the way the media reports news about the environment can seem overwhelmingly negative, but I’ve learned to treasure positive reporting! There are so many small changes we can all make to improve the situation, for me it’s always a case of ‘hope springs eternal’.

The Independent found people were collecting rain water in water butts, for re-use as ‘grey water’. ‘Grey water’ can be used anytime you need water but it doesn’t need to be ‘drinking quality’. For example, you could use it when you want water garden plants or give the patio a good scrub.

There was also news that 38% of our rubbish is collected for recycling and that the EU target is to achieve a rate of 50% by 2020.

I was also delighted to read that people were also aware of both food miles and carbon emissions from farming. On this point, choosing to grow your own vegetables, herbs and fruits can help. And there are now superb products that will allow you to grow organic produce even in city spaces without a garden of your own.

Finally, it was really encouraging to read that more people have realised the win-win benefits of converting waste into energy. This is one of my favourite green ideas. You take your worthless rubbish, use it as a fuel and make savings on your fuel bills. It costs you nothing and doesn’t produce harmful environmentally harmful waste gases. You can do this using briquette bands for waste paper and newspaper. The little briquettes produced will burn for longer in your fireplace than simply ‘feeding it’ with paper. Or there’s always the Dry Paper Log Maker which works on the same principle. There’s no messing about soaking anything - its really very easy and quick to do.

I really was inspired by all the changes people were making in their everyday lives. It just goes to prove you really don’t have to be a big corporation in order to help the environment; we can all do it in our everyday lives.

September Gardening Tasks

2010-09-17T03:38:00.000-07:00

September is often a lovely time to get out in the garden; the light can take on a wonderful quality as the days cool down. For anyone with fruit trees, its time to get ready for the autumn harvest. The BBC is carrying a good feature on harvesting apples. They need to be picked before any frosts come, but not before they will gently ‘twist’ off the branches straight into your hand. Give them a clean, wrap them loosely in newspaper and store on an apple tray. Depending on the variety, they will then keep for weeks or even months.

My Greener Home has the perfect apple trays and drawers made from environmentally responsible sustainable pine. We stock different sizes from a single apple tray right through to a whole ten drawer Dorset-style wooden apple store. The nice thing about this range is whilst they’re properly designed for storage (with good air circulation between your apples), they also add a sublimely rustic touch to your garage or outhouses.

September is also the time to start planting your autumn vegetable garden - think delicious spinach, turnips, lettuce, cabbage and radishes and of course pumpkins. There’s an easy-to-follow guide to growing your own vegetables at My Greener Home, with links to the BBC gardening pages for good quality information about individual varieties of vegetables. And you can still grow your own healthy organic vegetables on a city patio or balcony. A growbag growhouse is an inexpensive way to create the perfect growing space. As a bonus, you also get aesthetic value from the lovely ‘tableau’ created as your veggies begin to grow, and all the ‘untidy bits’ (compost and your small tools) are neatly contained. For those with more garden space but wanting to keep costs down, there’s now the economy vegetable bed. Whilst the term ‘economy’ might conjure up the idea of ‘cheap quality’, these are in fact constructed from FSC certified timber and the entire manufacturing process is designed to extend the product life.

That’s all for now - I’m off to the garden…can’t wait for some home-made apple pie… Bye!

The present for the man who has everything

2010-09-10T05:46:00.000-07:00

Before I devoted myself to My Greener Home, I had several jobs in the City. Each job seemed to require more travel than the last. My final job as a Hedge Fund Manager had me on a plane much more often than I liked. So I think I can speak from experience when I say that a wind-up shaver is definitely a brilliant idea.

This is why: After a long flight, you touch down in a far off land, with a different time zone. You don't sleep because their night time is your day time. You finally doze off, half an hour before your wake up call. You fall out of bed and try to wet shave. You cut your self and probably don't notice until it has indelibly marked your newly ironed white shirt. Or you pull out your electric shaver and realise it needs charging. But the hotel has some bizarre electrical socket which feeds a voltage that is no good to you.

If I had only had a wind-up shaver all these problems would have been resolved. It doesn't matter what time, what country, what voltage or how bleary you feel, this shaver will give a good shave with no risks.

At My Greener Home, we have these on special for a while so if you are planning your Christmas presents early, and you don't know what to give the man who has everything, then this is the answer.

Saving Energy Works

2010-09-08T04:00:00.000-07:00

Fantastic news - we can and do all change the world every day. The Independent reported that Britain could slash its CO2 emissions by a third just by making simple everyday changes in our homes. The UK could easily make energy savings that would be the equivalent of us shutting down 10 large gas-fired power stations, saving a staggering 40 megatonnes of CO2 each year. I was struck by the enormity of scale with this particular story. More and more, evidence is emerging to say that the little changes we can make at home really do have an impact on the bigger picture.

The story came from new calculations by the Grantham Institute for Climate Change, which is based at the well respected Imperial College London. The figures appear to demonstrate the government has been too conservative in its energy saving estimations. Instead, it seems that encouraging everyday people like us to save electricity would produce a far greater reduction in emissions than has previously been discussed. The reason is that the Grantham Institute took into account that gas and coal fired power stations see a bigger drop in their CO2 emissions compared to wind or nuclear powered stations when people conserve electricity. So far, the UK is lagging behind the government’s emissions reduction target for 2010, so its time to take some action.

Dr Hawkes, the respected scientist behind the report, stated that if we were all "turning off all appliances at the mains when going to bed or on holiday .... installing 10 energy-efficient light bulbs .... and hanging out wet washing to dry rather than using tumble dryers ... we'd save about 40 megatonnes of CO2 a year". Three super simple ways to achieve such a staggering reduction - I’m totally inspired by this new research, because these are quick, easy steps all of us can take! First of all, we can all use a standby power saver to switch off all appliances when not in use - no need to try to remember. Next is energy efficient light bulbs. Thank goodness these days the technology has moved on and they are available in a wide variety of styles for use all around the home. Then, skipping the tumble dryer is a good excuse to add a little shabby chic charm with a clothes airer or rotary line.

Back to School

2010-09-07T07:10:00.000-07:00

It’s that time of year again, with all the parents getting ready for the children going back to school, and all the children asking exactly why the holidays really can’t just last forever. If your child is going back to school soon, ask their teachers whether the school has enrolled in the Eco-Schools Programme. Its the world's largest sustainable schools programme and runs internationally in 43 countries, including the UK.

The programme is totally free for the school to join and provides school staff with newsletters, information and an award programme promoting environmental protection. There are nine topics covered: Transport, Waste, Water, Litter, School Grounds, Healthy Living, Energy, Biodiversity and a Global Perspective. The school work links to the curriculum including Citizenship, Sustainable Development, Personal, Social & Health Education, Global Issues and the formal curriculum areas of Science, Geography & History, Maths & ICT, PE, Drama, English & Modern Languages and Design & Technology.

On the subject of the great September Back To School period, there are some great books to help engage and teach children about the natural world and protecting the environment. I love the results produced by the Eden Project in collaboration with children’s author Kate Petty. The Eden Project is an educational charity providing children/young people with resources and information about our dependence on the natural world, to foster a sense of environmental responsibility. Kate’s Earthly Treasure uses interactive pop-ups and pull tabs all the way through to teach 7-9 year olds all about the earth’s minerals, fuels and rocks.

Another gem is George Saves The World By Lunchtime, written by Dr Jo Readman, from the Eden Project’s education services. George tries to learn how to save the world in one day with the help of his grandfather, but can he do it? It’s beautifully illustrated, matching up perfectly with the values behind the Eco-Schools project - how to go through life in a ‘waste neutral’ way, by re-using, recycling and repairing.

For those going back to school on a bicycle or just tearing about the park on a bike after school, high visibility Pedalites will fit bikes from a 9 year olds size to adult sizes. Pedalites give 360 visibility, including a flashing light. They use pedal-power to supply the lights and fit to the bike like regular pedals, so your kids never forget their bike lights again. Coming into Autumn, a furry friend hot water bottle like the Arctic Pocket Pal makes a lovely present to carry on the energy-saving theme. And best of all, a percentage of profits from every one sold goes to help disadvantaged school children around the world to receive education, housing and other much needed support.

Photo credit: Cienpies Design.

Join the solar planet

2010-08-25T06:36:00.000-07:00

The world’s largest solar powered boat was launched in February this year and is already set for a round-the-world trip next year. The boat is a huge catamaran measuring 35 by 23 metres, called the Planet Solar and its massive deck houses 500 square metres of solar panels. The Planet Solar can hold up to fifty people and will be sailing from Europe across the Atlantic Ocean, on through the Panama Canal, then across the Pacific to the Indian Ocean. Next, it will sail into the Mediterranean Ocean via the Suez Canal and on the way stop in New York, San Francisco, Darwin, Hong Kong, Singapore and Marseille.

It’s such an inspirational story, and I’ve definitely got my dreaming head on… although I may not have a 35 by 23 metre state of the art ocean-going catamaran, solar panels work wonders with more ‘everyday’ boats and caravans. Solar panels power everything from your lights to your water pump plus appliances like your TV, laptop, digital camera, MP3 player and so on. Combine it with a power inverter and you can use solar energy to power 240v ac appliances.

For me, one of the key things about solar power on a boat or caravan is it liberates both caravans and boats to do what they’re expressly designed to do. Namely allow you to explore the great outdoors.

Otherwise, it can be one constant round of planning the next connection time for your electricity on board. You are liberated from constantly having to think where the next mooring or campsite is to in order connect your electricity. Instead you can do whatever you want wherever you want. You can send the photo you just took of lunch by email to ten dozen of your closest friends right after you took it and then fill them in on how beautiful the lake looks today. Well worth the investment and seriously reduces your carbon footprint throughout your holiday. Its a win-win situation helping to protect the very environment you’ve expressly travelled to take part in!

