Bye-Bye Standby

A little device that came free when we bought our first house has been a surprise hit in providing a truly non-intrusive and transparent way of eliminating wasted standby energy.

Shortly after moving in late last year, a box arrived with cleaning products, tea bags, loo roll and lots of advertising – courtesy of our estate agent of course. Buried in the bottom was a ‘TV-Standby eliminator’, provided by E.ON Energy which is designed to cut power to a TV as an alternative option to leaving it on standby.

So how does it work?

The unit is plugged directly into the wall socket, and has two plug sockets available to use – one is a socket that switches off completely after it detects the TV is no longer turned on, eliminating any wasted power from standby. The second is effectively on all the time, as if it were just the wall socket itself which can be used for other appliances you don’t want switched off completely.

But how does it know when I want it back on?

The clever bit is the connected infra-red detector which picks up your TV remote control signal and recognises when you are trying to turn the TV back on and restores power to the socket.

What’s the big deal?

I think it’s a great example of a simple piece of technology that allows energy consumption to be reduced with minimal consumer intervention.

Whilst the quantities of energy involved are not huge, across many households in aggregate this wasted energy is not insignificant and has been estimated at £740m of electricity a year!

Once we got around to installing it, we plugged a 4-way strip socket into the controllable socket and connected our TV, Sky-box and even a lamp to the socket. The only difference we now notice is that switching the TV on takes two presses of the remote control; (one to switch on the power socket, one to turn the TV on) (Ed – this is due to our TV always starting in ‘standby’ mode – if your TV switches on fully when you turn it off and on at the wall you would only need to press once!)

When we’re done with TV, one press on the remote puts it into standby. Then 20 seconds later, the lamp, Sky-box and TV all power down completely. Simples.

Is it really worth it?

Although I’m impressed with the simplicity of the TV-Standby eliminator, I was curious actually how much energy it saves. So let’s take a look using some simple assumptions…

Hours on Stand-By	7300 per year	Assuming around 4 hours watching per day
TV Standby Consumption	around 1W	Very modern TV’s might improve on this a little
Average Electricity Cost	11 pence per kWh	Based on our standard tariff
Power wasted on standby (TV only)	7.3 kW per year	(= 7300 x 1/1000)
Cost of Wasted Energy (TV Only)	£0.80 per year	(= 7.3 x 11)
Other appliances standby consumption	13 – 20W	Modern PVRs and HD set-top boxes can be hungry!
Power wasted  by peripherals	146kW per year	(= 7300 x 20/1000)
Cost per year of wasted energy (TV + peripherals)	£16.06	(= 146 x 11)

Assuming that the ‘standby-eliminator can reduce standby-time to a negligible amount of time per year, the savings for a TV alone stack up to around 7W. Hmmm, so about £1 per year – I know it’s a time for austerity but that’s not going to break the bank.

However, once you consider other peripherals can consume in the region of 13 – 20W on standby (like that HD Set-top box of yours) the savings slowly start to stack up – with a 20W device also powered down by the standby-eliminator, savings jump to around £16 a year.

Although we got ours free, the devices themselves cost only in the region of £10-£15, such as these from Energy Monitors Direct or NoMoreStandby, making the payback less than a year.

Consider also that the cost of electricity is likely to increase significantly over the medium term, making the savings still more attractive.

A Green Christmas – Presents

Ahh Christmas time, the season of goodwill and giving! It’s also a time when we seem to generate a bit more waste than usual as we go about the usual rituals of shopping, eating, drinking and family time!

So in this consumer-driven time of year, how can we go about making our Christmas a bit more generous to the environment? Here I’ll look at some alternative options when thinking about presents..There’s loads of ways to be smarter about your present giving this year that can help both your pocket & the planet.

