And its made me think. Loved it, of course, but I was thinking about this blog on the way back.
There was a microwave in the self catering cottage we rented, of course. And there was an induction hob, which I think is the most efficient form of cooking: but it was a weird one - there was no indicator on the switch to tell you which way the thing was pointing! How mad is that? With the result that we were constantly switching the it on and off to check whether or not it was on. It was a bit mad.
How do we know how long to charge rechargeable batteries? We're always being moaned at for leaving them on for too long, but how long is long enough?
There were no energy saving lights at all, zilch. And the cistern on both toilets was huge! *And* the taps were practically flooding the basins, they let through so much water. I appreciate that people don't want to feel so careful when they're on holiday, but I'm sure there are some issues there for landlords - things can be done that would make no difference at all to the experience for the holidaymakers, but would make a fairly substantial difference to their own bills. And I'm equally sure some of that could be applied to us as homeowners.
Sunday 25 July 2010
Thursday 15 July 2010
Water saving tips
This isn't about either renovation or DIY, so much as about our behaviour. Some of these are taken from other websites, some are from my own experience.... check out if any of them are relevant to you ......
- get a water butt! Get another water butt!
- use a bucket and sponge to wash the car, if you have one.
- cistern displacement devices - hippos! A clean jamjar with the lid screwed on tightly, full of water, used to do the job perfectly well, and give rise to no extra production costs.
- nearly everyone has to run the hot tap for a bit before they get the hot water.... I let a little bit of that water down the drain, to help keep it fresh, but 90% of it I capture in a jug, which either contributes to a big bowl that flushes the toilet every now and then, or to watering the plants, or even soaking pans before I wash them.
- don't use a toilet as a waste bin! If you flush it, you're wasting water (and potential compostables). Even if you don't flush, you might be helping to create a blockage in 5 years time, especially if there isn't much of a drop in the soil pipe. This point was inspired by my mother, who goes into the garden every morning to brush her hair, so the birds can have it for nesting materials (and then she didn't have to clean it off the floor, of course - talk about multiple outcomes!) but in the winter, she flushed it down the toilet, and created an expensive, embarrassing problem for herself, with a good-sized toilet blockage.
- if you like drinking cold water, fill a jug and put it in the fridge ready - don't just run the tap till its cold enough.
- remember this mnemonic about flushing the toilet: "if its brown, flush it down; if its yellow, let it mellow". On one memorable occasion, we had a toilet that got bunged up with toilet paper by following this too well, so we give ourselves some leeway these days...
- fix dripping taps, it really is important.
- replace even one bath each week with a shower - saves lots, all at once!
- make sure dishwashers and washing machines are full before you put them on. And if you need to replace them, even if you have to buy second hand, buy the most energy efficient you can.
- re-use water if you can - half empty glasses of water, for example, can be put into the saucer of a houseplant.
- another way of reusing water might be to take a bucket into the shower! It would have to be a clean bucket, of course :)
- is anyone into siphoning off bathwater and lugging it out into the garden, or running a hose from the bathroom window to a water butt? Its theoretically possible, and I've seen it done on a farm in Africa - they didn't bother with the water butt, the hose was so long there was no heat transfer by the time the water got to the garden :)
- don't let the tap run when you're washing the dishes, or peeling veg, or cleaning your teeth, for that matter! It has a handle, turn it on and off!
- only boil as much water as you need - thats the kettle.
- when you only have the hot water on, and not the central heating, you probably don't need to have the boiler switched on for as long as you think you do. I have a modern hot water tank and an old boiler, and even so 20 minutes was absolutely fine, for more than a day's hot water.
- don't lose the bung for the water butt - the inside will promptly become slimy and algae-ridden, definitely unpleasant.
- get a water butt! Get another water butt!
- use a bucket and sponge to wash the car, if you have one.
- cistern displacement devices - hippos! A clean jamjar with the lid screwed on tightly, full of water, used to do the job perfectly well, and give rise to no extra production costs.
- nearly everyone has to run the hot tap for a bit before they get the hot water.... I let a little bit of that water down the drain, to help keep it fresh, but 90% of it I capture in a jug, which either contributes to a big bowl that flushes the toilet every now and then, or to watering the plants, or even soaking pans before I wash them.
- don't use a toilet as a waste bin! If you flush it, you're wasting water (and potential compostables). Even if you don't flush, you might be helping to create a blockage in 5 years time, especially if there isn't much of a drop in the soil pipe. This point was inspired by my mother, who goes into the garden every morning to brush her hair, so the birds can have it for nesting materials (and then she didn't have to clean it off the floor, of course - talk about multiple outcomes!) but in the winter, she flushed it down the toilet, and created an expensive, embarrassing problem for herself, with a good-sized toilet blockage.
- if you like drinking cold water, fill a jug and put it in the fridge ready - don't just run the tap till its cold enough.
- remember this mnemonic about flushing the toilet: "if its brown, flush it down; if its yellow, let it mellow". On one memorable occasion, we had a toilet that got bunged up with toilet paper by following this too well, so we give ourselves some leeway these days...
- fix dripping taps, it really is important.