Recycle more

2010-08-18T06:46:00.000-07:00

The Independent revealed news a while back of an amazingly large floating ‘soup’ of rubbish swirling about around 500 miles off the coast of California. This certainly isn’t perhaps what you’d first associate with California; certainly I’d be thinking more of progressive smoking bans and joggers with glowing suntans! The ‘soup’ of plastic debris extends right across the northern Pacific Ocean, goes past Hawaii and almost stretches to Japan!

It’s been dubbed the “Great Pacific Garbage patch” and is apparently estimated to contain approximately 100 million tonnes of rubbish. Four fifths of it comes from the land. I keep thinking about it every time I place a plastic bottle into my recycling bin. The Independent also reported that scientists believe the plastic breaks down in the ocean, releasing harmful chemicals. The amazing thing for me is that it is so easy to recycle plastics now that none of it should ever end up in the sea.

I use a neat galvanised recycling bin because I love the way it looks. Most councils recycle plastic bottles, some recycle plastic items such as margarine tubs and so on. Many supermarkets will take old carrier bags for recycling and thankfully now, they seem to be finally using biodegradable plastics more for the odd times when I’ve not got my own bag with me. If you want to use a stackable bin, then a 40 litre Urba recycling bin should be ideal. If your household generates a larger amount of recycling, you really should think about a Trashbasher. This is a simply ingenious gadget that can compress your recycling down within a recycling wheelie bin. It squashes it down (without you having to huff and puff) so you can fit more in without having to resort to unsightly ‘overflow’ strategies! If you pick a recycling bin you like, it’s easier to get into the habit of using it regularly and there’s a wide choice these days for both aesthetics and functionality. If we all try to recycle more, we can hopefully do something towards stopping that dreadful ‘plastic soup’ from spreading even further over the oceans.

August Gardening Tasks

2010-08-09T06:45:00.000-07:00

August is the month when most people start to pay attention to the state of dehydration of the plants in their garden, and of course, the lawn. The particularly hot summer we had to begin with means that most people will find they have at least one or two plants in need of some TLC right now, with pictures of the browning grass in London’s Royal Parks in the newspapers recently.

The Guardian’s expert gardener Dan Pearson gives some excellent tips for watering the lawn at this time. I agree with Dan that watering the lawn simply wastes water; the grass can’t repair itself when its dried but will spring back once it receives a decent spell of rain. Watering vegetables and plants is a different kettle of fish though. I use water collected in a water butt and like Dan, pay particular attention to my vegetables. I do agree with his advice to keep my tomatoes well watered and I’m careful not to over-water – regular, measured feeding seems to work best.

Another way to use water in the garden without adding to your carbon footprint is using a Water Two Grey Water Recycling Valve. This is a valve for the bathroom pipes that recycles bath and shower water for use in the garden or washing the car or the patio, etc. So I’ve got plenty of water for my watering can without using tap water, which would have to be mechanically pumped to my house, needlessly using up more energy. I’m also following Dan’s advice to keep my organic spinach and parsley perky, and using plenty of saucers of grey water underneath the pot plants. All in all, the garden’s looking good despite the heat.

I’m hoping that more people are prompted by the hotter weather to start using grey water this year. Who knows, if enough people join in it could be a way to end the hosepipe bans that many gardeners seem to dread!

The 2050 Energy Calculator tool

2010-07-30T02:10:00.000-07:00

"We need a transformation of the UK economy to ensure secure low carbon energy supplies to 2050. We are committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the UK by at least 80% by 2050, relative to 1990 levels. " So starts the introduction to the Department of Energy and Climate Change 2050 Pathway Analysis.

Firstly I have to say I did not realise that our 80% reduction target was based on 1990 levels. Consider how much energy consumption in the UK must have risen in the last 20 years. We have to get back to the 1990 level before we even begin our 80% cut.

The Government has created this fascinating energy pathway calculator which shows in simple, visual graph form how our emission levels will change based upon a wide range of assumptions. Have a play and see how for example loft insulation changes our future energy consumption.

Tip. If you hover your mouse over parts of the graph you can see the elements of its composition.

2010-07-29T07:07:00.001-07:00

There’s never been a better time focus on your carbon footprint. News out this week demonstrates that making your home ‘greener’ really is worthwhile. The Guardian has just reported that worldwide, the temperatures in the first half of 2010 were the hottest on record so far and that new evidence vindicates the scientists who say that global warming is already happening.

There is some partially good news emerging as well. The 4ecotips website is devoted to reducing climate change and it recently reported that the hole in the ozone layer is actually healing. However, as the ozone layer recovers, wind patterns distorted by climate change could encourage ozone to head closer towards the earth’s surface. This means it would then heavily contribute to smog.

If all that sounds like sad news, for me, the most important thing is to celebrate the ways in which you can play a vital and active role in combating climate change. The great thing about it all is that the science has evolved to the point where it’s possible to know exactly which actions are going to help the environment. Reducing your home’s carbon emissions is certainly on the list and it’s really easy to do. You can reduce your ‘carbon footprint’ by using an energy meter to measure your footprint and identify where you could save energy. Understanding precisely how you use energy in the home can be the key to making effective energy and cash savings.

Another way to do it is use home heating controls. The principle is simple – why waste money and fuel heating rooms inappropriately? It would be far too time consuming to individually set all your home's thermostatic or manual radiator valves every time you went to bed, got up in the morning, went out to work and so on. But these nifty gadgets will do it all for you automatically, saving you again both fuel and money.

So if you were thinking about taking some green steps, be inspired not depressed by the news – you will make a real difference and now is absolutely the right time to start.

2010-07-26T06:10:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite magazines, the Ethical Consumer reports that MEPs recently voted against compulsory labeling for food produced from animals who have been fed genetically modified foodstuffs. Incredibly, the lack of legal protection for consumer’s rights on this issue appears set to continue. Greenpeace are clear in their view that genetically modified (GM) crops are grown to be resistant to all but just one herbicide – the one that the company producing the strains of crops also sells. They also state unequivocally that GM crops threaten biodiversity and frequently contaminate non-GM crops, meaning we all end up eating them whether we like it or not.

One way out of the cycle is to simply grow your own vegetables, and from experience, it needn’t be difficult, even for newer gardeners. If you don’t have a garden, there are still some viable options for you to grow your own food. The Square Foot Garden is an ingenious little self-contained unit, where you can grow different varieties of veg in each ‘compartment’, which measures just a square foot. You might also want to investigate Vegetables Boxes, or Grow-bags for smaller balconies and patios. Both can also make an attractive feature, as you can put the grow-bags into a nice wooden tray to keep everything tidy. If you have a more space to play with, you can install vegetable beds and coldframes to get you started. My top tip is that any raised vegetable bed is going to be easier to maintain than a ground level one – there’s less bending down to contend with.

Another advantage of growing your own vegetables is the option to keep everything organic. You can be in complete control, without having to pay higher prices for the organic offerings at the local supermarket. You also avoid all the packaging, which is often sadly not biodegradable or readily recyclable.

Water drought

2010-07-08T01:44:00.001-07:00

The summer is turning out to be beautifully warm following the washouts of the last few years but in its own way, this gorgeous weather is bringing home a growing problem with water supplies. If you were peeking out from under your umbrella in the height of 'summer' over recent years, you could have been forgiven for wondering why it is so important to conserve water in our seemingly rain-soaked land. Despite the UK's legendary capacity for the skies to open at inopportune moments, saving water is an issue we all need to be aware of.

There was an alarming story in the news this week about a water company in North West England hit by drought. The Independent reported that United Utilities in the North West of England had asked for permission to tap rivers and lakes in order to top up dwindling supplies in the regions driest year since 1929. More alarmingly, The Environment Agency was reported to predict that by the year 2050, many rivers could see their average summer flows cut by a massive 50 to 80%.

This means the water that we take for granted in our everyday lives is going to become more and more precious as the years roll by. Saving water can not only help the levels in the designated reservoirs, leaving rivers untapped, but also save the amount of electricity required to clean it then pump it to our homes in the first place.

One easy way to save water is to use a water butt in the garden, or on your patio, or even a mini butt on a city balcony. The rainwater collected can be used for 'grey water' household tasks - keeping the garden watered, washing the car, washing down the decking - anything, in fact, that isn't for direct human consumption. Water butts come in many shapes and sizes and simply harness the rain, and help to ease the strain on the local water system.

The simplicity of Rocket Gardens

2010-07-06T06:21:00.000-07:00

As the summer casts its hazy glow over the garden, it’s definitely time to install my Rocket Garden on the patio. If you haven't come across them before, Rockets Gardens are organic herb gardens full of tasty herbs which are perfect for using in your cooking. One of the great things about Rocket Gardens is they are a very practical solution for people who simply aren't experienced gardeners - and you can grow them even if you don't actually have a garden. Especially for people living in the city, this is a real plus - they will still thrive in a window box or balcony.

Fresh herbs are a wonderful way to bring a real touch of luxury to simple recipes, I just love being able to snip off some fresh basil and stir it into tomato soup (made by my better half). A typical Rocket Garden might contain such goodies as good old basil plus mint, sage, thyme, parsley, chives, oregano, marjoram, Vietnamese coriander, tarragon and lavender. And if you haven’t made organic carrot and coriander soup, you’re missing out. The BBC has a superb recipe that you can whip up in under half an hour. If its one of the gloriously hot days we’ve been enjoying lately, you can always serve it chilled and use the mint to go with your sorbet dessert.