If like me, the thought of shopping on Oxford Street on a Saturday afternoon typically sends you into a cold sweat, you’ll be pleased to hear that new research has shown that shopping online results in much lower emissions than heading out to the shops.
So you’re already in the right place to do your pressie shopping – why not give someone a gift from one of the many green stores now online, such as Green Shop, Nigel’s or Ecotopia for an even more planet-friendly present. Check out the links below for some more ideas.

If you have a little more time, why not create some gifts for your nearest & dearest? For example, food or clothing are ideal home-made gifts. About.com has a large list of ideas and recipes for hampers and foodie-gifts, especially if you source the ingredients locally.

Home-made scarves & hats are also great ideas if you want to learn a new skill (but perhaps plan to give them next year!) – just search YouTube for videos on knitting or other techniques to learn how to get going.

Don’t forget to make the effort with your wrapping paper & packaging too – metallic paper and non-recycled gift wrap will just be torn off and end up in land-fill.
Instead, look for recycled & recyclable paper such as these from The-Green-Apple.co.uk or Oxfam.
Although it might sound dull, un-bleached brown paper can also look really attractive, as shown by eHow, and is a great alternative.
This year’s cards can easily be turned into gift tags for next year too, so remember to keep the suitable ones!

Next stop – Summary of links:

What?	Where to look
Presents	Nigels Eco Store Ecotopia Green Shop Ecoutlet Good Green Gifts The Green Store Unicef Fair-trade gifts
Craft Resources	YouTube Craftzine eHow
Cooking Links	BBC Food HomeCooking – About.com Allrecipes.co.uk Delia Online Jamie Oliver Online
Packaging & Paper	TinyBox Company The Green Apple Ethical Superstore

Efficient Home Lighting – CFL versus Incandescent

This month the humble lightbulb has been put in the (energy saving) spotlight as the EU’s phase out of the traditional incandescent begins, and so it seems like a good time to review some of the alternatives on the market and where you can find them.

Incandescant bulbs – “The Heater that emits a bit of light”
These are the ‘old’ school bulbs that are being phased out due to new EU regulations on performance requirements of energy-using products.
Only around 5-10% of the energy used by these bulbs actually goes to generating any light, with the rest being wasted as heat so it’s clear why it’s time for the newer CFL technology to take their place.

LED Lamps
LED lamps are typically made by grouping a number of individual LEDs together and are currently one of the most efficient lighting technologies. LEDs come in a range of colours, allowing for coloured lighting solutions, and even packages where the mix of colour can be controlled.
As LED lamps remain a relatively new addition to the residential lighting market the initial costs are high. So, in purely monetary terms, LED lamps seem to be not quite cost effective just yet.
However, the cost is bound to fall as more get manufactured and so are definitely ones to watch in the future.

Energy Saving bulbs
Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) are the most common energy saving lightbulbs and are similar to the fluorescent tubes traditionally installed in commercial buildings.

There have been criticisms that energy saving lightbulbs take too long to turn on, or can’t be used with dimmers but most of these isses have been resolved in newer versions.
There is some evidence that equivalent rated bulbs aren’t quite as bright as their traditional counterparts, but I’ve found the light from CFLs to be perfectly good and in my opinion the reduced energy use more than makes up for any other limitations.

Importantly, while traditional incandescant bulbs can be disposed of in your household rubbish, energy saving bulbs (CFL’s) contain small amounts of mercury and so need to be recycled properly (although the longer lifespan of these bulbs mean it shouldn’t be necessary too often) – For advice on where to dispose of energy saving lightbulbs, see the Recolight guidance here.

So what’s the best option?
A very quick cost comparison of a typical year of operation shows that replacing 60W incandescants with 11W energy saving bulbs is over 5 times more cost effective – obviously there are some big assumptions here, such as ignoring the heating effect that a lot of old bulbs might give, but even replacing each 60W with two energy saving bulbs still looks better for your pocket and the environment (if disposed of correctly!)