- replace even one bath each week with a shower - saves lots, all at once!
- make sure dishwashers and washing machines are full before you put them on. And if you need to replace them, even if you have to buy second hand, buy the most energy efficient you can.
- re-use water if you can - half empty glasses of water, for example, can be put into the saucer of a houseplant.
- another way of reusing water might be to take a bucket into the shower! It would have to be a clean bucket, of course :)
- is anyone into siphoning off bathwater and lugging it out into the garden, or running a hose from the bathroom window to a water butt? Its theoretically possible, and I've seen it done on a farm in Africa - they didn't bother with the water butt, the hose was so long there was no heat transfer by the time the water got to the garden :)
- don't let the tap run when you're washing the dishes, or peeling veg, or cleaning your teeth, for that matter! It has a handle, turn it on and off!
- only boil as much water as you need - thats the kettle.
- when you only have the hot water on, and not the central heating, you probably don't need to have the boiler switched on for as long as you think you do. I have a modern hot water tank and an old boiler, and even so 20 minutes was absolutely fine, for more than a day's hot water.
- don't lose the bung for the water butt - the inside will promptly become slimy and algae-ridden, definitely unpleasant.
Friday 9 July 2010
Energy Saving Trust website on water
Under the "At Home" section, Water is one of the seven main areas. The fun bit there is the energy calculator, which takes you through each room in your house, but it wildly overestimated my costs, and so probably my useage too - by a factor of over 100%
It said I should be paying £280 for 48,800 litres of water, and I actually pay £120, with £50 credit having built up on that basis. The savings suggested were watering my garden morning or evening, to avoid evaporation - I already do this; to save £10/4000 litres a year, to use a shower rather than a bath, to save £11/2,900 litres a year - a bath is a treat for me, not a regular thing, so I've discounted this suggestion; and to fit a trigger nozzle on the garden hosepipe instead of having a continuous flow. This would save £11/4,500 litres a year. And thats a really great suggestion, but out of place in this report, as I'd told it I didn't use a hosepipe!
So the calculator is quite fun, but not particularly intelligent.
There's a guide to how to instal a water butt - excellent! There's currently no videos on youtube about it that I can find, so this is helpful, even as simple photos.
There are water saving tips - basic, but there doesn't seem to be as many ways to save water as there to save fuel, for instance, so I'll take what I can get. Some day, I'll write up *all* the tips :)
Water efficient products - now, this is the real deal! Shower heads, appliances, insulation, toilets, taps, butts, hoses and labelling. Fantastic! This gives me a really great idea of where to start in my new house.
Quite a bit for the garden, including more tips - I think the garden is going to need a separate blog :)
Hmmm.... Water Saving Week was in June, just a few weeks ago as I'm writing this. I certainly never noticed. As the school reports used to say, Could Do Better.
Some good links - including Water Wise, the Consumer Council for Water, the Environment Agency, and the Bathroom Manufacturers Association's Water Efficient Product Labelling Scheme. I've already taken note of quite a few organisations around water - how many does the UK need, exactly? I bet they all have their own tips pages, as well.
There's a video! It says its on youtube, hmmm...and its Kate Humble. With water saving tips. Damn, I'm *definitely* going to make a page of tips.
It said I should be paying £280 for 48,800 litres of water, and I actually pay £120, with £50 credit having built up on that basis. The savings suggested were watering my garden morning or evening, to avoid evaporation - I already do this; to save £10/4000 litres a year, to use a shower rather than a bath, to save £11/2,900 litres a year - a bath is a treat for me, not a regular thing, so I've discounted this suggestion; and to fit a trigger nozzle on the garden hosepipe instead of having a continuous flow. This would save £11/4,500 litres a year. And thats a really great suggestion, but out of place in this report, as I'd told it I didn't use a hosepipe!
So the calculator is quite fun, but not particularly intelligent.
There's a guide to how to instal a water butt - excellent! There's currently no videos on youtube about it that I can find, so this is helpful, even as simple photos.
There are water saving tips - basic, but there doesn't seem to be as many ways to save water as there to save fuel, for instance, so I'll take what I can get. Some day, I'll write up *all* the tips :)
Water efficient products - now, this is the real deal! Shower heads, appliances, insulation, toilets, taps, butts, hoses and labelling. Fantastic! This gives me a really great idea of where to start in my new house.
Quite a bit for the garden, including more tips - I think the garden is going to need a separate blog :)
Hmmm.... Water Saving Week was in June, just a few weeks ago as I'm writing this. I certainly never noticed. As the school reports used to say, Could Do Better.
Some good links - including Water Wise, the Consumer Council for Water, the Environment Agency, and the Bathroom Manufacturers Association's Water Efficient Product Labelling Scheme. I've already taken note of quite a few organisations around water - how many does the UK need, exactly? I bet they all have their own tips pages, as well.
There's a video! It says its on youtube, hmmm...and its Kate Humble. With water saving tips. Damn, I'm *definitely* going to make a page of tips.
