simply efficient shopping

Don’t buy a washer dryer if you’ve got the space!

‘Jack of all trades master of none’ certainly applies to wash dryers, these clever appliances that can do all your washing and drying in one go, sound great don’t they? The only problem is they’ve got an incredible thirst and consume copious amounts of electricity! Compared to a separate washing machine and tumble dryer. The most energy efficient washer dryer model in our energy saving database would cost you £113.19 to run (including water) compare that to £57.76 for separate tumble dryer and washing machine and you’re saving £55.43 a year.

That’s not much comfort if you’ve only got space for one machine! At least if you check sust-it could save yourself £64 a year by buying the most efficient washer dryer available.

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American TV ownership drop could signal higher energy consumption – why?

Broadcast or on-demand TV?

Is viewing television online and on mobile devices green?

I’ve noticed a trend in our household that it’s so easy to view missed TV programmes via the computer that the TV’s becoming redundant! And a new report in the US by Nielsen backs this up. It shows that television ownership has dropped for the first time in 20 years. The 2.2% from 98.9% to 96.7% doesn’t seem like a lot, but it represents about 1.2 million households that don’t own televisions. The authors conclude that there could be a number of reasons for this; including digital TV transition, the down turn in the economy, and the multiple platforms letting people view home video online and mobile devices. But Nielsen reports, “A small subset of younger, urban consumers are going without paid TV subscriptions. Long-term effects of this are unclear, as it’s undetermined if this is also an economic issue, with these individuals entering the TV marketplace once they have the means, or the beginning of a larger shift to viewing online and on mobile devices.”

It could be down to the economy Nielsen notes, “The last such UEs decline occurred in 1992, after Nielsen adjusted for the 1990 Census, and subsequently underwent a period of significant growth.” But could it signal a change in viewing habits that could help the environment by reducing waste generated in manufacturing TV’s? Probably not! As the energy used in delivering on-demand television services is always going to be more than any broadcast system – which just deliveries content in a single stream over the airways, cables or the Internet.

Think of the processing your computer has to do to play a video from your hard drive, the latest episode of Dr Who, for instance, then multiply that by a hundred, or a thousand, or even hundreds of thousands of people, all trying to view that same video file at slightly different times, what would happen? Your computer would simply grind to a halt; this principle applies to on-demand video services sitting somewhere in this virtual cloud that we never see. All these video servers are consuming vast amounts of energy to store and deliver this content at our convenience. They all need to backed-up, so everything needs to be stored twice! The machines have to be superfast to deliver high quality high-resolution formats we are starting to expect. Our networks/broadband need to have major upgrades to cope with the enormous increase in data traffic, our service providers are trying to pass on the cost by limiting bandwidth usage and charging for when we go over our limits. Are less broadcast TV’s going to lead to lower energy consumption? I don’t think so.

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Sust-it adds water usage to it’s efficiency rankings

It’s now possible to rank dishwashers, washer driers and washing machines by water usage as well as energy usage thanks to Sust-it. With nearly 40 per cent of homes now having a water meter, saving money by saving water is an important issue.

Dishwashers, washer driers and washing machines water usage

Sust-it adds water consumption to running costs

We’ve taken OFWAT’s average price for a cubic metre of water, and fed this into our calculations to give an overall running cost. For dishwashers there is very little difference in water consumption between models, they use on average 10 litres per wash, or cost about £3 per year. The real baddies are the washer dryers, some can use over 130 litres per wash – double the water consumption of a washing machine and can cost as much as £45 per year.

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Is it worth getting a Home Energy Monitor?

Knowing how much energy your home appliances are using is great if it helps you save cash, and reduce your carbon footprint. Beware though, you could become an energy bore.  Reeling off how many kilowatts it takes to boil a kettle or run the fridge, over the dinner table, can get a bit tedious. And once the novelty of the monitor has worn off, will it have helped change your energy using habits, or will it be left to gather dust or relegated to the kitchen drawer along with the cappuccino frother and the electric garlic press?  True to say, if owning a monitor makes you change your habits long term, and, assuming you don’t live in a house full of teenagers incapable of switching a light off, you could save money – up to 15% or £135, off the average annual bill, claims moneysavingexpert.

Is it worth getting a Home Energy Monitor?

You could just read your electricity meter!

There are some deals around at the moment with energy suppliers offering monitors free with certain tariffs, but beware you could be paying over the odds for the tariff. Check the rate out first and buy a monitor separately.  Or save the cash and look at the dial on your metering spinning around in the cupboard!

 

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Low-energy lightbulbs MUST be recycled!

I’m always nervous when a low-energy light bulb blows. You wouldn’t think this happens very often given their supposed lifespan, but it does, and I have a boxful waiting to be recycled. Why should I be nervous? Well, low-energy light bulbs contain a small amount of mercury giving them their energy-saving properties. So I worry that one will break. And, whilst this may not be harmful on its own, if large quantities of these bulbs end up going to landfill they could be damaging to the environment.

But research by the Lighting Industry Federation, the recycling scheme Recolight and others, showed that I am quite alone in my concern with 8 out of 10 consumers unaware that low-energy light bulbs MUST be recycled

Only 18 per cent of those surveyed were aware that low-energy light bulbs need to be recycled through specialised recycling facilities. Alarmingly, when asked what they thought they would do when their old low-energy light bulbs reached end-of-life, 69 per cent said they would throw them away in the normal household rubbish.

And with the research showing that there are approximately 133 million low-energy light bulbs currently in use in homes across the UK. That could add up to a lot of mercury. As Recolight Chief Executive Nigel Harvey explains; “In the next three to five years we expect large quantities of low-energy light bulbs to start reaching end-of-life. It is essential that we raise awareness now of the importance of recycling these bulbs so that they don’t end up in landfill.

“We are working with retailers and local authorities to provide more facilities for consumers to recycle their old bulbs, therefore making it easier for people to do so and helping to raise awareness of the issue. We have also set up a community recycling initiative to enable recycling champions to set up recycling facilities in convenient community locations, using our specially designed collection container.”

So to help promote the need to recycle A colourful animation created by Sam Duggan, illustrating how people can help increase recycling rates of low-energy light bulbs in their community by becoming a CoBRA volunteer.

CoBRA was set up to create volunteer ‘recycling champions’ up and down the country who help take responsibility for collecting used low-energy light bulbs for recycling in their local area. These ‘Champions’ take on responsibility for collecting the used light bulbs in specially designed collection containers which can be placed in community locations of their choice. The waste light bulbs will then be taken to a central collection facility by the volunteers, ready for collection and lead to responsible recycling. So think twice before you chuck the next bulb to blow in the bin.

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