Want to know how you can reduce your carbon footprint and be more ecologically friendly as a family? As part of the Western Mail’s Environment Month, Friends of the Earth Cymru have come up with a 60-point guide to going green
AT HOME
The global warming carbon emissions we produce from our homes account for a massive 25% of total emissions in the UK. So everything we can do to reduce this will help
1. Just boil the amount of water you need for one cup of tea, rather than half a kettle full and save cash with each cuppa.
2. Use a lid on saucepans. In this way you’re saving energy and money with every meal.
3. Switch to energy-saving light bulbs. They cost a little more, but save up to 10 times the price over their lifetime and use at least two-thirds less energy than standard bulbs.
4. Turn off appliances. Switch off PCs and TVs when not in use. And never leave them on standby – appliances on standby wastes at least 6% of domestic electricity use in the UK.
5. Make sure your hot-water tank is dressed correctly. A British Standard lagging jacket costs £10 and the insulation for the pipe leading to the hot-water tank from the boiler costs £3 a metre. The yearly saving on your bill? Up to £20.
6. Produce your own energy by installing small-scale renewable energy systems, such as solar panels or wind turbines. Grants are available from the Low Carbon Building Programme. See www.lowcarbonbuildings.org.uk if you’d like to find out more.
7. Save water. Did you know that having a shower instead of a bath can save about 40 litres of water? But avoid power showers as they can use more water than baths. Install spray taps for new sinks, as they use less water than normal taps.
8. Do all you can when it comes to household recycling. If you have a collection service – use it! Go to www.recyclenow.com for lots of information on recycling in your area.
9. Avoid disposable batteries and use rechargeable ones. You can even use a solar-powered recharger – try www.naturalcollection.com for eco-gadgets.
10. Recycle mobile phones and printer cartridges. If you really need that new phone, find a home for the old one. Recycle through your local Oxfam shop or call ActionAidRecycling on 0845 3100 200.
11. Most high-street opticians will take your old glasses to give to people in need around the world.
12. Only print when absolutely necessary. If you do print, use both sides of the paper.
13. Candlelit dinners are not just for the romantics. Inside and out, try leaving the lights off to save electricity. Citronella or beeswax candles will also keep insects away.
14. Try a local grocer or a vegetable box delivery scheme instead of highly-packaged supermarket goods.
15. Buy refills. Using refills saves you money on the products you use in large quantities like laundry and dish-washing detergents.
16. Glass bottles can be re-used as many as 20 times. So use your milkman!
17. Buy green kitchen appliances. Choose fridges and washing machines which have the highest energy rating and the longest guarantees.
18. Close the fridge door. Each minute the fridge door is open takes three minutes of energy to cool down again. And don’t put hot or warm food straight into the fridge – allow it to cool down first.
19. Defrost your fridge regularly. It keeps it running efficiently and cheaply. If your fridge seems to frost up quickly, check the door seal.
20. Keep your freezer in a cool room or garage. It won’t need to work as hard, and so uses less energy.
21. Wash at low temperatures. Wash laundry loads on the low-temperature programme.
22. Dry your clothes outside. Use a washing line whenever it’s not raining, and you can enjoy the fresh smell that only comes from line-dried clothes.
23. Don't dry clothes on a radiator. It stops heat reaching the room, creates damp and encourages mould.
IN THE GARDEN
If you’re lucky enough to have a garden, there’s so much more you can do. Growing your own veg, making compost, helping wildlife and avoiding nasty chemicals can all help create a green haven just outside your door
24. Avoid energy-hungry patio-heaters. There are 2.3 million domestic patio heaters in the UK. Every one of them uses twice as much energy as a kitchen hob. For those evenings in the garden when it gets a little chilly, put a jumper on.
25. Collect rain water in water butts for using in the garden. A garden sprinkler uses as much water in an hour as a family of four uses in a day.
