Energy efficiency & green living
According to the news energy is only going to get more expensive over the next few years, which made me ponder how efficient & green we are at home. Here's my vague conclusions:
Transport - I don't commute, so that's a plus (occasional business travel to London etc. is by train), and we only run a single vehicle, an elderly petrol Zafira. We cycle as much as we can, including with the kids in a trailer which they're rapidly growing out of, but there's no getting away from the fact that we regularly drive them to school/swimming lessons/the supermarket. Sadly also I've been flying a bit for business recently - but again, for a company with a lot of international clients we do most of our work remotely over the Net.
Heating - we've currently got an old oil boiler and a woodburning stove which we only use in the winter. The latter is about to be refitted after some renovations and we're lucky enough to have enough trees that fall or are cut down nearby to provide free wood. We probably spend £800-1000 or so a year on oil for hot water and heating the rest of the house which it would be good to reduce, but that's not going to happen until we fit a more efficient boiler with a thermostat (which we will do if/when we extend the house). In the meantime we've insulated the loft & cavity walls where we can and are fitting insulated plasterboard to the older non-cavity walls when we refurbish rooms - this has made a huge difference to the living room (which also has new double glazed windows). It was an old, draughty, damp and cold house when we moved here and it's a lot better now. If all else fails we put on an extra jumper!
Electricity - I switched to LoCo2 Energy's Planet tariff last year which is reasonably priced and fully renewable. They've said they're raising prices soon but I doubt they'll rise as much as the big 6. Naturally we use low energy bulbs and turn things off that we're not using, but we do have an electric cooker (no gas round here).
Water & waste - I'm pretty sure we're still using less water than the average (even with the kids we're not the sort of household to feel a shower/bath every single day is necessary), plus we store rainwater for the garden. Our drains feed a mini treatment plant. We compost, recycle everything we can and throw very little in the black 'general' waste bin - I even sort scrap metal in my workshop for occasional trips to the dump. If I can, I re-use it.
Food - we're now growing a great deal of our own fruit and vegetables - but probably at most only 30-40% of our annual needs, and there's no room for any more beds or fruit trees. Some of this produce is ordinary and some unusual, like Oca, so we get to eat things you can't buy anyway. This year the fruit harvest has been a great success and I have loads of jam, jellies pickles and chutneys - I doubt we'll need to buy any for a while. I have a plan to build a proper cold store so we can preserve more of what we grow.
So there you are. I've not completely turned into Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - no chickens or livestock and no plans to get them - but we're doing our best and hopefully the children will learn from the process. As an engineer any waste or inefficiency seriously annoys me! I'm not an obsessive Green but part of the reason for moving here was to try and live a little more sustainably, and I think it's working.
Transport - I don't commute, so that's a plus (occasional business travel to London etc. is by train), and we only run a single vehicle, an elderly petrol Zafira. We cycle as much as we can, including with the kids in a trailer which they're rapidly growing out of, but there's no getting away from the fact that we regularly drive them to school/swimming lessons/the supermarket. Sadly also I've been flying a bit for business recently - but again, for a company with a lot of international clients we do most of our work remotely over the Net.
Heating - we've currently got an old oil boiler and a woodburning stove which we only use in the winter. The latter is about to be refitted after some renovations and we're lucky enough to have enough trees that fall or are cut down nearby to provide free wood. We probably spend £800-1000 or so a year on oil for hot water and heating the rest of the house which it would be good to reduce, but that's not going to happen until we fit a more efficient boiler with a thermostat (which we will do if/when we extend the house). In the meantime we've insulated the loft & cavity walls where we can and are fitting insulated plasterboard to the older non-cavity walls when we refurbish rooms - this has made a huge difference to the living room (which also has new double glazed windows). It was an old, draughty, damp and cold house when we moved here and it's a lot better now. If all else fails we put on an extra jumper!
Electricity - I switched to LoCo2 Energy's Planet tariff last year which is reasonably priced and fully renewable. They've said they're raising prices soon but I doubt they'll rise as much as the big 6. Naturally we use low energy bulbs and turn things off that we're not using, but we do have an electric cooker (no gas round here).
Water & waste - I'm pretty sure we're still using less water than the average (even with the kids we're not the sort of household to feel a shower/bath every single day is necessary), plus we store rainwater for the garden. Our drains feed a mini treatment plant. We compost, recycle everything we can and throw very little in the black 'general' waste bin - I even sort scrap metal in my workshop for occasional trips to the dump. If I can, I re-use it.
Food - we're now growing a great deal of our own fruit and vegetables - but probably at most only 30-40% of our annual needs, and there's no room for any more beds or fruit trees. Some of this produce is ordinary and some unusual, like Oca, so we get to eat things you can't buy anyway. This year the fruit harvest has been a great success and I have loads of jam, jellies pickles and chutneys - I doubt we'll need to buy any for a while. I have a plan to build a proper cold store so we can preserve more of what we grow.
So there you are. I've not completely turned into Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - no chickens or livestock and no plans to get them - but we're doing our best and hopefully the children will learn from the process. As an engineer any waste or inefficiency seriously annoys me! I'm not an obsessive Green but part of the reason for moving here was to try and live a little more sustainably, and I think it's working.