Best of all, the herbs are all organically grown in Cornwall, and by using herbs from your own supply, you use zero ‘food miles’ to bring those herbs to the table. Practical Action estimate that food in the UK travels 30 billion kilometres each year and in doing so adds an enormous 19 million tonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere. Imported food using air and boat travel inevitably contributes to this a great deal, as do car journeys to and from the supermarket. So I’ll be making the ten step journey from the back door to the Rocket Garden and snipping my own herbs off to use in my kitchen instead.

Recycled plastic at its best

2010-06-17T05:59:00.000-07:00

Thankfully this year, we're moving towards the balmy days of July without too much rain, so most of us are breathing a sigh of relief that pottering around the garden isn't going to involve a sou’wester. The BBC's Weather Forecast predicts a generally bright summer, with some spells of rain, but generally the outlook is good.

I've been turning my attention to the greenhouse and now I've booted the tortoise out, I'm going to get in there to re-house my plants on greenhouse staging made from recycled plastic. Unlike wood, plastic won’t rot or otherwise degrade - if its going to be a warm summer it'll get pretty humid in there. I’m also looking forward to making sure I’m not accidentally providing a lovely warm, wet wooden home for garden pests looking to tuck into my succulent tomatoes and salad veg. Apart from it all being less likely to simply fall apart, it’s also very satisfying to be able to find a practical use for recycled plastic.

Plastic in the environment is definitely one of my bug-bears. Waste Watch estimate plastic bags make up 57% of all litter strewn around our beaches and only 7% of plastic waste is actually recycled. Globally speaking, up to 8% of oil consumption goes into plastic manufacturing processes. Waste Watch cite a study showing that as much as 1.8 tonnes of oil is saved each time a tonne of recycled polythene is produced. Plastic makes up 7% of UK household rubbish and most plastics don't readily bio-degrade - they simply occupy more and more space year after year in our landfill sites. If that sounds alarming, its also worrying that Waste Watch estimate plastic use is currently rising by about 4% a year in Western Europe.

So you can understand why my recycled greenhouse staging was quite a find for me. It is a way to get a longer product shelf-life (excuse the pun) for my staging, protect my plants from any impromptu insect picnics and contribute to the plastics recycling industry. The idea that plastic is good just needs a little getting your head around initially.

Water Energy Calculator on the Energy Saving Trust Website

2010-06-17T05:01:00.001-07:00

There is a great new website application over at the Energy Saving Trust that works out how much water your home uses, and how much it costs you. It only takes a minute, and the default answers are sensible if you don't know.

Having a house, garden, children and a wife that enjoys bath, the numbers it returned for me were eye-watering. It's time to review the range of water saving products on My Greener Home.

NHER Scheme Misses Targets - Here's How To Hit Them

2010-06-11T08:13:00.000-07:00

According to the National Home Energy Rating (NHER) Scheme report by the National Energy Foundation, if every home assessed followed the basic recommended actions from it's Energy Performance Certificates (EPC), it would emit 1.2 tonnes less CO2, save £182 a year on fuel bills and represent a 22% cut in emissions. Common recommendations include simple tasks like fitting loft and cavity wall insulation but by far the biggest savings are to be had by improving home heating systems (recommended in over two thirds of all homes). If landlords and homeowners followed further advice contained in each home's EPC, the savings would be almost 50%.

Encouragingly, more than two-thirds of home buyers surveyed by National Energy Foundation had started to make energy saving home improvements; 33% of those who'd read their EPC had starting acting on the recommendations; and another 9% more were planning to soon.

But - and it’s a big but - the 22% cut in emissions proposed here wouldn't meet the Government target for 2020 of 34% less CO2 emissions than in 1990 - and certainly not the next target for 2050 - a wonderful 80% reduction. So here are just 3 ideas to take us forward with more chance of making those desperately needed cuts in emissions:

• The Energy Saving Trust should be protected from cuts in the current economic climate;

• Restrictions on listed buildings can mean they cannot be made more energy efficient - these should be lifted to allow them to stop needlessly wasting energy;

• And children should be taught the importance of saving energy and the exact steps Mum and Dad can take to make the home more energy efficient at school as early as possible! Not only does this raise the next generation with energy saving as the norm, it brings a bit of much-needed pester-power to help speed those DIY jobs along...

What are your suggestions?

Keeping our own chickens

2010-05-25T03:50:00.000-07:00

Important news from my Suffolk HQ – yes, we’re moving ahead with our plans to keep our own chickens. I’ve already started stocking some poultry coops and some rather stylish chicken houses through My Greener Home and we know just where to find our new feathered friends – down at the British Hen Welfare Trust.

The BHWT does a super job of rehousing chickens (just shy of 200,000 so far). It is a charity so any donations to them would be gratefully received. Please do consider keeping your own poultry. Chickens make wonderful family pets and with a little research, are straight forward to care for properly.

Having been brought up around home-raised chickens, I know we’re going to able to meet the challenge. Its the thought of waking up to delicious free range eggs and our happy chickens clucking about…The Compassion in World Farming Campaign reported by April 2010 a fantastic 53% of all eggs bought in the UK were from hens who aren’t living in the battery farming cages that the remainder of their less lucky cousins are cooped up in. So the prospect of great tasting breakfast eggs and providing a caring lifestyle for a ‘chicken in need’ is too just too much to resist.

Another little known fact is chickens are in fact, keen and excellent gardeners – providing they’re given a little, shall we say, guidance? You get a free supply of organic compost, you get many garden pests gobbled up, and if you make sure your chicken coops and runs are secure, your garden shouldn't get mauled.

One challenge we do need some help with is the all-important question of names. Our chickens should be released into their new haven with a really decent name to give them a good start in life. If you know a good solid name for a chicken, do let me know using the comments box.

Enjoy the warm weather....
Edwin

The simplest ideas are the best

2010-05-19T06:31:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it really is true that the simplest ideas are the best. I recently installed a Househeat Window sensor on our bedroom window and now I watch the results with great satisfaction.

The problem is that my wife likes warmth and needs the bedroom to be toasty at night. She is also a Nightingale nurse* and probably because of this, has an overpowering desire to fling the windows open to air the bedroom in the morning. This is fine, but she is always too busy with children in the morning to turn off the radiator.

Cue the strangely shaped object in the picture. This four inch long device sits on the sash window frame and detects when the window is opened. It communicates this via a wireless signal to the HouseHeat room thermostat, which in turn promptly tells the motorised valve on the central heating radiator to turn off.

When the window is closed, the window sensor tells the room thermostat. In turn the room thermostat checks to see what temperature the room should be at, and communicates that to the radiator valve motor. All is once again well with the world.

It is such a simple system and it works so well. With oil and gas prices rising fast this HouseHeat window/door sensor will pay for itself in no time.

Sorry for the delay in posting - back to normal now.
Edwin

*Interestingly, while Florence Nightingale did set up the nursing school at St Thomas' hospital in London, she refused to work there because of its proximity to the foul smelling river Thames.

Is that a draught?

2010-03-01T04:29:00.000-08:00

In my last blog, I think I tempted fate. I was a little optimistic about the cold weather starting to ease. Anyway, enough moaning, and at least the ongoing gloom and chill has got me thinking about double glazing.

Don't worry, I'm not planning a change of tack for My Greener Home. Instead, I would like to highlight the thorny issue of windows in listed buildings. As part of our move out of London to the country, we recently bought a house that is listed. It is fairly large and very draughty. With the recent low temperatures we have had a trial by fire (or snow) in our first few weeks of living there. Probably in common with many people, our last heating bill was very high. So why is it that we have been refused permission to fit double glazing? This is because it is nigh on impossible to get a planning department to give you permission to fit double glazing in any listed building.

In the past, I've spoken to quite a few people who've had the same problem, so I thought I would share a few numbers with you on the subject. In total, there are 419,505 listed buildings in the UK; 372,905 in England and Wales, 46,600 in Scotland. Of these, 38% are domestic dwellings – and all are subject to rules that are now more than 20 years old.

Since then, technology has moved on quite a lot. There are plenty of new window products that allow double glazing to look like a multi-paned sash window, but it can still be a massive battle to get these accepted.

Now, as far as I'm aware, this is partly a Government issue and partly a local authority issue, and, unsurprisingly, some are more co-operative than others. But at a time when the government is trying to meet targets on CO2, it would make sense for a slightly more sensible approach. Of course, I'm all for protecting our heritage, but it's about time it was realised that these regulations aren't really helping anybody.

Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes

2010-02-11T11:33:00.000-08:00

Time has a way of slipping away, doesn't it? Sorry it's been so long, but now feels like the right time to be getting back on top of the blog as the winter gloom starts to lift. However, the period where February drifts into March is also one of the most satisfying for any gardener. The cold snap is (hopefully) nearly over, and as the days slowly get longer it becomes time to get down to some serious planting.

Of course, it's great to be sowing the first rows of carrots, beetroot and lettuces outside, but my absolute favourite job has to be laying down the first tomato seeds in the heated greenhouse. I'm not just saying that because this has been the coldest winter for 30 years, but there's something about this task that says that spring is well and truly on its way.

This year, I've gone solely for heritage seeds, both for flavour and and the sense of history. It's really rewarding to know that in some small way I'm preserving plants that don't quite slot into the world of commercial agriculture. I've plumped for the Orange Banana and Rose de Berne varieties so far, but there are still a few weeks left for me to cram some more types in.

Both of these are available from The Real Seed Catalogue, which I've sung the praises of in the past. I definitely think it's worth giving them another plug - they are a not-for-profit company that stocks varieties well-suited for seed saving, so with a tiny bit of effort, you can keep up a ready supply year after year.