26. Make your own compost. Almost one third of our domestic waste could be composted, but ends up in landfill. Shop-bought compost for the garden costs about £2.50 for 20 litres. A heap in your back garden is absolutely free.
27. Get your children into gardening. Give them their own little veg patch and enjoy the cheap food. A bunch of radishes costs about 45p. A packet of 1,000 radish seeds costs about £1.
28. Grow hedges. For £25, you can buy 50 hedge plants that will give you 10m of thick hedge. Takes time to grow, but a lot nicer than a typical fencing panel which costs £25 for just under 2m, excluding the cost of posts and concrete, and wildlife and birds will love you for it.
29. Go peat-free. Avoiding peat-based composts means stopping the destruction of our peat bogs, which are invaluable habitats for a wealth of wildlife.
OUT AND ABOUT
Going green doesn’t need to stop once you leave your front door
30. Use the car less. Cycle or walk instead and get some exercise. The average cost of a gym session is around £3.80, but the cost of pedalling fast to work is nothing.
31. Stick to 70mph where it says so – or keep under it. Not only is it illegal when you go over, but fuel costs can go up by as much as 4p a mile for small cars cruising at 80-85 mph on the motorway. According to the Slower Speeds Initiative, driving at 50mph instead of 70mph can reduce fuel consumption by a further 30%.
32. Use retreaded car tyres. You don’t need to always buy new. For more info, contact the Retread Manufacturers Association.
33. Start a walking bus group. Get the kids to class without having to do the school run twice a day.
34. Become a skipoholic. Rather than spend, spend, spend at the DIY store, look out for usable materials in local skips. Ask the owner of the contents before taking from any skips.
35. Libraries don’t just loan books. Lots of them hire out music cassettes and CDs, movie videos and DVDs, and even PlayStation games. Use your library to save yourself the cost of building up your own collection.
36. Shopping locally will cut out food miles and support your local economy. Large out-of-town supermarkets are driving the smaller local shops out of business so support your local shops and help the environment too.
37. Re-discover your local area. Holiday nearer home to avoid excessive travelling. You’ll be supporting the local economy, and discover a new appreciation for your area.
38. Avoid flying. It’s easy to get to anywhere in Europe by train. One call to Rail Europe on 0870 8371 371 will tell you all you need.
SAVE CASH AND SAVE THE PLANET
If you think going green is just for those who can afford it, think again. Lots of what you can do that’s good for the planet is good for your wallet too
39. Carry out a financial health check. Could your money be doing better financially and ethically? You could be banking with an ethical institution and getting as good a deal or better.
40. Do you really need it? Buy less and avoid waste. You can then spend more on things which you really need, and buy quality that will last.
41. Babies don’t need special baby food, especially not at up to a pound a jar. Buy a hand-held blender for £5 and purée ordinary, UK-grown organic food, such as potato, carrot, cauliflower and pear.
42. Give your time. Rather than searching for a present that may never be used, you could help with decorating, gardening or a big clear-out.
43. Cut the cost of cleaning. Add lemon juice (59p for 250 ml), soda crystals (51p a kilo) and bicarbonate of soda (44p for 200g) to your shopping basket to get your taps sparkling, dissolve grease, and shift stains on your work surfaces. All for £1.54.
44. Banish aerosols. Air fresheners fill your home with a toxic soup. Avoid wasting money and open a window instead.
45. Ditch disposable nappies. Switch to reusables. This could save you up to £600 in total. A set of 10 reusable nappies with simple Velcro fasteners costs about £70 new.
46. Save energy, save money. Use less energy in your home by improving insulation, draught-proofing, heating controls etc. Call the Energy Saving Trust on 0800 512 012 for free advice.
47. Pack your own lunch. Making your own sandwiches instead of buying over-packaged snacks could save you more than £4 a day.
MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD
There’s only so much that each of use can do in our daily lives. But there’s a lot more that our politicians can do that affects us all. Make sure the Government knows that you want a greener Wales
48. Campaign. Take part in letter writing campaigns, postcard campaigns, petitions, online actions – it does make a difference, honest!
