Car sharing and car clubs – the greenest option for urbanites?

Posted by Ross Lammas

Co-wheels_car-club

When comparing the costs of urban travel, public transport wins hands down. So is it really worth having a car sitting outside your home if you live in a city?

We all love the freedom of car ownership, brilliant for those ‘go any time’ trips to the shops, lifts to school or a weekend away. It’s only when you factor in the cost of car ownership – tax, insurance, maintenance, repairs, and of course, the dreaded deprecation, that the cash burn rate and hassle kicks in! Not to mention the nightmare of having to find a parking space and parking fees. For those who want car free living, are there any alternatives that offer the flexibility of car ownership, yet are more reliable than your local taxi service?

Petrol vehicles running costs

Diesel vehicles running costs

Happily, yes, there are other options for city dwellers – Car Clubs and Car Sharing are using modern technology to reinvent the car rental industry! Unlike car rentals, where you hire cars by the day/week, car clubs operate on half hour timeslots. All you need to do is join a scheme – they will check you out before you get behind the wheel – pay a membership fee, and then hire a car for the time you need. Access to the vehicle is by your Smartphone or by smart membership card. Most operators have designated drop off and pick points, free roaming cars are becoming more prevalent too – locating these will be from geo locations accessed by your phone.

There are lots of players entering the car sharing market from large corporates such as Avis (ZipCar) to social enterprises like Co–Wheels. Car sharing certainly ticks many boxes from a sustainable transport perspective, as it could effectively reduce the number of cars cluttering up our cities. Factor in the uptake of electric vehicles into these car-sharing fleets and we could be witnessing a dramatic reduction in inner city pollution levels!

How much does it cost? Membership to Zipcar is £60 per year, then £5 per half-hour slot. That’s everything, fuel, insurance. Co-Wheels, who began in the North East, offer membership for only £25! Off peak times, midday/midweek, you may even get a real bargain. Weekends get busy – always best to book! A full weekend or week hire are available but could get expensive, best to go for the traditional car hire route I’d say.

Here’s a list of the current UK operators and their rates

Co–Wheels – membership £25 from £4.50 per hour
DriveNow – membership £29 from £20 per hour
ZipCar – membership £59.50 from £5 per hour

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Electric cars pros and cons – Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV) review

Posted by Ross Lammas

Road testing the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV ended up being a bit frustrating, not due to the car I must say, you’ll have to watch the video to see why!

The actual driving experience of the PHEV is excellent – even though my preference would be for an estate version rather than a SUV. Once behind the wheel the benefits of electric driving are reaffirmed; there’s the quietness of the electric motors and that instant power delivery, plus with the Outlander PHEV there’s no compromise with boot space or passenger room. The driving position and seats are comfortable on long journeys. Performance is good (not electrifying!) for a two-ton vehicle, but that’s not what the Outlander is all about. Mitsubishi have positioned the batteries low in the floor pan of the car which gives it a good centre of gravity and vehicle did not feel at all top heavy. The dash and cabin, whilst a little less sophisticated than similar luxury 4×4 interiors, should stand-up well to everyday life.

As with most electric vehicles it’s packed with technology, which should help you get the most out of the battery driving. Economy is really going to be driven by your driving habits and lifestyle; if you’re motivation is to be ‘green’ you’ll need to consider switching energy supplier to one that uses a renewable energy source, as there isn’t much CO2 saving with electric vehicles charged on standard tariffs.

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The Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-in electric vehicle is a good option for drivers needing the practicality of a 4×4 vehicle, with potentially low running costs and the low company car tax liabilities (5% BIK) of an electric cars. Prices start from just over £28k, which is comparable to the diesel version of the Outlander. Companies purchasing a PHEV Outlander are allowed to write down 100% of the cost of the car against its profits chargeable for Corporation Tax in year one. Businesses will also benefit from a reduction in its associated Class 1a National Insurance Contributions.

Overall it’s an impressive vehicle to drive and very tax efficient for company car drivers or business owners!

Euro NCAP – Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV – Five Stars Crash Test

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4k ultra HD TV’s – starts energy usage arms race again!

Posted by Ross Lammas

It’s time for another television technology arms race again! First we had flat-screen plasmas to replace our space consuming tube TVs, followed by the LCD HD ready revolution, then full HD, uninspiring 3D televisions which failed to light up the publics imagination or meet the manufacturers sales targets! Smart TV’s quickly appear over the horizon – giving us the Internet experience on a larger scale, and LEDs came to rescue us from the expensive energy bills plasma TVs generated. So what’s next? 4k ultra HD TVs of course! All cranking up that home tech arms race and potentially our energy bills again.