Have a great weekend, Edwin

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T01:42:00.001-08:00

This is my last chance to post before the holidays begin, so I thought I'd write to wish you all both a Merry Christmas and to thank you for your support of My Greener Home over the past year. It's been an outstanding twelve months, and that is down to everybody involved with the business – our fantastic team, suppliers and, above all, customers. All of you have contributed to making the site what it is today, and I'm really looking forward to carrying this momentum over into 2010.

I'm still catching up with last of the pre-Christmas rush, so this is really my first chance to step back and take stock over everything that has being going on. We've upped sticks from London to Suffolk, redesigned the site and been featured throughout the media, including The Independent and Daily Mail. We've also had some great feedback from the readers of this blog, much of which we'll be looking to implement in the coming months.

Talking of the New Year, we've got lots of great stuff planned, including the relaunch of My Greener School, some new interactive tools and masses of fantastic new products.

Until then, enjoy the holidays. I'll speak to you soon, when we'll hopefully all be relaxed, refreshed and, possibly, recovered from the snow!

Edwin

Tips for frost-proofing your garden

2009-12-17T23:43:00.000-08:00

It might seem strange, but December has to be one of my favourite months for gardening. Yes, it's cold, but it's also a good chance to catch up on things you haven't time to do throughout the year. For example, this week I've patched up the walls of my raised vegetable beds. Now that they're taking a bit of a rest for the winter, I've been able to get stuck in without damaging anything too seriously.

Of course, there's a few things that need taking care of to make sure all the hard work isn't completely undermined by this cold snap. I thought I'd share my frost-proofing routine in case anybody finds it useful - and it would be great to hear your suggestions too.

So, here's what I've been up to this week to keep the frost at bay:

Tidied the borders, trimming dead foliage and cutting back overgrown plants
Mulched evergreen plants to keep the soil frost-free, and stop them from becoming dehydrated
Lightly dug over any bare areas of ground to keep the soil moving
Plants in pots or containers are more susceptible to frost damage than those in the borders, so I insulated them wherever possible, and moved my more sensitive plants inside
Anything that looked like it could do with it got a wrapping of horticultural fleece
Emptied water butts so the water doesn't expand when it freezes, damaging the water butt

It's not frost related, but most of my Christmas decorations are from the garden this year. Seed heads, holly, ivy, sprigs of bay, I've really gone to town. It looks great though, as well as being very economical!

Have a great Christmas,

Edwin

A fresh start for My Greener School

2009-12-08T06:38:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's been so long. This time of year is always quite hectic, and it's not helped by all the new projects we've got on the go at the moment. In fact, I thought I'd use this blog to ask for some advice on one of them – we're looking at redeveloping My Greener Home's sister site, My Greener School and any suggestions or ideas you have would be much appreciated.

MGS is a lot like My Greener Home, but is aimed towards schools, universities and other education or public sector organisations. At the moment, the layout is not ideal, but what we really want to do is make it a useful resource instead of just an e-commerce site – somewhere that facilities managers and teachers can go for information on how they can achieve a greener, healthier place of learning.

So far, here's what we'd like to include:

going green guides
environmental auditing tools
funding resources
lesson plans

If you can think of anything you'd like added to list, or if you have any ideas at all regarding the site, drop us an email on ideas [at] mygreenerschool.co.uk. We'd really love to hear from teachers in particular, especially those with experience of applying for some form of green accreditation such as Eco-Schools status.

Thanks, and have a great week!

Edwin

Google announce PowerMeter

2009-10-30T02:45:00.000-07:00

Google have just announced their new PowerMeter application – a free tool for monitoring energy usage in the home. As you can probably tell from my post about Bye Bye Standby last week, I love technology like this, and I'm looking forward to giving it a go. Interestingly too, it's been developed by Google's philanthropic arm that is working on a number of green projects.

Unfortunately though it needs to be used with a device that plugs in to your energy meter. So far, there's just one product – the AlertMe Energy – that works with PowerMeter, but we're looking to get that in stock as soon as possible. Also, from next month those in the East Midlands and Midlands will be able to get access to PowerMeter by signing up with first:utility, an energy provider that offers smart metering services.

This news, together with getting the Bye Bye Standby system, has sent me on a bit of a monitoring spree. Here's a few of the things I've found:

* iMeasure – a free tool that works off your meter readings, so you don't need any new equipment. It's not perfect, but it's a good starting point

* One for the brave - 'aside from being electrocuted, incorrect wiring can burn your house down'!

* Edison – PC only, but quite good

Have a great weekend! Edwin

Bye Bye Standby at My Greener Home

2009-10-27T07:58:00.000-07:00

Hi again. I thought I'd let you know that we are once again stocking the full range of Bye Bye Standby products, which allow you to control mains appliances by remote control. I've been trying them out for the past week or so, and I have to say I'm really impressed.

My favourite, and the one I'm having the most fun with, is the Bye Bye Standby Online Energy Controller, which lets you control your appliances online instead of by remote control. The online interface works well on my mobile, so I've been playing a series of practical jokes on my unsuspecting family – turning off the TV as I'm walking up the drive, turning off lamps when my wife walks past, that kind of thing.

Great fun, but of course, there are energy saving benefits too.

Resources for DIY carbon auditing

2009-10-15T01:10:00.000-07:00

Hi again. I was having a conversation with a friend recently about the new Carbon Reduction Commitment, which begins next April.

For larger companies, there are options of various consultancies and organisations, but for smaller firms it doesn't always seem that viable to bring in outside help. With that in mind, I've been trawling the web for tools and resources to help and here is what I've come up with so far:

Clear have a pretty good carbon auditing tool available for download on their website
Carbon Neutral have a similar tool online, but it's a bit less detailed than Clear's
This page has a PDF which outlines the methodology used in a carbon audit of Prince Charles. It makes good background reading.
3CarbonElements are putting together an online library of carbon management articles. It can be quite academic, but there's some interesting stuff in there.
The National Energy Foundation have this Simple carbon calculator, which does exactly what it says on the tin
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol is good reading for those interested in one of the few widely used standards in the field
Cplan have a free auditing tool designed for those working in farming and agriculture
Here's a carbon footprint calculator for businesses from the Carbon Trust
Pretty much useless, but quite good fun is this survey by the National Geographic channel (in case you are wondering, I scored 10!)

I'd like to keep adding to this list, so if you have any suggestions please feel free to send them over. Let's see if we can build it up into the biggest resource for DIY carbon auditing tools on the web!

The Greenest County

2009-10-02T04:50:00.001-07:00

Hello again. One thing that I forgot to mention last week – which is surprising, seeing as it is what originally got me thinking about our local green businesses – is the Greenest County initiative.

So, somewhat belatedly, here's what it is all about. Greenest County is a Suffolk-wide project with the aim of promoting global environmental issues, increasing business involvement and maintaining the region's wonderful biodiversity and landscape.

For the past three years, Greenest County has run awards ceremonies for communities, businesses and schools, set up an environmental engagement program for local companies and put together a think tank to advise the local council.

Getting My Greener Home more involved with the local community is something that I've been meaning to work on for a little while now. Working in e-commerce can leave you a little bit isolated, and now things are a bit more settled after the first half of the move it feels right to spend some time on a project like this.

It would be great to hear from anybody that has been working with Greenest County to hear their thoughts, as well as information on any other schemes you've heard of. Also, are there similar projects running in your county? If so, what can you tell me about them?

Questions, questions, questions..

Have a great week!

Edwin

Singing the praises of Suffolk

2009-09-21T04:26:00.000-07:00

As some of you may know, my family and I upped sticks and moved to Suffolk recently. I've always loved this part of the world, but one of the things that has struck me since I arrived is both the quality and quantity of the local people and businesses that are working in ways that benefit the environment.

This is something that I'd like to focus on in more detail over the coming weeks, but one person who I think demonstrates the great mix of local knowledge and skills here is the fantastically named Paula Sunshine.

Paula was featured by the BBC last month working on a wattle and daub extension for her rather wonderful 500-year old home in Suffolk, and managed to grab the presenter's attention by using human hair as a rather unique – and eco-friendly – ingredient.

Her site is a great starting point for those interested in traditional building methods and repair, and makes a solid case against the modern-style renovations that have been all the rage for some time, as well as offering some interesting looking training courses.

If you all think it's a good idea, I'll try and add more local businesses and sites to the blog from now on – maybe I can get it going as a useful resource for green enterprise in Suffolk. Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Edwin

The Great Skills Drop

2009-09-15T11:07:00.000-07:00

A link to this article from the Soil Association landed in my inbox this morning. It's coincided with my own minor crisis of confidence (a particularly hard to assemble piece of garden equipment, if you were wondering), so I thought I'd give it a bit more attention here.

According to the SA, 45% of us think we have fewer cooking skills than our grandparent’s generation, 47% say they are less able to grow their own food, while 48% have lost the rural craft skills that make self sufficiency possible and 51% say they would have no idea how to rear animals.

It's the the fewer cooking skills bit that stands out for me. Yes, we're supposed to be a nation of food lovers, but it seems like we still need people like Niger Slater to tell that we don't need to follow recipes to the letter, while Delia's How to Cheat at Cooking may have kicked up a bit of stink but has been selling by the trolley-load.

And, it follows, that if we know less about how to cook, we know less about ingredients – how they taste, how they look, how they grow. I'd like to point out now that this is my own pretty arbitrary theory, but I think there might be something in it. The same goes with rearing animals – what is sold pre-cut and pre-packaged has so little resemblance to where it came from that it's no wonder some people are bit unsure what to do.

As a side note, I've deliberately not mentioned that a 'staggering 92%' think skills like this are more important because of the recession. They've always been important and always will be, no matter what part of the boom and bust cycle we're in.

Edwin

Love this, ban that – where to start?

