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Excess energy use is just bad news and we cannot run away from this problem any more and pretend it doesn’t exist. Change begins at home and it begins with every one of us. If we own or rent a home and use all the creature comforts that we are used to, then we are responsible for using a certain amount of energy and have, consequently, a carbon footprint to worry about. No longer can we expect big business to shoulder the blame and it’s no longer good enough to say that we take the bus to work and don’t drive. It is time to make considerable changes and search for significant ways to save electricity wherever possible. You need to take one single step if you are going to begin a journey of 1000 miles.

Before you do anything else, go around all your doors and windows and look to see that they’re fitting properly. Don’t just give it a cursory glance as you likely won’t be able to see any problems with the naked eye – and as such, you should use an open flame to see if you have any drafts or even run your hand over the edges. Imagine how crazy it is to heat or cool the inside of your house according to the season, during these ever changing weather patterns that we deal with, when the money that you work so hard to earn is escaping through the window. The first thing you need to do is to make sure that your house is as airtight as you can make it before worrying about your cooling and heating costs.

If you have rooms that are not in constant use, consider putting any lighting appliances within on a timer. You could also put them on a motion detector, so that they will go on and off if someone enters or leaves the room. Almost every electrical item that you have actually wastes energy even if it is just plugged in and not switched on, and you should remove it from the wall socket just to be sure. It’s best if all computers are turned off at night. There’s no need for you to maintain them and they tend to build up heat within the casing anyway. Every little bit helps and will account for a good savings at the end of the year.

Most people understand the benefits of renewable energy, but for some reason or another, we have a tendency to look to other people to take advantage of this knowledge. Solar energy panels could be a good idea? It is possible to run your entire property by using solar power, whether you mount them on the roof or set it up so that they are appropriately angled within your garden. If you don’t extract as much electricity from the grid, you would be saving and reducing the size of your carbon footprint at the same time. If our footprint is too big, we need to get more energy efficient “shoes” and not continue to be extravagant in everything that we do. When heating water, why not turn the thermostat down a degree or so and remember that heating water with electricity is highly inefficient normally. They say that roughly 2/3 of the energy actually produced to get the electricity to you, to heat your water in the first place, is lost in the distribution system. For efficiency’s sake, oil or gas fired water heaters are much better, more highly efficient and will be far more beneficial when it comes to helping the environment as well.

Tags: environment, environmental sustainability, Renewable Energy, saving electricity, saving money

We are all so concerned with just trying to make ends meet that we seem to be running in place and cannot stand back and take in the bigger picture to tell us what is actually happening. We need to ask ourselves why we are so significantly inefficient in running our lives. For many years now, we have dealt with pretty good times and have not had to worry about putting such expensive petrol into our cars, nor be concerned about the fact that without those cars we simply cannot exist. A recession was something that we could barely remember or if we were young enough, we read about it in economics books. Perhaps it was time for a wake-up call, but time or not we have certainly received one.

We can clearly see that we can no longer rely on mechanical energy to help us to do absolutely everything. Our energy inefficiency has led to gross amounts of greenhouse gas emissions and damage to our environment, and we need to change now! We talk a good story about the benefits of renewable energy, but we are not helping the environment by diverting funds away from the research and development needed to actually make these options work for us.

Now we can see how vulnerable we are to an economic downturn and we can see that the “great recession” has exposed this vulnerability. As such, we must be efficient in everything we do and this definitely includes energy use. We need to learn to turn things off, to think of alternatives and not to opt for the path of least resistance. We must review our transportation habits and not clog the roads with single occupant vehicles each and every day as we go back and forth to work.

At home or in the office, think of ways to save electricity and if you are the decision-maker, you must be the one to take action. Just as an example, you could turn the thermostat down by a degree or so, insist that the family turn off all the lights when not in use, make sure the clothes are washed together and not individually and in general ensure that we are all better keepers of the space that we live in.

As we know, we cannot rely on our politicians to work quickly enough. Few seem to doubt the validity of those environmental claims, but political agendas are still getting in the way of making any headway. The so-called “summit” attended by our leaders in Copenhagen failed to produce any realistic action, once again.

We don’t have to wait around for politicians to try and force big business to solve these issues. If we all do our own bit, we can save ourselves money by steadily reducing our energy use and our own carbon footprints every day, and although we can’t get this all done by ourselves, we can achieve real results if we all work together. ‘People Power’ really can achieve this quite easily, after all, there are billions of us, so let’s just do it – start right now!

