THE energy saving measures below could help you shave up to £300 off your annual energy bill and enable you to reduce your carbon dioxide emissions by two tonnes. Here’s how you do it.
ONE: Eliminate draughts and wasted heat by fitting a cheap, easy brush or PVC seal on your exterior doors. Letterboxes and keyholes should be covered too.
TWO: Draughts also get in through gaps in floorboards and skirting boards, which let heat escape in winter. Filling them with newspaper, beading or sealant will help you stop throwing heat (and your money) away.
THREE: Trade your ordinary lightbulbs for energy saving ones. Costing from just £3.50, energy saving light bulbs last 12 times longer and for each bulb you fit, you could save up to £9 on your annual electricity bill or £100 over the bulb’s lifetime.
FOUR: An insulating jacket for a hot water tank costs only a few pounds and pays for itself within months. Fit one that’s at least 75mm (3in) thick and you could save £20 a year.FIVE: Insulating your loft is one of the simplest ways to save energy and you can even install it yourself. In a year you could save £180 to £220.
SIX: About 33% of the heat lost in your home is through the walls, so insulating them could save £130 to £160 on your annual heating bills. Cavity wall insulation will also keep you cool in the summer and warm in winter.
SEVEN: If your boiler is more than 15 years old, it’s probably time to replace it. By law, new boilers must now be of the high-efficiency condensing type. They can help you save up to a third on your heating bills and even more if you upgrade to modern controls.
EIGHT: When replacing appliances, look for ones displaying the energy-saving recommended logo. They could save you up to £45 a year.
NINE: Double-glazing cuts heat loss through windows by 50% and could cut your heating bill by £80 to £100.
TEN: Still not sure which are your home’s weak spots? Why not complete an online home energy check at www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/check
full article
Wednesday, 1 August 2007
U.S. needs to be a clean-energy leader
Energy prices, the conflict in the Middle East and growing concern over the progress of global warming have jump-started a long-stalled national conversation about the direction of America's energy policy. The U.S. House of Representatives will take up that conversation as its members debate energy legislation as early as this week. There has never been deeper public support for increasing the amount of power we get from renewable energy.
Americans have begun to demand that their elected officials plot a course for U.S. energy independence. Weary of the nation's reliance on unstable and limited foreign energy sources and Enron-crafted national energy policy, the public has concluded that America must develop environmentally and economically sound solutions to quell our voracious thirst for energy.
The U.S., once the world leader in renewable energy technology, has fallen behind Japan, Germany and Spain. Germany, a country with a land mass the size of Oregon, employs more than 40,000 workers in its wind energy industry; Denmark employs another 20,000. Both of these countries have wind resources that are only a fraction of those in our nation's windiest states. In Germany, the wind energy industry is the second-largest consumer of steel next to the automotive industry.
Communities, counties and states have realized how immense the potential benefits are. Twenty-three states have passed renewable-energy standards, committing to renewable energy targets as high as Oregon's 25 percent by 2025.
Developing our renewable energy resources will create jobs, save consumers money and bolster rural economies. The Union of Concerned Scientists has found that a national standard requiring 20 percent of electric generation from renewable energy sources by the year 2020 will save consumers tens of billions of dollars in lower electricity and natural gas bills; by 2030 those cumulative savings would balloon to $31.8 billion. It also will create more than 180,000 new jobs -- nearly twice as many as generating the same amount of power from fossil fuels -- and cut global warming pollution by 263 million metric tons in 2030, the equivalent of taking 43 million cars off the road.
full article
Americans have begun to demand that their elected officials plot a course for U.S. energy independence. Weary of the nation's reliance on unstable and limited foreign energy sources and Enron-crafted national energy policy, the public has concluded that America must develop environmentally and economically sound solutions to quell our voracious thirst for energy.
The U.S., once the world leader in renewable energy technology, has fallen behind Japan, Germany and Spain. Germany, a country with a land mass the size of Oregon, employs more than 40,000 workers in its wind energy industry; Denmark employs another 20,000. Both of these countries have wind resources that are only a fraction of those in our nation's windiest states. In Germany, the wind energy industry is the second-largest consumer of steel next to the automotive industry.
Communities, counties and states have realized how immense the potential benefits are. Twenty-three states have passed renewable-energy standards, committing to renewable energy targets as high as Oregon's 25 percent by 2025.
Developing our renewable energy resources will create jobs, save consumers money and bolster rural economies. The Union of Concerned Scientists has found that a national standard requiring 20 percent of electric generation from renewable energy sources by the year 2020 will save consumers tens of billions of dollars in lower electricity and natural gas bills; by 2030 those cumulative savings would balloon to $31.8 billion. It also will create more than 180,000 new jobs -- nearly twice as many as generating the same amount of power from fossil fuels -- and cut global warming pollution by 263 million metric tons in 2030, the equivalent of taking 43 million cars off the road.
full article
League of greenest cars revealed
A Volkswagen Polo has been named the greenest car on sale, beating environmentalists' favourites such as the Toyota Prius.