	CFL	Incandescent
Power Used (Watts) (Light output might not be exactly equal, but these have been sufficient for my needs)	11W	60W
Lifetime (Hours) (Average lifetime as from the EnergyStar website)	10500	875
Cost each (Based on prices from British Gas and Staples)	£1.49	£0.75
Hours in operation (Assuming 6hrs / day for a year)	2190	2190
Bulbs Needed	0.2	2.5
Total Cost of Bulbs	£0.31	£1.87
Energy Used (kwH)	24.1	131.4
Energy Tariff (£ per kWh) (This is the average tariff prce as used by the Energy Saving Trust)	0.1296	0.1296
Energy Cost	£3.12	£17.03
Total cost over year	£3.43	£18.90
Where to buy?	CFLs are widely available for example from British Gas, Lightbulbs direct or most hardware stores. For dimmable versions, check Ryness.co.uk.	Just in the name of being fair, Incandescent bulbs can still be purchased from Staples, but hopefully after reading you might consider the alternative option!
Other considerations	Contain small amounts of mercury – needs proper disposal. Price continuing to fall	Can be disposed of easily, but price likely to increase now phase-out begins

Home Composting for dummies

Why wouldn’t you want to turn your free kitchen waste into good quality compost you can use on your plants!?

For those with private gardens or a bit of outdoor space*, composting certainly seems to make a whole lot of sense. However, for me it’s not always gone in one end and come out of the other as a nice dark, crumbly compost like the stuff you buy from the garden centre.

Newly discovered to me, the RecycleNow website however has had a fantastic makeover with some good advice on home composting answering the most common queries such as (I apparently wasn’t aerating enough!):

• What can I put in my bin?
• What to do if it’s too green or too brown
• Can I put this in my compost bin?

Also check out the Royal Horticultural Society’s guide to home composting and the How To Videos from GardenOrganic.org.uk.

* There are some options for those with little or no outdoor space, such as the NatureMill. However the fairly steep price tag might put most off, and for those in rental accomodation a simple counter-top solution (with filters to prevent smells) might be more suitable. Councils will often provide a similar tub to you for free, so it’s worth checking with your local office.

Sleeping Soundly – Environmentally Friendly Mattresses

An old dig through the archives at Springwise reminded me of how companies can not only reduce environmental impact through products themsleves, but also by designing and developing alternative ways of actually delivering products to your door.

Keetsa, for example, who were featured in April last year produce mattresses and bedding from sustainable and recyclable components such as unbleached cotton, bamboo fabrics and recycled steel. But the company also have found ways to safely compress the matresses down into smaller recycled card boxes that make it easier and greener to transport them around to shops and distributors.

Bio-Posture also compress their memory foam mattresses before shipping, and even run a longer day but a shorter working week at factories, so employees commuting emissions are reduced! The foam is plant-based, making it more eco-friendly and breathable than those of TempurPedic, for example.

From the looks of things Keetsa nd Bio-Posture are only available outside the UK, but there are some other options if you are looking for a new mattress that minimses environmental impact:

Manchester-based Dojo hand-make a range of mattresses with organic materials such a wool and natural latex. Materials are sourced with sustainability and locality in mind, and the local business is even “fuelled by Ecotricity and Fairtrade coffee” demonstrating the owners and employees all really buy in to the ethos of what they are creating.

Ecocentric also supply a sprung mattress in the UK made from organic Welsh wool and which is free from toxins. The materials are certified to the Soil Association organic standard and also provide either a standard or firm option.

How do these compare with a standard mattress?

Product	Standard Double Mattress	Dojo Firm/Springy Double Mattress	EcoCentric Double Organic Pocket-Srung Mattress
Price	c.£406 inc. delivery (based on mid-range pocket-sprung mattress from Additions)	c.£525 inc. delivery	c.£850 inc. delivery
Materials	Visco-elastic polyurethane foam – polyurethane with additional chemicals that increase its viscosity	Organic cotton fabric, wool, coconut fibre and natural latex (94+ per cent).	Organic cotton and wool. (Springs unknown)
Other Factors	Delivery via usual means, with mattress at full size	Delivery via biodiesel van in the Manchester area, or via TNT for all other areas	Delivery via usual means, with mattress at full size

Do you know any another options for environmentally friendly mattresses? Perhaps you’ve slept on one of those mentioned above? Let us know!