Tags: environment, environmental sustainability, Renewable Energy, saving electricity, saving money

Whoever said that saving money would be out of fashion – because it never is, but this is certainly a topical subject today. We all hate receiving those monthly energy bills in the mail and will silently curse as we open them. This would always be the time to make a resolution, vowing to turn off all unnecessary lights. Invariably though, we would forget as it didn’t seem quite so urgent for some reason. Fast forward to today and everything seems much more urgent now. Now we are looking for a whole array of different ways to save electricity, as we realise just how pressing this need is.

There was a time when only environmentalists and those known as “tree huggers” would seem to sense the true urgency of excess energy use and preach to us that we needed to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions or we would cause damage to the world we live in. News reports tell us on a virtual daily basis how global warming is changing everything, threatening to melt polar ice packs and taking away the ability of people who live in remote countries to look after themselves, due to intense alterations in weather patterns and climate change. Closer to home, we hear that companies are going to be penalised for using too much energy and emitting carbon and imagine that these costs will be passed along to us as well.

Quite apart from the holistic considerations and our concern for Mother Nature, energy costs themselves have been going through the roof. The government has tried and seems to be failing to regulate the energy industry and infrastructure seems unable to cope and is constantly under pressure. Those seasonal spikes in energy seem to be causing more issues as we go along and we wonder how long the system will be able to put up with this, as we continue to rely on fossil fuels for our power. You don’t have to be a scientist to understand the benefits of renewable energy, but nevertheless, we still seem hesitant to move forward and do something about it. Just think of the extraordinary ways in which we would be helping the environment if we were able to turn to wind, solar and other renewable sources for the majority of our energy.

Focusing close to home, what can we do to help the environment and ourselves at the same time? There are many things. For a start, we should always purchase highly efficient equipment for our kitchens and for our heating and air-conditioning needs. Look for a refrigerator, for example, that consumes around 100 KwH per year and you will be in possession of an appliance that is four times more efficient than the European Union average. If you have to spend up to 10% more to actually buy a machine like this it would be okay, as you could save a significant amount of money annually, greatly reducing your electricity bill. If you purchase new appliances, they will last for at least five years and the money that you pay upfront to purchase them will certainly be saved over that period of time. Remember that they will need less repairing as well and you won’t be as annoyed by that fan circling on whenever you are trying to sit down and watch the television!

Tags: environment, environmental sustainability, Renewable Energy, saving electricity, saving money

It’s important to keep in mind that you don’t have to live off the land or move to a cabin in the mountains to start helping the environment! Have you noticed how environmental issues have become hot news, quite literally, these days? We use way too much energy and are very careless with our consumption and must all learn how to be more sustainable as we go forward. Yes, this means we will have to think about everything that we do as we go about our daily lives. Find ways to save electricity at home and really learn about the benefits of renewable energy, to see whether we can apply at least some of these ideas to our lives.

How can we help save the environment, individually? We have compiled a list of things you can do at home, immediately, which will help to make a difference. If all of us were to apply what we read here, there would be a remarkable change over the long haul.

1. Consider all the bulbs in your home. Compact fluorescent bulbs are much better than incandescent bulbs which simply burn energy. Swap out all the lights in your house. You’d be surprised just how many bulbs you have. While you might be a little shocked when you buy these bulbs to start off with, government energy statisticians tell us that you could save the difference in cost within your lower electricity bills, during the space of a year.

2. Be a better steward. Send whatever is acceptable to the recycling plant. Bury biodegradable waste and food leftovers in the ground rather than clogging up the local landfills. People who know about these things tell us that up to 20% of the rubbish that we throw away is biodegradable and we could recycle it ourselves without stressing the system. Think of the energy used to collect this excess waste and save them the trouble of doing so.

3. Rethink your transportation. Consider whether you could share transportation with fellow worker/employees on a daily basis. Why not pool resources and cut down your bill, and the bill of a co-worker at the same time. It seems nonsensical when you look at all those cars jammed on the motorway in the morning, the vast majority of them with just a single occupant. This is craziness and while we wait for our politicians to come up with public transportation systems that really do work, we can all use our common sense.

4. Put some trees in your back garden. Did you know that trees are very good for our environment and considerably help the problem of climate change? Trees actually absorb carbon dioxide emissions that would otherwise end up in the atmosphere. By planting trees you can also keep direct sunlight away from your home and this could help to cut down your cooling bills in the summer, as well. If you have a noisy highway nearby, a couple of well positioned trees will help to cut down on your noise pollution, as well.

You see, just by being creative we can make a difference in almost every activity we engage in.