Saturday 3 July 2010
Green features of plumbing
As my first project is an additional toilet, I tried to make a list of all the points I'd need to consider just for that. It didn't work out that way! I ended up starting a list about everything to do with plumbing, and although each of these will have their very own little blogpost eventually, this is it so far:
Policies and Design
- siting of all plumbing uses as close as possible to water sources, whether this means the water main or the tank. This minimizes "dead legs".
- integrating active and passive solar heating into the main system, including using a combi boiler.
- examining the treatment and re-use of black and grey water.
- materials used - plastic, ceramics, stainless steel, brass, titanium, granite, chrome, graphite. Are any of them greener than any other?
- knowing about the stop cock.
- the pros and cons of water meters.
Micro and macro, a miscellany
- energy efficient appliances.
- water butts.
- filtered water.
- waste disposal units. Oh dear...
- a strainer - basket strainer? - over all plugholes, to help prevent blockages, whether from human hair or kitchen waste.
- underground water tanks for rainwater storage.
Toilets
- a urinal at home!
- smaller cistern for toilets when refitting.
- using a hippo in larger, existing cisterns.
- dual flush.
Taps
- mixer or pillar taps? Monobloc? Disabled useage.
- aerating taps and showerheads.
- press taps or sensor taps, that switch off after a set number of seconds.
- pull-out spray and swivel spout.
- what type of valve inside the tap? Magnetic springs!
- inbuilt or add-on filtering and softening.
Policies and Design
- siting of all plumbing uses as close as possible to water sources, whether this means the water main or the tank. This minimizes "dead legs".
- integrating active and passive solar heating into the main system, including using a combi boiler.
- examining the treatment and re-use of black and grey water.
- materials used - plastic, ceramics, stainless steel, brass, titanium, granite, chrome, graphite. Are any of them greener than any other?
- knowing about the stop cock.
- the pros and cons of water meters.
Micro and macro, a miscellany
- energy efficient appliances.
- water butts.
- filtered water.
- waste disposal units. Oh dear...
- a strainer - basket strainer? - over all plugholes, to help prevent blockages, whether from human hair or kitchen waste.
- underground water tanks for rainwater storage.
Toilets
- a urinal at home!
- smaller cistern for toilets when refitting.
- using a hippo in larger, existing cisterns.
- dual flush.
Taps
- mixer or pillar taps? Monobloc? Disabled useage.
- aerating taps and showerheads.
- press taps or sensor taps, that switch off after a set number of seconds.
- pull-out spray and swivel spout.
- what type of valve inside the tap? Magnetic springs!
- inbuilt or add-on filtering and softening.
Installing a second toilet
The ethics of putting in a second toilet in a home that only has one occupant are problematic ... except that work people visit me at home, and to use the single toilet currently there, they'd have to go through my living room and see my kitchen, which loses me my privacy. So a second toilet it is....
I want it as small as possible, to be as efficient as possible space-wise, so I'm looking at compact ranges. I also want the washbasin to be one of those corner ones, they look very space saving. Add a hook on the door for a towel, and thats that - I'm not interested in looking at hand driers, for such a low traffic area they're not necessary, and paper towels are ecologically horrendous.
Personal quirks: yep, I have them! I want a washbasin thats hung on the wall, not a pedestal one. That may be my only option if I have a corner basin, in any case, but I loathe pedestals - to me, with the hidey-hole inside them that can't really be reached by anyone except a contortionist, they're heaven sent for spiders. And I want the inside of the toilet to be smooth - the design of the toilet I currently have (sorry to be gross) is not good, it has what amount to corners on the inside, which are extremely difficult to clean. Ease of maintenance implies all sorts of things. Who wants to be cleaning a toilet when they could be sitting in the garden?
Oh, and I really like the sound of a "soft close toilet seat" :)
Equipment once its being used also has to be as green as possible, of course, which means using toilet paper made from recycled materials, and green cleaning materials - not necessarily branded goods, either. I'm going to investigate what people have been writing about white vinegar, for instance. But in case the thing is up and running before I've done that, then yes, branded eco goods it is.
I want it as small as possible, to be as efficient as possible space-wise, so I'm looking at compact ranges. I also want the washbasin to be one of those corner ones, they look very space saving. Add a hook on the door for a towel, and thats that - I'm not interested in looking at hand driers, for such a low traffic area they're not necessary, and paper towels are ecologically horrendous.
Personal quirks: yep, I have them! I want a washbasin thats hung on the wall, not a pedestal one. That may be my only option if I have a corner basin, in any case, but I loathe pedestals - to me, with the hidey-hole inside them that can't really be reached by anyone except a contortionist, they're heaven sent for spiders. And I want the inside of the toilet to be smooth - the design of the toilet I currently have (sorry to be gross) is not good, it has what amount to corners on the inside, which are extremely difficult to clean. Ease of maintenance implies all sorts of things. Who wants to be cleaning a toilet when they could be sitting in the garden?
Oh, and I really like the sound of a "soft close toilet seat" :)
Equipment once its being used also has to be as green as possible, of course, which means using toilet paper made from recycled materials, and green cleaning materials - not necessarily branded goods, either. I'm going to investigate what people have been writing about white vinegar, for instance. But in case the thing is up and running before I've done that, then yes, branded eco goods it is.
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