2009-09-02T12:37:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan of Ethical Consumer and I thought this article, in which it asked a host of green authority figures their best and worst ethical products of the past 20 years, was a great way to celebrate its 20th birthday.

I'm by no means comparing myself to Peter Tatchell or the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, both of which were interviewed by the EC, but the feature has inspired me to ask myself the same question. After a fair bit of deliberation, here's what I came up with:

Favourite ethical consumer product:

This one was tough, mainly as I'm in the privileged position of being able to try out new products all the time with My Greener Home. That's why I've echoed Simon Hughes and gone for locally grown food – even aside from the benefits of cutting food miles and becoming more aware of seasonality, it just tastes better.

Product to ban:

Supermarkets. I know they've been around for a lot longer than 20 years, but I'm allowing myself a little leeway on this – especially as its only relatively recently that they've developed into the strip-lit behemoths that we see today. From putting local, sustainable stores out of business to the effect they've had on the quality of the food we eat, I think there's plenty of good enough reasons to have them removed from the face of the Earth forever. And besides, they're about as unpleasant a way to spend an hour or two as can be imagined.

So that's me, but what's your best and worst innovation? It'd be great to hear your thoughts – please feel free to send them over.

Take care

Edwin

A kick in the teeth for renewable energy producers

2009-08-24T07:03:00.001-07:00

A few months I ago, a wrote a blog looking at feed-in tariffs, the rate at which excess energy produced by renewable sources such as solar or wind power can be sold back to the national grid.

From next April, when the tariff is introduced, those that produce their own energy will be able to earn some extra cash while providing clean resources for the rest of the population. As I said back in March, as long as the rate is sustainable in the long term, it can only be a good thing.

But last week, I received an email from YouGen, a site that provides information on renewable energy services. Here's the gist of what it said:

“As you know, anyone who generates their own renewable electricity using wind, solar or hydro will be rewarded with a guaranteed rate of income for each kilowatt hour (kWh) they generate from next April, thanks to the feed-in tariff. That's great news.

You might not know that the tariff rates for existing microgenerators will be significantly lower than those offered to new generators. We think this is a kick in the teeth to renewable energy pioneers who took the risk and invested in a new and uncertain market.”

It's quite a difference too. Those with existing setups will receive a rate of 9p per kWh (kilowatt hours) of electricity generated, against 36.5p per kWh those who install between now and April 1st."

This is simply unfair. We should be going out of our way to reward these early adopters, because without them the scheme as a whole wouldn't have been possible. They've gone through the process to make it easier for everybody else, and to have their rewards cut because of it just doesn't seem on.

YouGen are planning to launch a campaign against this if they receive enough support. Drop them an email here or visit their blog to give them your backing – with a bit of luck, it could well make the difference.

Have a great week.

Edwin

A wake-up call

2009-08-17T04:18:00.000-07:00

There's been much talk over the past few days about Defra's assessment of food security in the UK. I have to say, I've found the report a real eye-opener. I've always thought things were getting out of hand, especially when it comes to importing food, but it's not until the figures are laid out in front of you that it starts to sink in. Here's a few of the numbers that caught my eye:

In 1993, UK farmers supplied 77% of UK vegetables. That number is currently around 50%
Self-sufficiency in indigenous food has fallen from 82% in 1998 to 73% in 2008
Between 1997 and 2008 land for vegetable production fell by a quarter

It doesn't paint a great picture, does it? I found the last point the most worrying, but at the very least, we know that the pattern isn't sustainable – in no time at all, we'd be wholly reliant on imported food.

The aim of this report, says Defra, is to stimulate a debate on what needs to be done. They've been much-maligned in the past, but here I think they're right – action needs to be taken, and soon.

The more sustainable, seasonal and local production is promoted the better, both commercially and in our back gardens. It's a simple solution, but will it get the backing it needs from the Government? I hope so.

Have a great week.

Edwin

Tesco going self-sufficient? What's the catch?

2009-07-31T05:54:00.000-07:00

So, Tesco seems to be turning to the good life with its plans to offer allotment spaces next to some of its Dobbies Garden Centre outlets, in addition to selling live chickens and egg-laying hens.

With the recession lumbering on, everyone's favourite retailer is hoping that it can capitalise on a rise in popularity of self-sufficiency as allotment waiting lists grow and seed sales rocket.

Fair enough, I thought when I first heard the news – the more people with access to growing land, the better. Yet with Tesco, there's always some kind of issue lurking in the background.

With impeccable timing, it has now emerged that the company want to tarmac over nine allotments in Hadleigh, Suffolk to grant access to one of its superstores.

Unsurprisingly, this has lead to accusations of hypocrisy. But a spokeswoman for allotment society NSALG went further, saying that it might have a another hidden agenda.

"Previous applications from Tesco have usually involved plans to develop allotment land,” she said. "Perhaps they are trying create a good impression against future destructive applications elsewhere."

Whether or not this true, Tesco's behaviour doesn't exactly fill me with confidence. Then again they don't need to – I try not to shop there whenever possible. And although a whole new audience might be introduced to sustainable living through these allotments, I'd still rather another company was behind it all.

Have a great weekend.

Edwin

A cherry of an idea

2009-07-21T06:47:00.000-07:00

Last week, I drove past this orchard in East Sussex, and its Rent-a-Tree scheme has got me thinking about perhaps my favourite fruit of them all – the cherry.

I love cherries. Probably more than any other fruit, they define the British summer – the spectacular flowering, deep scent and temperamental crop that disappears long before you've had enough.

That's how I can see why Cooks Yard Farm has gone down the rental route. For around £35 a year, each renter gets to picnic in the orchard while its in blossom, pick the harvest and receive regular e-mail updates on how their crop is doing.

It sounds like a good deal to me. Growing a cherry tree with any degree of success isn't easy and making the sure the crop is at its best is pretty labour intensive. There's the regular feeding, the bending of new growth and netting from birds, and there's the fact that the season lasts just six weeks.

For these reasons it seems, unfortunately, that orchards on the decline. The inevitably-named CherryAid campaign – set up by the rather wonderful Food Lovers Britain – has some quite worrying figures. According to them, in the last 50 years we’ve lost 90% of our cherry orchards and now import around 95% of the cherries we eat.

Hopefully, rental schemes like that at Cooks Yard Farm will make sure difficult to maintain fruits like the cherry remain accessible for everyone, and go some way to reversing their decline.

Have a great week.

Boxing clever

2009-07-20T04:02:00.000-07:00

Hello again. A new campaign caught my eye this week. According to the National Trust, there are some 600 acres of space for window boxes across the country – enough to produce tonnes of cheap, locally sourced and, above all, delicious food every year.

I have to say, I think its a great idea. I'm lucky enough now to have a garden, but I haven't always had that pleasure. As some of you may know, I worked in London for a number of years before starting My Greener Home, and lived in some places where green space was in pretty short supply.

After a while window boxes, containers and hanging baskets (great for strawberries!) became my garden substitute, with courgettes, potatoes and spinach mixing together with all the usual herbs. I even had a bash at an avocado once – it grew quite well but, unsurprisingly, never fruited!

So, if you're one of the five million that National Trust estimates that live in flats with no access to a garden or allotment, then I think this is a great way to make up for it.

If I have one bit of advice though, I think the real trick is getting the right seeds. There are plenty of good suppliers out there, and I'm a big fan of the Real Seed Catalogue in particular, not just because they supply some fantastic and easy to grow varieties, but they also give some really useful instructions on harvesting seeds from your crops for use the next year.

That's one of my favourite things about gardening – there can't be many more satisfying things than seeing the whole process through from beginning to end.

Have a great week!

Edwin

Recycling: batteries not included

2009-07-04T07:56:00.000-07:00

Another blog, another terrible headline. For that, I can only apologise, but it's emerged recently that we have a shocking record when it comes to recycling batteries in the UK.

New figures have listed Switzerland as the top battery collector at 65%, followed by Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and France. The UK comes in 15th place at 3% alongside Turkey, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

To be honest, I've been using rechargeables so long now I can't remember the last time I had to arrange to have a battery recycled, but I'm definitely in the minority – every year the equivalent of 110 jumbo jets’ weight in old batteries end up in UK landfills.

Whichever way you look at it, I'd say that's a pretty poor showing. Yet the survey revealed that nine out of 10 people would be willing to recycle them if a door-to-door collection scheme was available in their area – which is currently available to only seven percent of UK's population.

That makes Tony Pedrotti's statements last week seem a little bit odd. Last week in Parliament, the (deep breath!) Director of the Environmental and Technical Regulation Directorate at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said that making a 'culture change will be the biggest challenge'.

Now, I'm thinking that if nearly everybody, or at least nine out of 10, is willing to recycle batteries if it's made simple and convenient, surely that's the biggest part of the battle won? At the very least, the 'culture change' should be happening with our local councils – they're the ones that can make home collection possible throughout the country.

Of course in the long run, the best thing to do is to stop using batteries altogether. There's a host of alternatives here, none of which use batteries and hence do not need home collection, recycling or to gather uselessly in the back of a drawer.

Have a great week!

Edwin

Not in My Front Yard, says the Daily Mail.

2009-06-19T02:43:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, the Daily Mail devoted seven (seven!) pages to its new campaign to rid England of wheelie bins, describing them as a “bin explosion” blighting “our streets and gardens”.

Even accounting for the fact that I've yet to see any bins explode when I've been out walking, these histrionics have taken me a little bit by surprise. After all, how many people do you know who feel genuinely aggrieved by the country's 'bin bureaucrats'?

As much as it pains me to say it though, they do have a point. These bins are quite ugly, which is why our recycling box and wheelie bin stores are selling well.