Tags: environment, environmental sustainability, Renewable Energy, saving electricity, saving money

There’s no point in trying to brush the problem of excess energy use under the carpet any longer. Change begins at home and it begins with every one of us. If we own or rent a home and use all the creature comforts that we are used to, then we are responsible for using a certain amount of energy and have, consequently, a carbon footprint to worry about. No longer can we expect big business to shoulder the blame and it’s no longer good enough to say that we take the bus to work and don’t drive. We all need to make big changes and look for ways to save electricity wherever we can find them. You need to take one single step if you are going to begin a journey of 1000 miles.

To start off with, you should make sure that all your windows and doors are fitting properly and you should go and check this right now. You might not be able to see any issues and should check by running your hand along the edges or by using an open flame of some kind to see whether you have any drafts. There is no sense whatsoever in heating the inside of your house or using air conditioning to try and cool it down during the brief hot spells that we get, if your hard earned money is flying out the window. Take steps to secure your home in this respect and then start to worry about your air heating and cooling costs.

If you have rooms that are not in constant use, consider putting any lighting appliances within on a timer. Motion detectors are good as well as they will activate and deactivate the lights when people move around. Almost every electrical item that you have actually wastes energy even if it is just plugged in and not switched on, and you should remove it from the wall socket just to be sure. Turn off computers at night. You have no need to keep them on for this period of time and they will only build up heat within, anyway. Every little bit helps and will account for a good savings at the end of the year.

We all know of the benefits of renewable energy, but once again, we tend to think that it’s a project for somebody else. Solar energy panels could be a good idea? It is possible to run your entire property by using solar power, whether you mount them on the roof or set it up so that they are appropriately angled within your garden. One of the ways to save electricity is to cut down on its extraction from the grid and to reduce the size of your footprint. If our footprint is too big, we need to get more energy efficient “shoes” and not continue to be extravagant in everything that we do. When heating water, why not turn the thermostat down a degree or so and remember that heating water with electricity is highly inefficient normally. They say that roughly 2/3 of the energy actually produced to get the electricity to you, to heat your water in the first place, is lost in the distribution system. For efficiency’s sake, oil or gas fired water heaters are much better, more highly efficient and will be far more beneficial when it comes to helping the environment as well.

Tags: environment, environmental sustainability, Renewable Energy, saving electricity, saving money

We seem so engrossed as we run in place, just to make ends meet, that we are not capable of standing back and looking at the bigger picture any more. Why are we so grossly inefficient at the way that we run our lives? For many years now, we have dealt with pretty good times and have not had to worry about putting such expensive petrol into our cars, nor be concerned about the fact that without those cars we simply cannot exist. A recession was something that we could barely remember or if we were young enough, we read about it in economics books. Whether it was time for a wake up call or not, we certainly got one.

We can clearly see that we can no longer rely on mechanical energy to help us to do absolutely everything. Energy inefficiency has led to huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, causing damage to the environment and forcing us to consider major changes, right now. We talk a good story about the benefits of renewable energy, but we are not helping the environment by diverting funds away from the research and development needed to actually make these options work for us.

“The Great Recession,” as it has become known, has now shown us how vulnerable we are to a downturn and how we all have little to fall back on in hard times. As such, we must be efficient in everything we do and this definitely includes energy use. We all have to learn to turn appliances off, to think of what we could do as an alternative and not just opt for the easy way. We must review our transportation habits and not clog the roads with single occupant vehicles each and every day as we go back and forth to work.

If you happen to be the decision-maker either at home or in the office, come up with ways to save electricity and then put an action plan in place. Insist that your family turns off all the lights, turn up the thermostats by a notch – don’t allow them to be altered, and make sure that all family members wash clothes at the same time and not individually, and generally be a better keeper of the space that you occupy.

We shouldn’t rely on politicians to do our work for us. Few seem to doubt the validity of those environmental claims, but political agendas are still getting in the way of making any headway. Just look at what failed to come out of that summit of “leaders” in Copenhagen – inaction once again.

We don’t have to wait around for politicians to try and force big business to solve these issues. We need to understand that by working individually, we can end up working together and if we all do our own bit we can steadily reduce energy use and cut back on the size of our global carbon footprint daily. Start right away by putting “people power” into action and let’s all enjoy the journey, taking advantage of the fact that there are billions of us around the world with an almost unbelievable combined potential – but only if we act now!