Vectrix Electric Scooters

Transportation’s a large factor in most household emissions and so any effort here to reduce transport-related CO2 would be a great step for anyone to make if they want to quickly make a difference.

Although the Government recently announced their plans to provide incentives for scrapping older, less efficient cars, they don’t seem too fussy about what new car is bought with the money. Certainly newer car models are much cleaner, but say I used the money to trade up to a larger car, the environmental impact might actually be worse, particularly once production-related emissions are taken into account!

So what other options might you consider if you were to change your vehicle? The best possible option, (but one only really practical for those that live in big cities) is to use public transport wherever possible – I got rid of my car several years ago, but then I’m fortunate to have London’s Underground network which is (reasonably) reliable and has good coverage.

For other city-dwellers, a great viable option now is to go electric. In particular the Vectrix Maxi-scooters caught my eye at the recent UK Aware show.

(There are also options for people needing a family car, such as the Toyota Prius – but I’m not yet at that stage, so that’s a subject for another post!!)

Vectrix scooters are entirely electric and plug into everyday 3-pin sockets. The latest model has a maximum speed of around 62 mph – more than enough for city streets. The range for a single charge is stated at 35-55 miles, which will obviously depend on your driving style and terrain, although even within sprawling London, this should be sufficient for most places I’d want to visit.

My only concern would be running out of juice and being stranded mid-journey – A full charge apparently takes between 3-5 hours, so for important journeys you’d have to plan ahead to ensure a full battery. If the worst did happen, I’d like to believe with some charm you could negotiate some charging time from a nearby friendly household or shop socket and charge enough to be on your way within an hour or so!

The added bonus of exemption from road-tax and congestion-charge makes this a no brainer for me against conventional petrol scooters, and I hope to take a test-drive on one soon.

In terms of emissions, electric scooters emit zero CO2 – although including electricity production I’ve seen figures quoted from between 14g/km and 43g/km. However compare this to even a a modern rated car at 150g/km (not even including petrol-production related emissions) and you can see that the savings can be substantial.

See how the Vectrix compare with a similar rated petrol scooter:

Category	400cc Scooter (e.g. Suzuki Burgman)	Vectrix VX-1	London Underground Oystercard
Price	£4,710 direct from Suzuki	£6,995 from Envy Motors	£100 per month
Top Speed	c.100 mph	c. 62 mph	Highly variable!
MPG / Range	c. 60 mpg	35-55 miles on 1 charge	Zones 1-2!
CO2 emissions	unclear – some think higher than some cars, but est. c.50g/km based on Piaggio estimates	Zero (excluding electricity & production) – somewhere between 14-43g/km including	Negligible comparing using vs not
other Factors	High hydrocarbon, NOx and CO emissions

Do you have a Vectrix or electric vehicle? How much do you use it, and has it delivered the savings you’d hoped? Let us know below!

No more cling film!

I’ve been taking sandwiches into the office for a while now, and am always surprised at how expensive it can be to buy a reasonable lunch on the occasions I forget, or run out of bread/filling!

However, to keep those sani’s fresh I have always used cling-film and I have to admit only recently really considered that my consumption of this particularly un-environmentally friendly material was really adding up over time. Cling film is extremely difficult to recycle, and so almost always ends up in landfill where it can take a century or more to degrade.

Although more biodegradable alternatives are possible, they seem slow to have arrived on supermarket shelves.

So what are the other options? Covering the three pillars of any good environmentally friendly approach (Reduce, Reuse & Recycle), Mrs. Green over at ‘My Zero Waste‘ has a really comprehensive guide to reducing your use of cling-film.