There's no real alternative to the boxes themselves though – the council's designs keep out foxes and prevent the rubbish collectors handling potentially hazardous waste, something the Daily Mail has attributed to the 'dreaded health and safety'.

It's all reminded me of something. When I was at university, I lived with a chap whose parents had recently retired. He said that his Dad became obsessed with bread – he would drive miles everyday to find the perfect loaf, checking its crust methodically for the 'right level of burning.' He even built a wood-burning oven in the garden of their city terrace.

Instead of being worried by this little hobby, my friend took it that everything was well with his father. After all, he reasoned, if bread is the only thing he can think of worrying about, then all must be right in his world.

I have to say, this is how I feel about the Daily Mail's campaign. There may (or may not, depending which definition you choose) be a recession on, but if that's what's worrying them most, then I guess it's not all doom and gloom.

Have a great week.

Edwin

Won't somebody think of the chickens?

2009-06-15T08:34:00.000-07:00

Hello again. Chickens seems to be featuring quite highly in my life at moment, with My Greener Home having recently started selling poultry coops, and seeing this story in our local paper.

As the article says, a local animal rescue centre has received an influx of chickens dumped by owners who turned to the “Good Life” to beat the recession, without realising just how much work they can take to look after - something that is apparently happening more and more often.

Keeping chickens can seem quite labour-intensive at first, but it's really not that bad. If you're a first-timer though, there's a fair bit of information to take in to get the best out of them, and they can definitely feel a bit of a responsibility sometimes, especially if you want to get away for the weekend and can't find anybody to feed them.

As a child, my family kept chickens, so I was lucky enough to grow up with them around – although cleaning them out was never my favourite job!

I wrote a chicken keeping guide a little while ago that I've been meaning to mention, so this is a good a time as any. I'd love to hear from anybody that's found it useful, as well as any suggestions or tips that you'd like to add. There's always room for improvement!

Sorry about the slightly boring picture, by the way. Typing 'chick' into Google Image Search certainly throws up some interesting results, many of which I didn't think were appropriate to post here...

Have a great week!

World Environment Day 2009

2009-06-04T23:24:00.000-07:00

Hello, and happy World Environment Day! This year it's Mexico's turn to take hold of what's been a major event in the green calendar since 1972. This time it is with the (somewhat clunkily worded) theme of Your Planet Needs You - UNite to Combat Climate Change.

In case you've never heard of the UN-backed WED, it's one of those giant international expo-led events that seem to completely divide opinion. Some think of them as vital for promoting the understanding of important issues, some see them as gaudy, expensive and not a little ineffective.

"On this World Environment Day, I encourage all people to take concrete steps toward making the planet greener and cleaner," said the UN's Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, getting into the swing of things.

"Switch off the lights. Take public transportation. Recycle. Plant a tree. Clean up your local park. Hold corporations responsible for their environmental practices. And urge your government representatives to seal the deal in Copenhagen."

Normally on occasions like this, I tend to be a bit cynical - probably no doubt commentating on the lack of effectiveness that NGOs, world governments and the UN have when it comes to programmes like this.

Today, I'm going to have to break with habit. Despite the slightly dreamy tone of Mr. Ban's statement, his latter point is a important one to consider, with WED serving as a precursor to the climate convention meeting in Denmark in December, where world leaders are expected to wrap up negotiations on a successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol.

That is not the only thing I found encouraging though. With the recession making more and more people think that green issues should be put on hold, hearing Mr. Ban say that "If we invest even part of the substantial new economic stimulus packages in the green economy, we can turn today's crisis into tomorrow's sustainable growth" didn't just sound positive, but attainable.

And that's no bad thing, right?

Going green is easier than you think, for some

2009-06-01T00:23:00.000-07:00

Dick Strawbridge is a bit of a hero of mine. 'It's Not Easy Being Green' wasn't just great TV, it also showed the benefits of a greener lifestyle to millions of viewers. And, as Wikipedia says, he is also 'the proud owner of a rather large and impressive moustache'.

So I was pleased to see Strawbridge in the Guardian last week, laying out his mission to dispel environmentally-friendly myths, including 'eco-gadgets are cons', 'You have to be an engineer to undertake your own eco home projects' and 'Most eco-renovation take decades to pay back the cost'.

Reading through the comments on the article did make me think, however.

Strawbridge says that in the 21st century 'there is no excuse for not being able to get stuck into any eco-project. Information is readily available and all the materials you need can usually be sourced within ten miles' - a point that was seized on by readers who, quite rightly, pointed out that not everybody is in a position to make significant changes to your home.

'Try living in a council flat where you can't change or install anything and have to fight for a recycling box because you live on the first floor and 'might fall carrying it downstairs and sue the council'', says 'Cowgirl'.

I'd love to be able to come up with an easy comeback to this, but I'm afraid I can't. The simple truth is that some of us are are in a lot better positions than others to make changes that can help the environment and save money. Of course, I don't think Strawbridge meant to offend anybody deliberately, but his comment has made me stop and appreciate the amount of control I have over the way I choose to live my life.

My 10 reasons for going green

2009-05-22T01:34:00.000-07:00

Since I made the decision to live a greener lifestyle, I've often been asked exactly what it was that prompted me to make the jump. To tell the truth, it wasn't any single incident. Instead, there were a series of things that I had been considering for some time.

While spending some time away on holiday recently, I came up with this list. I thought I'd share it here partly for posterity, and partly for convenience – the next time it comes up, I've got my response already figured out...

My 10 reasons for going green

I realised that we have a responsibility to the planet
After becoming a parent, I wanted to set an example for my children
Because, and this is where the idea for My Greener Home came from, I knew it would save me money
I wanted to feel more in tune with the world we live in – and get away from the TV!
Because I'm competitive and love coming up with new targets and goals
I wanted to try something new, both personally and professionally
I've always tried to live a healthy lifestyle, and being green means I eat well (most credit to my wife here though) and get more exercise
I wanted to live more efficiently – both in terms of the energy I use and the free time I have to spend
I was told it would help cut down on stress and, much to my surprise, it has
I was fed up with commuting. Not my main reason admittedly – but using public transport less, reduces my carbon footprint and keeps me healthier!

So, there it is. It feels quite strange seeing it written down like that! I'd be interested to hear your comments, as well see any lists of your own.

Have a great week!

Edwin

Wales goes zero waste

2009-05-08T04:39:00.000-07:00

Good news! After the success of a trial in St. Arvans, Wales has outlined plans to become a zero waste nation by 2050, setting a target of 70% of all waste to be recycled by 2025.

They're certainly making all the right noises too. Launching the strategy, Environment, Sustainability & Housing Minister Jane Davidson said: "What we do with our waste reflects how we treat our country and planet.

"We can no longer simply bury waste in the land to rot. We need to act now for the sake of our country. Will we be able to look our grandchildren in the eye and say we did all we could to protect where they live?"

Sounds positive, doesn't it? However, before we get too excited it's worth remembering the Australian capital of Canberra. Having set a 'No waste by 2010' deadline back in 1996, they waited until January this year to admit that it was an 'aspirational exercise' all along.

"Almost all slogans have an aspirational purpose," said Australian Chief Minister Jon Stanhope.

"We will never achieve a situation where there is no waste that's actually [sent] to landfill, it will never ever be achieved. I think it was an appropriate slogan and an appropriate target."

Stanhope is, of course, wrong. Difficult as it might be, zero waste is possible. The question is, does the Welsh Assembly agree? Let's just hope we don't have to wait until 2049 to find out.

0800Buster - Call Freephone numbers from your mobile

2009-05-06T00:25:00.001-07:00

In the past, I have commented on the excessive cost of calling 0870, 0845 and 0800 telephone numbers from a mobile phone. The most absurd aspect of this is that the mobile networks charge users to call Freephone numbers (0800, 0808, 0500).

Now along comes 0800Buster. This allows you to call a standard landline number (given at the top left of this page) and then enter your Freephone number. You make your call and it only costs you the landline rate (which is usually included in your bundle of minutes). This is great step forward and all I want now is a method of calling 0845 and 0870 numbers from my mobile phone in the same way.

There are ways to call international numbers, but they are a bit fiddly and require a secondary bill (i.e. you pay from your bundle of minutes and from another account aswell). Try 18185.co.uk for a start.

A man of the cloth

2009-04-27T02:12:00.000-07:00

This week is Real Nappy Week, so I thought I'd talk about a pet subject of mine. Regular readers may well have noticed I have a few of these, but bear with me - away from the internet, it's not often that I get a captive audience when talking about green issues.

So, on to the 'Disposable vs 'Cloth nappies' debate.

Actually, it's a little one-sided to call it that. According to estimates, disposables take at least 500 years to start decomposing, use 3.5 times more energy, eight times more non-renewable raw materials, 90 times more renewable materials and cost between £400 and £1,000 more per child.

I think that's pretty conclusive. But there are still some people out there that need persuading, and in my experience (which, as the father of four, is pretty conclusive), that means convincing them of two simple facts - they are not hard work and they do not smell.

A few minutes loading the washing and hanging them out to dry every other day is hardly back breaking labour, and as for the odour, a nappy bin with a tight-fitting lid is absolutely fine.

Add to that the time saved going to the shop or supermarket to buy them in the first place, as well as not having them sit around in your rubbish bags, and I think you've got yourself a pretty good deal overall.

I know they are not right for everyone, but take a minute and think about whether they might actually suit you after all.

Pack it in...

2009-04-20T00:44:00.000-07:00

It's been a while, hasn't it? I hope you had a good Easter, and that the first week back in the real world hasn't been too much of a shock.

The news that the Government has launched a campaign with the truly terrible name of Get A Bag Habit has reminded me of an interesting story. Not about plastic bags in particular – even though, as you might expect, I'm not their biggest fan – but packaging in general.