Tags: environment, environmental sustainability, Renewable Energy, saving electricity, saving money

It’s not as if saving money has ever been “out” of fashion, as such, but it is certainly en vogue these days. We all hate receiving those monthly energy bills in the mail and will silently curse as we open them. This would always be the time to make a resolution, vowing to turn off all unnecessary lights. Back then, though, it did not seem to be so urgent and we were somewhat poor at following through. If we fast forward to today, we seem to be living in a different world. Now we are looking for a whole array of different ways to save electricity, as we realise just how pressing this need is.

Once the domain only of environmentalists and tree huggers, we now all know how important it is to cut back on our energy use, so that we do not emit carbon dioxide and damage the planet. News reports tell us on a virtual daily basis how global warming is changing everything, threatening to melt polar ice packs and taking away the ability of people who live in remote countries to look after themselves, due to intense alterations in weather patterns and climate change. Closer to home, we hear that companies are going to be penalised for using too much energy and emitting carbon and imagine that these costs will be passed along to us as well.

Even if we don’t look at things from an overall perspective and express our concern for nature, we can see how energy costs themselves have exploded in recent times. The government has tried and seems to be failing to regulate the energy industry and infrastructure seems unable to cope and is constantly under pressure. How much longer will the system be able to put up with spikes in energy use, as we rely on those old fossil fuels to provide the raw material? We all know the benefits of renewable energy, but we collectively have not moved forward fast enough to try and embrace them. Just think of the extraordinary ways in which we would be helping the environment if we were able to turn to wind, solar and other renewable sources for the majority of our energy.

Getting down to business, what can we do at home to help both ourselves and the environment? There are a number of options. For a start, we should always purchase highly efficient equipment for our kitchens and for our heating and air-conditioning needs. Look for a refrigerator, for example, that consumes around 100 KwH per year and you will be in possession of an appliance that is four times more efficient than the European Union average. You may have to spend about five or maybe 10% more to actually buy the machine, but just think about how much energy you could save and how it would help to reduce your electricity bill. If you purchase new appliances, they will last for at least five years and the money that you pay upfront to purchase them will certainly be saved over that period of time. Remember that they will need less repairing as well and you won’t be as annoyed by that fan circling on whenever you are trying to sit down and watch the television!

Tags: environment, environmental sustainability, Renewable Energy, saving electricity, saving money

We seem so engrossed as we run in place, just to make ends meet, that we are not capable of standing back and looking at the bigger picture any more. We need to ask ourselves why we are so significantly inefficient in running our lives. This must be a consequence of many years of relatively good times, when we didn’t need to worry about the sheer amount of petrol that our cars used, or the fact that we have become completely reliant on our cars just to exist these days. It’s been so long since we had a recession, we can’t remember what it is all about and some of us are too young anyway, being forced to read about these downturns in reference books! Whether it was time for a wake up call or not, we certainly got one.

It is crazy that we rely on mechanical energy forms to help us do everything, without question. Energy inefficiency has led to huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, causing damage to the environment and forcing us to consider major changes, right now. We talk a good story about the benefits of renewable energy, but we are not helping the environment by diverting funds away from the research and development needed to actually make these options work for us.

Now we can see how vulnerable we are to an economic downturn and we can see that the “great recession” has exposed this vulnerability. Now, efficiency is everything and this most definitely includes the use of energy. We all have to learn to turn appliances off, to think of what we could do as an alternative and not just opt for the easy way. It’s just not good enough to clog our roads with vehicles carrying just one occupant as we go back and forth to our work, and we should review our transportation activities carefully.

If you happen to be the decision-maker either at home or in the office, come up with ways to save electricity and then put an action plan in place. Insist that your family turns off all the lights, turn up the thermostats by a notch – don’t allow them to be altered, and make sure that all family members wash clothes at the same time and not individually, and generally be a better keeper of the space that you occupy.

As we know, we cannot rely on our politicians to work quickly enough. We can see that politicians certainly seem to understand the problem, but individual agendas are just getting in the way of any progress. The so-called “summit” attended by our leaders in Copenhagen failed to produce any realistic action, once again.

While politicians may well try and force big business to address the issues, we shouldn’t wait for this. If we all do our own bit, we can save ourselves money by steadily reducing our energy use and our own carbon footprints every day, and although we can’t get this all done by ourselves, we can achieve real results if we all work together. Start right away by putting “people power” into action and let’s all enjoy the journey, taking advantage of the fact that there are billions of us around the world with an almost unbelievable combined potential – but only if we act now!

