Four Things You Can Do Right Now - UK Carbon Footprint Discussion Group

Message from discussion Four Things You Can Do Right Now

john.gallop

More options 9 Aug 2008, 13:51

From: "john.gallop" <john.gal...@btinternet.com>

Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2008 05:51:28 -0700 (PDT)

Local: Sat 9 Aug 2008 13:51

Subject: Re: Four Things You Can Do Right Now

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I think the frustration can be reduced if you keep a check on your
energy consumption (by reading gas and electricity meters regularly).
Then you can tell how well you are doing and any small reduction
achieved leads to renewed efforts, in my experience. We have been able
to reduce our home energy consumption (gas and electricity) by almost
60% in 3 years. Some of this has involved expensive things like PV
panels but almost equally large cuts have come through realising where
the energy in the home is going (we reduced our electricity
consumption by more than one third at no cost when we realised that we
had an electrically-heated towel rail which drew a constant 300 watts
day an night!). Which brings me to a second point: an electricity
monitor proved very useful in identifying energy hungry appliances.
The monitor (which can be bought for about £10) plugs into a wall
socket and tells you how much power any appliance plugged into it is
using.

We have done various other things which can be found at this link:

http://uk.geocities.com/john.gal...@btinternet.com/energy.htm

On Jun 23, 3:12 am, Rafa <rafasan...@gmail.com> wrote:

> As I’ve been writing more and more about climate change I have noticed
> myself getting more frustrated. Frustrated because I can’t seem to
> put together a solid action plan of things I can do right away to
> alleviate the situation. So I decided to do a little research on what
> practical steps normal, average people can start doing right away in
> order help solve this global warming problem we have at hand. The
> following are 4 easy things you can implement right away:

> 1) Drive Less - If you drive to work every day, make it a point to
> take the bus or carpool once or twice a week. I started doing this a
> while back and one of the things I noticed was that I got to work
> faster in the bus because of the bus lane. And if you want to be even
> more adventurous, ride your bike to work.

> 2) Turn It Off - If you’re like most people, you probably have an
> extra lightbulb on you’re not using. Go ahead and turn it off. The
> aggregate effects of this are considerable.

> 3) Use Energy Efficient Bulbs and Appliances - Replace those old
> incandescent light bulbs with new LED bulbs. Again, the aggregate
> long term effects add up.

> 4) Recycle As Much As Possible - Recycling something usually takes a
> lot less energy than producing something from raw materials. A lot of
> energy can be saved recycling and thus contributing less pollution.

> These four things may sound too simplistic, but you would be amazed at
> how many people overlook these. People can start implementing these
> right away without much difficulty or shock to the way they live. It
> may not be much, but we are looking for the aggregate effect.

> I have blog where I talk more about climate change the "green"
> movement. Feel free to check it out and leave any comments if you
> want.

> http://www.seattlegreenobserver.com

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