I really like the suggestion of re-using other packaging as sandwich bag alternatives, that might otherwise be thrown away. If you put vegetables into those thin plastic bags at supermarkets, why not consider keeping these and using them a few times more? Mrs.Green also suggests inner-bags of cereal packets, though I think these might be a bit too dusty and full of crumbs to easily wash out & reuse.

However, both mine and Mrs.Green’s favourite alternative option is the Onya ‘Wrap n Mat’ bag – a re-usable and washable wrap for food. The wraps are made from PEVA; which is similar to PVC but without the chlorine that partly makes PVC such a bad friend to the environment. (PEVA is also apparently commonly now used in body bags!)

Although incredibly simple, what makes the Onya wrap such a good option is that they come in a range of designs and, similar to other Onya products, encourage us to change our bad habits through good looking and well designed alternatives.

Although the Wrap-n-Mat is by no means expensive, at just over £4, this is unfortunately (another) one of those ocassions where the alternative option is financially at a disadvantage – cling-film currently remains the much cheaper choice. However the environmental benefits of the Onya Wrap-n-Mat I believe make it an excellent way to help reduce or eliminate your usage of cling-film.

UPDATE – I’ve recently taken delivery of my Wrap-n-Mat, & while I’m pleased to say Onya’s packaging is minimal & biodegradable, I was disappointed to see the Wrap-n-Mat itself housed in it’s very own plastic wrap! Sigh! The producers clearly haven’t twigged the irony of this yet, but I hope Onya can put some pressure on their suppliers to be more sensible!

Standard Cling-Film	Onya Wrap-n-Mat
c.£1.80 from Asda – or around 3p per metre, 1p per sandwich	c.£4.25 exlcuding P&P from Onya
Yuk! High environmental cost due to extremely long lifespan of material and impact on wildlife	Environmental savings – washable & reusable so reduces plastic waste going to landfill

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Thanks to My Zero Waste for the great post on this – it’s also worth checking out these tips on how to reduce packaging and waste in packed lunches more generally.

Green Toilets

Everyone’s got to go sometime. Go to the loo that is – One of the fundamentals of human life (& all other animal life for that matter!) has actually been made a rather wasteful affair, thanks to the design of the modern flushing toilet that hasn’t changed all that significantly since the 19th Century.

Older toilets can use between 3 – 5 gallons of clean water, although newer toilets must use no more than around 1.6 gallons per flush. Considering the average individual probably flushes an average of 5 times a day, the toilet alone can account for over 25% of total water use for a family home.

So what are the more environmentally friendly options?

1.

At the more extreme end of the spectrum, Composting toilets like the Envirolet FlushSmart system (pictured) recycle waste directly into compost using very little water; less than 0.05 gallons per flush according to the Canadian manufacturers’ website.

The thought of storing up all your family number twos might not seem like such a good idea, but composting toilets such as these use ventilation methods to evaporate the water and dehydrate the waste into a dry compost without any smell or unpleasantness. While undoubtedly a very green option, the most suitable system for most UK residencies is likely to be an electronic flush model; one of the most expensive models where the tank can be placed some way away from the toilet. The system costs around EUR3,000 or about £2,900 when shipping is included, so only those with deep pockets are likely to go for this option.

Other manufacturers of composting toilets include Wostman Ecology, although not all the site is yet available in English so I can’t compare details yet.

2.

A less extreme option might be to consider installing a dual-flush or high-efficiency toilet from Toto. Dual-flush is a simple way to let the user select how much water to use for the flush depending on the appropriate..er load, and is now a common feature in many new toilets. Toto’s high efficiency flushing technologies claim to reduce water consumption even further to around 1.28 gallons per flush.

While currently only available across the USA and parts of Asia, a European launch is expected shortly according to their European site.

3.