Tags: environment, environmental sustainability, Renewable Energy, saving electricity, saving money

Excess energy use is just bad news and we cannot run away from this problem any more and pretend it doesn’t exist. We need to realise that change begins at home and it is up to each one of us. If we own or rent a home and use all the creature comforts that we are used to, then we are responsible for using a certain amount of energy and have, consequently, a carbon footprint to worry about. We cannot turn to big business and blame them for everything, nor can we half-heartedly point to the fact that we might take the bus when we go to work and not use a car. We all need to make big changes and look for ways to save electricity wherever we can find them. You need to take one single step if you are going to begin a journey of 1000 miles.

To start off with, you should make sure that all your windows and doors are fitting properly and you should go and check this right now. You might not be able to see any issues and should check by running your hand along the edges or by using an open flame of some kind to see whether you have any drafts. There is no sense whatsoever in heating the inside of your house or using air conditioning to try and cool it down during the brief hot spells that we get, if your hard earned money is flying out the window. The first thing you need to do is to make sure that your house is as airtight as you can make it before worrying about your cooling and heating costs.

Rooms that are only rarely used should be isolated and you can put timer activated lighting appliances in these areas. Motion detectors are good as well as they will activate and deactivate the lights when people move around. Unplug all electrical items when they’re not actually in use, as they can still drain electricity when connected to a wall socket. Turn off computers at night. You have no need to keep them on for this period of time and they will only build up heat within, anyway. Every little bit helps and will account for a good savings at the end of the year.

Most people understand the benefits of renewable energy, but for some reason or another, we have a tendency to look to other people to take advantage of this knowledge. Why not consider some solar panels? It is possible to run your entire property by using solar power, whether you mount them on the roof or set it up so that they are appropriately angled within your garden. If you don’t extract as much electricity from the grid, you would be saving and reducing the size of your carbon footprint at the same time. If our footprint is too big, we need to get more energy efficient “shoes” and not continue to be extravagant in everything that we do. When heating water, why not turn the thermostat down a degree or so and remember that heating water with electricity is highly inefficient normally. Did you know that two thirds of the energy used to produce that electricity, the product that you use to heat your water, is actually lost as it is being distributed to you? Direct oil or gas fired water heaters are far better at helping the environment and are much more efficient in the long run.

Tags: environment, environmental sustainability, Renewable Energy, saving electricity, saving money

It’s important to keep in mind that you don’t have to live off the land or move to a cabin in the mountains to start helping the environment! You must have noticed how environmental issues are in discussion everywhere these days, not to be ignored. We use way too much energy and are very careless with our consumption and must all learn how to be more sustainable as we go forward. This will require us to think about every single action that we take during our daily lives. Find ways to save electricity at home and really learn about the benefits of renewable energy, to see whether we can apply at least some of these ideas to our lives.

What can you do to help save the environment? Here’s a small list of steps that you can take at home, right now, which would make a difference. If all of us were to apply what we read here, there would be a remarkable change over the long haul.

1. Look at all the bulbs you have in your house. It is much better to use compact fluorescent bulbs than those traditional incandescent items that use a lot of energy. Begin by changing all the light bulbs in the house. You’d be surprised just how many bulbs you have. While you might be a little shocked when you buy these bulbs to start off with, government energy statisticians tell us that you could save the difference in cost within your lower electricity bills, during the space of a year.

2. Be a better steward. Send whatever is acceptable to the recycling plant. Bury biodegradable waste and food leftovers in the ground rather than clogging up the local landfills. People who know about these things tell us that up to 20% of the rubbish that we throw away is biodegradable and we could recycle it ourselves without stressing the system. Whenever this trash is picked up, a lot of energy is used to do so and we could save all of this.

3. Rethink your transportation. Are you able to share transportation with somebody else on your way to work? You could cut down on both your bills by pooling resources this way. It seems nonsensical when you look at all those cars jammed on the motorway in the morning, the vast majority of them with just a single occupant. We have known about this for some time and cannot deny that it is really silly and as we wait for politicians to perfect public transportation systems, we should all exhibit some common sense.

4. Put some trees in your back garden. Did you know that trees are very good for our environment and considerably help the problem of climate change? Trees actually absorb carbon dioxide emissions that would otherwise end up in the atmosphere. By planting trees you can also keep direct sunlight away from your home and this could help to cut down your cooling bills in the summer, as well. In addition, well-positioned trees cut down noise pollution caused by a noisy highway that might be located close to you.

You see, just by being creative we can make a difference in almost every activity we engage in.

Tags: environment, environmental sustainability, Renewable Energy, saving electricity, saving money