coyou

Use rechargeable batteries instead of disposable ones. Not only better for the environment, they’ll save you money in the long term.

In the UK 700 million batteries are sold a year, (about 21 per person.) Each of these batteries takes roughly 50 times more energy to make than it provides. You get 50 times more energy out of a rechargeable battery than it takes to make one - equivalent to 2,500 times more than for a disposable battery.

They save waste. If you recharge your battery 500 times you save 500 other batteries ending up in landfill sites.

They save money. You get the extra money you paid for the battery back after just five charges, so you get the equivalent of 495 charges for free.

The cost of recharging batteries is only about 1p.

Like old style lightbulbs, disposable batteries are an old fashioned technology that should be avoided at all costs.

I’ve changed all the bulbs in our house to low energy bulbs.

I’ve been meaning to do this for ages and had fitted only a couple previously when bulbs had gone. In case you don’t know, low energy bulbs are also called CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps) It cost me about £150 to do all of them in one go, but I figured this will actually pay for itself over time, since it seems these bulbs will last 10 times longer than normal bulbs and are cheaper to run. The electricity used by a normal bulb is often more than 90% of its total cost.

The energy saving trust says:

“Each bulb you fit could save up to £100 on electricity over the bulb’s lifetime.”

I think one of the big problems with changing over is that most people (unless they are really committed) are not going to spend £150 on bulbs in one go! Money is tight, the answer to this problem would be to just make normal incandescent bulbs illegal, or another option would be to make CFL bulbs very cheap or give them away, this would dramatically help reduce your personal co2 emissions. But it seems to still be a bit of a way off in government thinking.

There also seems to be a problem with adapting to bulbs that look slightly different

There are a few myths that put people off getting CFLs, that having done it, I can say are just wrong.

The Myths

1) They look ugly. They’re not, I actually think they look elegant, (particularly the newer smaller ones.)
2) A concern that they don’t give you a bright light immediately when you flick the switch - who cares! its a split second does it really matter?
3) They give off a different type of light that some people find a bit strange at first. Its just different, it won’t kill you.
4) That they don’t fit all types of lights. Shops and DIY shops seem to still be a bit behind on this but have a look a round on the internet, you can get an energy saving bulb for every type of fitting.

If you cant afford to change all your bulbs in one go, have a think about the 5 bulbs you use most often and start wit these and then when other bulbs go, jsut make sure you replace them with low energy ones.

Changing to CFL’s is an easy step you do have control of changing. I bought mine from The Green Shop

This week I got hold of a Electrisave. It costs £19.99 to rent one for a month. (or £69.99 to buy one) Really simple to use, you just plug it in near your electricity meter and it tells you exactly how much electricity you are using in the home at any time. But more importantly it also shows you how much greenhouse gases you responsible for in kg per hour!

It becomes a bit addictive as you got round the house turns things on and off and watch the meter go up and and down. After just a couple of days of use I’ve started making sure all lights are off when I’m not in the room and things not being used are unplugged (like mobile phone chargers)

A very visual way of seeing your carbon emissions fall and your electricity bill decrease.

Its a really good starting point to think about how you can reduce emissions from your own home. Its the ipod of the climate change debate, everyone should get one.