A third, and very simple option for making your loo a bit greener, perhaps if you rent for example, is to add a drinks bottle full of water or sand in to the tank to reduce water consumption. This works best for non low-flush toilets, but is a quick and easy win for those without the deep pockets to replace the whole toilet. The gallons per flush can be reduced quite significantly for some old loos, without loss of all important performance! – experiment with different size bottles to find the optimum flush size for your own family.

‘Bog’ Standard (sorry)	Composting Toilet	Dual-Flush / High Efficiency
c.£100 – £300	c.£2,900 direct from Envirolet FlushSmart system	c.£150 – £200 but not yet available in the UK (Know differently? Get in touch)
c. 1.6+ gallons per flush	c. 0.04 gallons per flush (+ free compost!)	c. 1.28 gallons per flush

Green Computers

Is it time you upgraded your desktop PC or laptop?

As with a lot of things, it’s probably worth asking yourself if you really need a new one as small upgrades can go a long way to keeping your existing desktop or laptop running smoothly and is often the more enviromentally friendly option over buying a new computer.

Assuming your current computer has given up the ghost and can no longer take the stress of YouTube and BBC iPlayer though, there are now some good alternative choices to the ‘regular’ desktops and laptops stocked in your average electronics store.

The ASUS’s Bamboo Series Notebook, is clad in bamboo – one of the most sustainable materials available – making the production and eventual disposal a lot better on the planet. ‘Super Hybrid Engine’ technology also improves power efficiency, extending the battery life between 35% and 70% compared to similar spec’d notebooks and hence the time between charges.

Specs are as follows: (12.1 inch screen version):

• Processor: Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T9400/P8600/P840
• Memory: DDR2 800 MHz SDRAM, 2 x SODIMM socket for expansion up to 4GB SDRAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® 9300M GS External 256MB VRAM
• Harddisk: 320/250/160GB
• DVD Multiwriter, Webcam, 8-in-1 Card reader
  

For a slightly cheaper option, Fujitsu Siemens have a range of green-certified computers including their Scaleo L ‘Green Edition’ Desktop. Most of their desktops have ‘Energy Star 4.0’ ratings, which means good power efficiency in all modes of operation including standby and halogen-free motherboards. Fujitsu-Siemens are also expected to show off a ‘Zero Watt PC’ in March this year at the consumer electronic show CeBIT, although it won’t be available to buy until the middle of 2009 – I’ll be bringing you more details of this when announced. [via GadgetLite]

Standard Laptop	Asus Bamboo Series Laptop	Fujitsu Siemens Desktops
c.£750-£1200 (for similar spec to Asus Bamboo Series, Intel Core 2 Duo T9400)	c.£1320 from Anvika	c.£370-£700 from MacWarehouse

The Greener Strip Plug

The humble four-way strip plug now has an alternative that intelligently shuts off power to appliances that aren’t being used, making for an altogether greener choice that reduces energy consumption.

The ‘Intelliplug’ from OneClickPower powers off all other devices plugged in to the strip when the main appliance, such as a PC, is not in use. This stops energy being wasted by electronics like printers and PC speakers left on in stand-by. The Intelliplug automatically learns how much power the PC is using so that peripherals are switched back on when it is started, and leaves a delay so that things shut down properly without damage.

OneclickPower also has strip-plugs designed for home AV equipment, but the Intelliplug could really be used with any set of appliances that are used together, such as:

• TV, Video, Set-top box, DVD Player, Console
• CD Player, Amplifier, Radio
• PC, Printer, Monitor, Speakers, Scanner

Standard 4-Way	8-Way Intellipane	3-Way Intelliplug
from c.£11 (with surge protection)	c.£23 from Microdirect c.£20 refurbished from OneClickPower	c.£13-£15 from Microdirect or OneClickPower
Energy used: Average PC draws c.89 watts per hour under a low load, so with a combination of appliances anything in the region of 90 – 500W	Saves on average c.35 watts per hour according to OneClickPower

Do you have an Intelliplug? Do you know of another solution to reduce power wasted on stand-by? Get in touch!