The BlueMotion manages 74 miles to the gallon, meaning it can be driven from London to Edinburgh for just £20 and travel more than 700 miles on one tank of fuel.
Unfortunately, its passengers are likely to be sweating by the time they get there, because the road tax-exempt version doesn't come with air-conditioning. Fitting air-conditioning uses more energy and pushes the car into a higher band of road tax, which is calculated by how much carbon dioxide a vehicle produces.
But chilled-out owners will still only have to pay £35 a year - a snip compared with the £300 imposed on drivers of many gasguzzling off-roaders.
full article
The BlueMotion manages 74 miles to the gallon, meaning it can be driven from London to Edinburgh for just £20 and travel more than 700 miles on one tank of fuel.
Unfortunately, its passengers are likely to be sweating by the time they get there, because the road tax-exempt version doesn't come with air-conditioning. Fitting air-conditioning uses more energy and pushes the car into a higher band of road tax, which is calculated by how much carbon dioxide a vehicle produces.
But chilled-out owners will still only have to pay £35 a year - a snip compared with the £300 imposed on drivers of many gasguzzling off-roaders.
full article
Fuel made from milk coming to service stations
New Zealand's smallest oil company today launched the first commercial biofuel to hit the nation's service station forecourts - a petrol blended with ethanol made from milk.
Gull's Force 10 biofuel is a blend of premium petrol containing 10 per cent ethanol produced by dairy cooperative Fonterra.
Prime Minister Helen Clark, who poured the first biofuel at today's Auckland launch, congratulated Gull on leading the pack.
She said: "Gull's new fuel provides motorists with real choice, helps New Zealand to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and takes New Zealand a step further towards achieving sustainability."
She said the biofuel obligation on fuel companies would reduce New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions by more than a million tonnes between 2008 and 2012.
Biofuel is any fuel derived from biomass, recently living organisms or their metabolic byproducts, such as manure, forest or crop waste, or even pond scum.
In February the Government set a national target of 3.4 per cent for the biofuel component of petrol and diesel in 2012.
Oil companies will have to start offering biofuels from April 1 next year, and the Government has said there will be no excise tax charged on the ethanol.
Fonterra's Edgecumbe dairy factory in the Bay of Plenty successfully tested petrol mixed with 10 per cent ethanol in a 1.8-litre car.
The Edgecumbe plant produces 30,000 litres of ethanol a day and over five million litres in a dairy season. Fonterra also produces ethanol at other plants, including Reporoa and Tirau, for use in industrial cleansers, vodka and gin.
The blend was approved by the Environmental Risk Management Authority (Erma).
Gull - a family-owned operation with 30 petrol stations in the North Island - signed on Fonterra in 2004 to produce ethanol to be added to "premium" petrol. Blending of petrol and ethanol will take place at Mt Maunganui.
It will be pitched to New Zealand drivers of recently-imported vehicles wanting to run the family car on a "green" fuel, according to the general manager of Gull New Zealand Dave Bodger.
The Force 10 fuel will initially be sold at Gull forecourts in Albany, Kingsland, and Wiri, and will later be rolled out to most of its 30 sites.
full article
Gull's Force 10 biofuel is a blend of premium petrol containing 10 per cent ethanol produced by dairy cooperative Fonterra.
Prime Minister Helen Clark, who poured the first biofuel at today's Auckland launch, congratulated Gull on leading the pack.
She said: "Gull's new fuel provides motorists with real choice, helps New Zealand to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and takes New Zealand a step further towards achieving sustainability."
She said the biofuel obligation on fuel companies would reduce New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions by more than a million tonnes between 2008 and 2012.
Biofuel is any fuel derived from biomass, recently living organisms or their metabolic byproducts, such as manure, forest or crop waste, or even pond scum.
In February the Government set a national target of 3.4 per cent for the biofuel component of petrol and diesel in 2012.
Oil companies will have to start offering biofuels from April 1 next year, and the Government has said there will be no excise tax charged on the ethanol.
Fonterra's Edgecumbe dairy factory in the Bay of Plenty successfully tested petrol mixed with 10 per cent ethanol in a 1.8-litre car.
The Edgecumbe plant produces 30,000 litres of ethanol a day and over five million litres in a dairy season. Fonterra also produces ethanol at other plants, including Reporoa and Tirau, for use in industrial cleansers, vodka and gin.
The blend was approved by the Environmental Risk Management Authority (Erma).
Gull - a family-owned operation with 30 petrol stations in the North Island - signed on Fonterra in 2004 to produce ethanol to be added to "premium" petrol. Blending of petrol and ethanol will take place at Mt Maunganui.
It will be pitched to New Zealand drivers of recently-imported vehicles wanting to run the family car on a "green" fuel, according to the general manager of Gull New Zealand Dave Bodger.
The Force 10 fuel will initially be sold at Gull forecourts in Albany, Kingsland, and Wiri, and will later be rolled out to most of its 30 sites.
full article
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