So do we need 4k ultra HD TVs?

Close-up 4k screens look fantastic, however, do you need that kind of resolution in your front room – I think not. 4k images are for cinemas, where you’ve big screen projection and an audience to please. Okay if you lucky enough to own a 6m wide private cinema with a 4k projector it may be a good thing.

Then there’s the issue of what are you going to play on it, at the moment there isn’t a playback format like DVD or Blue-ray for ultra HD films. Downloading 4k content isn’t really an option at the moment as the files will be huge. Even the animation studios are complaining that 4k content is going to drive-up production costs, as animation films are rendered in 2k – have you ever spotted this when you’ve been to the cinema? Don’t get me wrong I like technology and love films; my tech life stretches back to days Spectrum computers, Amstrads and DOS, that’s until I discovered Apple Macs in the late 80’s. I even used to work with good old 35mm projected film before it was called 4k! I just think that there has to be a tangible benefit for consumers to technological improvements and a consideration for the energy consumption and data storage implications.

4K TVs ranked by annual running cost

There is also the energy usage issue of ever expanding screen sizes and resolutions. Take a look on Sust-it and you will see that 4k-screens use far more power than HD ones. Even the European Environmental Bureau‘s (EEB) are making noises to ban super sized, energy hungry TV’s as happened with vacuum cleaners. The EU funded Cool Products campaign says European TVs use the same electricity as Sweden and Portugal’s residential energy consumption combined!

Downloading content from the cloud has an energy usage overhead that’s unseen, easily forgotten and rarely mentioned. Somewhere there’s going to be server ‘farms’ crammed with hard drives and computers streaming this content, all being cooled by massive air conditioning units pumping out yet more Co2. I’d rather go to the cinema any-day!

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Sust-it’s Top Ten energy saving tips for students

Posted by Ross Lammas

Student accommodation has come a long way in recent years – the purpose built – en-suite, well equipped, serviced flats that many first year students experience is very different from the cold, damp rooms I remember. No worries about energy bills or how many showers you can take, it’s usually all included in the rent. So it can come of something as shock when students move on to house sharing, and realise that you have pay for electricity, gas and even water! Some canny landlords include an ‘extra’ cost for utility bills – requiring payment even during the long holidays. Beware of this, one student told me his house of 8 were all asked to pay £11 per week for utility bills – paying the landlord £4576, they did the bills themselves, paid £25 per month and saved £2,000!

However, there are many students living in damp, poorly insulated houses – and all too aware of the cost of energy. I’ve heard stories of students, like older people, not daring to put the heating on because of the cost. With many students wanting to grab the best houses for next year it’s worth remembering to look at the heating system, and look for any energy guzzling appliances and to think about the energy bills with any property. In the meantime, see our tips for students on saving energy, saving money and staying warm!

1. Check out the energy performance of any property and likely bills before you sign anything. The less you have to pay for heating the more you can spend going out!

2. Get that boiler working right – make sure the landlord has it serviced and that it is running correctly before you move in – it’s a legal requirement! Get familiar with how the heating system works too.

3. Don’t be tempted to save on the gas by plugging in an electric heater. You’ll be clicking up the kilowatts and the £’s, not to mention the CO2 emissions.

4. Boring … but do as your parents say and put on an extra jumper before turning up the thermostat.

5. Cook in bulk or together – saves on washing up as well!

6. If you have a tumble dryer– check the filter is clear, and water container (if a condenser model) emptied. Don’t overload and keep use to a minimum. See how much one costs to run at Sust-it

7. Stop draughts – Pull the curtains – and ask your landlord for thermal linings (worth a try!) or pick up some heavy retro curtains from the charity shop.

8. Defrost the freezer – it will be easier to open as a result!

9. Turn things off! Chargers, lights, straighteners, TV’s – it all adds up.

10. Wash your clothes at a low temperature and go easy on the detergent. Share your loads so you always do a full wash.

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The clocks are a changing – energy usage goes up!

Posted by Ross Lammas

Getting up in the dark, then coming home from work in the dark certainly isn’t any good for your vitamin D levels, or your bank balance, as energy usage starts shooting up as soon as the clock go back. Your heating system is obviously the main culprit when it comes to energy use, so making sure that’s well serviced is a must. Next on the list are your lights; with shortening daylight hours all our lights will be on a lot longer, consuming yet more money. Halogen GU10 down-lights can easily been seen as energy efficient – due to their small size – unfortunately they aren’t that good when compared to modern LED replacements. The brightness and the prices of LED lights have improved dramatically over the past year, making them a great energy saving option for any home. See our energy saving video for more details.