Like most online retailers, reusing our packaging makes sense, both for the environment and cutting costs. Deliveries come in, we reuse what we can, and so we thought, everyone was happy.

Now, I have a friend that runs a rather well-known e-commerce site. He's always used 'fresh' packaging on the products he sends out, which is quite a considerable amount.

About a month ago, he decided to recycle what he could in-house, mainly as an experiment to see how much he could save.

However, he said that as soon as he made the switch, he began receiving around five or six complaints a week about his product's 'appearance' – enough to make him change his mind.

I'll put my hands up and say we're not always the best at getting our corners square or our tape nice and tidy. In fact, it would be fair to call the occasional parcel we send out a little rough around the edges. The important thing is to make sure that the product inside gets to you in a perfect condition.

However, I've been racking my brains to figure exactly who would complain about it. I've drawn a blank so far though, so send your answers to the usual address. Watch out though – I'll be taking notes on how they look...

Money down the drain?

2009-04-06T04:02:00.000-07:00

Well, the G20 was predictable. Anyway, I'm not going to dwell on missed opportunities and instead, I'd like to come back to what's fast becoming a favourite topic of mine.

Last week, I spoke a little about the responsibilities facing us all as consumers. Well, it's popped up again in a slightly different form - the Environment Agency has now said that water meters should be installed in virtually every home across the UK to reduce use and prevent shortages brought on by climate change.

But how come? A new report by the EA, titled Water Resources Strategy for England and Wales, has worryingly revealed that 25m UK residents - primarily in the south east - already live in areas where there is less available water per person than Spain or Morocco.

What's more, it predicts this scenario will worsen over the next 40 years, with climate change shrinking river and demand rising due to an ever-increasing population.

As Dr Paul Leinster, the EA's chief executive, says, it's clear that 'people and businesses need to use less water and wasting water needs to cost a lot more,' adding that its proposals call for water companies, government, regulators, businesses and the public to take a 'joined up approach to this problem to prevent it becoming a crisis.'

I'm a clear advocate of the 'joined up approach', but unfortunately I've yet to see it in action. That's why it comes down to us again to live up to our part of the deal - maybe then, the others will have no choice but to follow suit. And as decreasing water consumption is one of the easiest and most cost-effective steps you can take, there's really no excuse.

Will clearer labelling really stop the greenwash?

2009-03-31T02:06:00.000-07:00

With the G20 summit rolling into London this week, the environment is something that's on a lot of minds – as well as front pages – right now.

But, as important as it is, that's not what I want to talk about in this blog – although as the dust settles on the assembly and the real issues become apparent, that may well change. Instead, I want to focus on something that's a little closer to home but, I think, just as important.

Last week, the House of Commons Environment Audit Committee released a report calling for a universal scheme to instil consumer confidence in environmental labelling and counter the practice of greenwashing.

According to the committee, the new system – which could use a traffic light or petal system similar to those used in the food industry – will stop the 'proliferation of labels' confusing consumers.

In addition, it called for the government to 'provide Trading Standards and the Advertising Standards Agency with the training, resources, powers and sanctions required to review all instances of dubious environmental claims.'

Greenwashing has been around for some time now, despite the ASA criticising companies such as Shell, Suzuki, Ryanair and Toyota for making misleading claims about the environmental impact of their products.

And while this proposal is definitely a step in the right direction, for me the crucial point is that it really highlights the responsibility we have as consumers. After all, as the EAC knows, the choices we make in the products we buy shouldn't be underestimated.

When we founded My Greener Home, this was something that was very much in our thinking. For that reason, we're keen to see this implemented as soon as possible – providing of course, it is given all the support that has been mentioned. This is a golden opportunity for us all to show the influence we have on the world around us, and it would be a terrible shame to let it go to waste.

It's official – online shopping is better for the environment!

2009-03-24T07:35:00.000-07:00

A new report titled Carbon Auditing the Last Mile from Heriot-Watt University’s Logistics Research Centre has said that shopping online is up to 24 times better for the environment than using a car.

Researchers found that home delivery emits on average much lower levels of CO2 than a trip to the shops by bus or car, with the usual home delivery van emitting 18g, a bus journey 1,265g and a car 4,274g.

Put in context, this equates to a shopper needing to buy 24 separate items using a car or seven by bus to match the environmental benefits of home delivery.

"Some online retailers were claiming that if you shopped online you were doing something good for the environment – but until now we lacked hard evidence," said the LRC's Professor Alan McKinnon, one of the authors of the report.

The results suggest that is true. What this shows is that if you are buying small non-food items it is better for someone to get them delivered than to go to the shops by car or bus.

While we've never made this claim (we're far too modest for that!), we're obviously pleased with the results of the study. However, it's worth clarifying that it relies on the following assumptions:

• the conventional shopping trip is for a single item

• the item is delivered successfully first time and is not returned

• the shopping trips and home deliveries are exposed to similar traffic conditions.

So please bear this in mind when you order. Only buy what you need, and make sure you're there to take the delivery. A wasted trip is, after all, a wasted trip – no matter who is doing the driving.

It's all in the numbers...

2009-03-13T09:34:00.000-07:00

So, 91% of UK households want solar power. It's a reassuring statistic, isn't it? Of course, there's a catch – and as the new survey by the Centre of Alternative Technology says, it all comes down to whether or not 'the price is right'.

This may not be a staggering revelation, but the news that 90% of consumers would consider investing in solar photovoltaics if the feed-in tariff is set high enough is much more of a talking point.

For those that don't know, a feed-in tariff is the rate at which excess energy produced by renewable energy sources is sold back to the national grid.

When the Government announces its plans for the UK's tariff this summer, the majority interviewed said that it would take a figure of 50p per unit to get them interested. To put this in context, the current purchase price is between 15-20p per unit of energy.

Now, my first instinct – along with many others I've spoken to – was simply 'pay it', and the more the better. But as this article by the New York Times says, it's not that simple. Set the rate too high, and there's the risk of the dreaded 'boom and bust' for the solar industry when it inevitably gets readjusted.

If we're looking to green energy for the long haul, this is precisely the sort of move we want to avoid. I'm not saying we should opt for a low rate – just one that is sustainable in the long run. I'm now thinking that the figure the Government settles on will speak volumes about its intentions...

Recycling nappies - wouldn't be my favourite job

2009-03-04T01:49:00.000-08:00

Here's a new one: a company called Knowaste in Birmingham is setting up a plant specifically to recycle nappies. We have long advocated the use of washable nappies because of the environmental impact of disposable ones in landfill sites. Knowaste has come up with a process that allows the disposable variety of nappy to be recycled. Good for them.

The process involves three key stages:

Used nappies and/or incontinence products are collected and transported to a Knowaste processor or plant.
The Knowaste process washes the nappy material and mechanically separates the individual components so the super absorbent polymers, wood pulp and plastic can be recycled
The reclaimed components - pulp fibres, super absorbent polymers, and plastic components can be made into recycled products

These facts about disposable nappies come from the Knowaste website:

In the UK around 8 million disposable nappies are used every day and one baby's disposable nappies fill 40 black sacks in a year
At least four-and-a-half trees are needed to produce the disposable nappies for one baby
Disposable nappies may take up to 500 years to decompose, essentially making them present in our landfills forever
For every tonne of nappy waste recycled, 400kg of wood, 145 cubic metres of natural gas and 8,700 cubic metres of water is saved

The Knowaste plant is a great step forward, but please don't pick me to work there.

A genuinely smart product

2009-02-04T02:18:00.000-08:00

It isn't often a product comes along that really does make me sit up and take notice. The HouseHeat product range from HouseTech is one such example.

HouseHeat is a set of products that at its simplest consists of a wireless room thermostat and a small motor that replaces the top of your Thermostatic Radiator Valve.

These two products allows you to control the temperature of a (one radiator) room accurately, and independent from the central heating thermostat in your home (which is usually situated in the hall or living room).

The problem with most central heating systems is that the temperature is controlled from a single thermostat in a central location, which has little effect on the temperature of other rooms in the house. Thermostatic Radiator Valves (TRVs) are fine, but measure the temperature close to a nice hot radiator. Also, how often have you adjusted the TRV down when you go to bed, back up again in the morning, down again when you go to work etc. HouseHeat has a timer built into the wireless thermostat, so you can set the room temperatures to go down at night or when you are at work.

With the caveat that this equipment only installs on radiators that have Thermostatic Radiator Valves in place, it really is a fantastic way to save money. You can now set the temperature of each room independently, and changing at different times of the day. The products are not cheap, but a payback of one to two years is easily achievable.

See our dedicated site for these products here:

http://www.househeatshop.co.uk

Solar panel quote and Double Glazing quote

2008-12-10T01:31:00.000-08:00

As discussed in this blog already, there is no credible national Solar panel installer. Installation companies tend to be regional. This makes it difficult for My Greener Home to offer a service to our customers. We've cracked that now with our Solar panel quotation page. This takes you to a page which will take some basic details about your requirements and then give you quotes from up to three vetted installers that cover your region. Obviously you are well advised to get references from the installer - if they don't give references then just say no. But overall, this takes a lot of the hard work out of getting a quote for a solar hot water installation. Remember, a basic one panel installation should cost in the region of £3,000. If you are quoted more, there had better be a good reason.

Following the success of the Solar panel installer, we have also setup a Double glazing quotation page too. This works on the same principal: enter some details, get a call back to check you are legitimate, and up to three vetted double glazing companies that operate in your area will contact you.

This takes My Greener Home that one step closer to being the complete one-stop shop for cutting your household bills that it aims to be.

My first video review

2008-11-27T07:58:00.001-08:00

I needed some way of explaining the new Eco Showerdrop in a different way than a simple product description. My solution was provided by a meeting with Chris Smith of Eco Tube. Chris has created a You Tube equivalent, but focused on Eco messages. It has a subsection for product reviews, and therein lies my solution.

My first effort may be a little lame, but it offers that little bit more than a simple text description. Now to create some more. Any budding actors or actresses want to volunteer?

2008-10-16T00:14:00.000-07:00

The cheek of the gas companies....

The chart shows the price of oil over the last two years. It rose from $60 per barrel to nearly $150 per barrel. But we are now sitting back at just over $70 per barrel.

Since the oil price and gas price are closely linked, this explains why the cost of any method of heating your home has gone up (be it gas, electricity, or oil fired boiler).

What niggles me is seeing buses with advertisements for British Gas (as an example) saying they will guarantee your gas price for the longest time. In fact British Gas is so kind, they will fix your gas price until 2012. The utility companies have been quick to push up the price of domestic oil and gas as the price of oil rose, but none (that I know of) have dropped the price now that we are back to September 2007 levels of oil price. I expect, and they probably do too, that the Government will apply pressure for prices to come back down now that the oil price has fallen. So they are pushing hard to get people to lock in at this high level for the next four years.

What a cheek. But clever too.....

Say no to 0870

2008-09-10T04:16:00.001-07:00

It never stops amazing me how companies insist on being helpful by providing 0845 contact numbers, or worse still 0870 numbers. Ofcom has done a pretty good job of regulating the use of these numbers so that the price you pay for them is restricted. Indeed to quote their site from here:

Maximum rates for BT customers are listed below.

0800 and 0808 Freephone, free of charge for BT customers
0845 calls are charged at up to 3.95p/min for BT customers.
0844 calls are charged at up to 5p/min for BT customers.
0870 calls are charged at up to 7.9p/min for BT customers.
0871 calls cost up to 10p/min for BT customers.

The problem is that many people use mobile phones as their key method of voice communication now. When you call an 0845 or 0870 number from a mobile be prepared to get your wallet out. Most providers (I think it is all providers but I haven't analysed every tariff in the market) charge high rates for accessing these numbers, and do not include these calls in the bundles of minutes you buy.

The following charges apply to contract users. Pay as you talk cost more:

My provider, O2, charges 20p/minute to call 0845, 0870, and outrageously 0800 numbers too. I don't believe they pay a termination charge when I make a call to a freephone number (0800) but they still charge me 20p/minute. Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile also charge 20p/min for the 0845 and 0870 numbers.

So, since I often find myself making business calls on my mobile phone, I use the Saynoto0870 website a great deal. This great idea allows you to search for an 0845 or 0870 number and more often than not it will return a landline equivalent. That landline number is cheaper, and is included in my bundle of minutes.

Video review of the Eco Kettle and Tefal Quick Cup

2008-08-24T07:39:00.000-07:00

Excessive amounts of Googling lately helped me stumble across this review on Hippyshopper of the Eco Kettle and Tefal Quick Cup:

http://www.hippyshopper.com/2007/08/video_review_te.html

Both of these are great products, particularly if you consider the cost of boiling a full kettle of water. The one thing to remember is that the water produced by the Tefal Quick Cup is at between 80 and 90 degrees Centigrade. So it is ideal for coffee, but if you are a tea aficionado it may not do the leaves justice.

Camden Eco-House

2008-07-28T03:55:00.000-07:00

If you want to see what it is possible to do to your home to improve its energy efficiency, then a good place to start is the website of the Sustainable Energy Academy.

This organisation is a charity with a voluntary board of trustees who are currently running a programme called Old Home Superhome. This project promotes outstandingly energy efficient homes around the country, by making them accessible to other home owners to show them just what can be done with the time, money and effort.

I plan to take a tour of house in Camden which is open for drop-in visitors every Sunday 2 - 5 pm from Jul 6 to October 12. Guided tours (by volunteers) take about 30 minutes and aim to show how an old Victorian home in a conservation zone can have 80% lopped off its carbon emissions.

Solar panel project put back on the shelf

2008-06-21T13:59:00.000-07:00

My best efforts to get planning permission for a solar panel have been thwarted by Lambeth council. Given the cost of a solar panel hot water system, it seems absurd to be expected to pay another 25% or more of the cost to get a professional to do the planning application. So I have submitted the planning application myself. After all, in this instance we are talking about one panel on the roof, which will not be visible from the road. In fact this project must rank as one of the simplest projects you need planning permission for.

In April 2008 the Government passed legislation which in most cases removed the need for planning permission for the installation of solar panels. The exceptions are if your building is listed or in a conservation area. Slight problem here: my house is grade 2 listed (despite having been flattened during WWII) and in a conservation area.

However, Lambeth council planning deparment fail to apply common sense to this issue. They stick to the rules and in response to any queries about whether the process they follow is reasonable, they reply that there cannot be one set of rules for me and one set for everyone else.

After the fourth or fifth request for yet more drawings to specific scales (even of the building before the solar panel was put up) over and above the ones required by the online planning application process, I capitulated and gave in.

Lambeth council, you should be publicly shamed. You should apply common sense to the process. You don't put any money towards grants for solar panels and you appear to do your best to stop the man on the street making his contribution to reducing carbon footprint.

Have any readers had a go at this themselves?

Maybe livestock aren't so bad after all...

2008-06-16T07:53:00.000-07:00

I recently read an interesting counter point to conventional wisdom regarding the impact of livestock on green house gases. The Food Climate Research Network works to research & promote ways of achieving absolute reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the whole UK food chain. The angle that interested me was to think about what happens if you don't eat livestock rather than focusing on the terrible emissions of the average moose (as Jeremy Clarkson does so amusingly).

If you don't eat livestock, you will eat something else and there is a sporting chance it is either flown or shipped into the UK, or grown in a heated glass house.
In many cases livestock can be reared on land that otherwise would yield no food (think sheep on mountains).
Some livestock can be fed by-products of other food preparation or agriculture.
Finally, livestock often generate useful by-products (e.g. leather and wool) which crops do not.

So rearing livestock isn't such a heinous activity. I discussed in an early blog entry the way that Fairtrade isn't a universal good because of the carbon footprint its products can generate. The livestock vs. crops argument is similarly a grey issue.

The Fairtrade Dilemma

2008-06-05T11:06:00.000-07:00

There is a certain enigma about Fairtrade products. We clearly want to be able to choose to buy products made in countries and in ways that help people that are less fortunate as us. Sometimes it is a straight forward decision: chocolate and bananas from one South American country via Fairtrade or another that isn't.

But what about a (fictitious) Peruvian Fairtrade Co-op that makes rugs, tables and vases. Is that ethically more deserving than:

a) A village collective in Scotland making the same products and retraining previously unemployed people in new skills, or

b) A commercial company making these products in Scotland.

Both of these alternatives have the clear advantage of not having a carbon footprint to ship (or worse still fly) the Fairtrade products around the world. The Fairtrade website has a stab at addressing this dilemma here.

In most instances the way forward is clear - Fairtrade products offer opportunities for workers who are disadvantaged by the conventional trading system, and buying Fairtrade products instead of non-Fairtrade products will create a social benefit. But there are going to be cases where you see for example an attractive Fairtrade side table on a website or in a shop and you then need to ask yourself is it worth it, and should I buy local products instead.

Please do share your thoughts on this by adding a comment.

Trying to install solar panels

2008-05-27T09:26:00.000-07:00

We have decided to have solar panels installed on our house (a small terraced house with a south facing sloping roof - facing away from the front of the house). We have found an installer who is asking £4,000 (which is the right ball park) so next steps....

We live in Lambeth (a borough in South London) and Lambeth doesn't give any grants towards solar panels. Shame! Camden gives up to £1,500 towards this type of project. We will have to settle with the £400 given out by the Department of Trade and Industry’s “Low Carbon Buildings” programme (LCBP).

Then our house is Grade 2 listed and the listed building planning permission will take 8 weeks at a minimum without any guarantee of approval. This process needs streamlining and making fairer. Maybe a word with Boris is called for...

walkit.com

2008-05-22T07:56:00.000-07:00

The other day I was discussing how great Walkit.com was and I remembered how few people knew about it. This site is for you City folk (currently in London, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds and Derby). Put in your start point and end point and it will give you the shortest way to walk between these points. For fun (in my opinion) it gives you the number of calories you will burn given your walking speed - I naturally walk a bit faster than Walkit.com's definition of medium.

The Ultimate Green Home

2008-05-20T05:03:00.000-07:00

A couple from Wiltshire have moved to a remote Scottish island called Unst. They have spent £210,000 to build themselves a house that is totally self-sufficient. Despite being as far North as Greenland, and regularly experiencing winds of 100mph+, this house generates and stores its own energy via a flow battery/fuel cell. In addition, an electric vehicle is used for transportation and, as they generate their own energy in order for the vehicle to recharge, the need for fossil fuels is removed. Food is grown in high-tech greenhouses using a hydroponic growing medium and LEDs which use only a small amount of energy to manipulate the plants and extend the growing period. This is surely a candidate for the title of the Ultimate Green Home?

Green Baby

2008-05-14T02:18:00.000-07:00

I attended a presentation by Jill Barker, the founder of Green Baby last night. It was a fascinating account of how she part chose and part fell into the position of starting up her business. It all started with her desire to find alternatives to disposable nappies for her child. From there it has grown and now she has four shops (in London only at the moment) and a thriving internet business.

My main takeaway? Get your trade mark registrations done properly. Arranging protection of your name globally for all categories is very expensive but will save you lots of pain as your business grows.

Its great to see that a business can actively promote an ethical angle, be successful, and yet be run by a really friendly, down to earth person.