49. Demand strong leadership on climate change. We need strong leaders to take tough decisions and come up with creative solutions. If Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ken Livingstone can do it, you can too, Rhodri Morgan.
50. Educate and inform. Ask the Welsh Assembly Government to launch a high-profile awareness raising campaign to improve understanding of climate change and the many solutions we can implement to reduce its impact.
51. Demand they spend our money wisely. The Assembly Government should move some of the expenditure from roads (50% of Welsh transport budget at present) to support better public transport, cycling and walking schemes.
52. Email you MP now. Ask your MP to take strong action on climate change by emailing them at www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/climate/press_for_change/email_mp.
GET TOGETHER
If there’s so much that each of us can do alone, there’s so much more we can achieve if we work as one
53. Join a Friends of the Earth local group. If you want to do more for the environment both locally and globally, join one of Friends of the Earth’s many local groups around Wales. For information on your nearest group phone 029 2022 9577 or visit www.foe.co.uk/cymru/english/local_groups.
54. Have a clothes swapping party. Get together with you friends and swap clothes. This way you can get a whole new wardrobe for nothing and save the planet too!
55. Use your affiliations to magnify your input. As an employee, a union member, or a member of a club or society you’ll have more influence, so encourage your organisation to make itself heard.
56. Make your town a Transition Town. The transition network is all about people taking control of their own communities, and making a difference by working together. Find out more at www.transitiontowns.org.
57. Join ‘Cymruaction’ at www.foe.co.uk/cymru/english/press_for_change/mailing_list and become part of a powerful email campaign to protect the environment of Wales.
58. Share transport. Get together with work friends to car share.
59. Share tools and DIY equipment. Does every house in your street need a £70 lawnmower, a folding workbench for £30, and a steam cleaner at £100? Share with your neighbours, and it’ll do wonders for your community spirit too.
60. Join Friends of the Earth’s Big Ask Online March. Film yourself on a digital camera or a mobile phone and upload it at www.thebigask.com, and you’ll be joining Welsh luminaries Cerys Matthews, Goldie Lookin Chain and Huw Stephens and many others in asking the Government for a really strong climate change law. Or go along to The Point tonight at the Cardiff Swn Festival, where you can visit Friends of the Earth Cymru’s video stall and they’ll do the filming for you.
full article
Saturday, 10 November 2007
Friday, 9 November 2007
Tony puts his energy into eco-friendly home
A RETIRED electrical engineer has started building an eco-friendly house that he claims will be "better than anything built in the UK before."
Tony Williams is building the property in Braybrook near Desborough.
It will include a number of energy-saving features so that it never has to be connected to mains electricity.
Mr Williams, who used to work in battery maintenance services, said: “I’m doing this partly out of long-term interest and also because I’m an electrical engineer.
“It’s going to be better than anything built in the UK before. We have to design the house not to lose any energy. We’re treating each wall as a separate wall and will do what’s best for that wall.
“The ultimate goal is to be off grid and not connected to the mains. We will have a fibre optic lighting system going down to the basement so that we use natural light as much as possible.
“We will also be collecting our own rain water and we’re getting quadruple glazed windows. It’s going to have air tight standards but we will be able to bring in fresh air using a heat exchanger, which will warm the floor during the day.
“The Government needs to build 15 million houses like this to have a chance of reducing energy use.”
Mr Williams expects to have the house built within a year and has undertaken around 90 per cent of the work himself.
Matthew Moden, branch manager for Skipton building society in Northampton, which has mortgaged the house, said: “The impact that homes have on the environment is a growing issue and attention is turning to ways to reduce that impact as much as possible.
“For someone like Mr Williams to take this to the next level and build his house in such an eco-friendly way is something we applaud and we’re here to help with funding for others that might follow his example.”
full article
Tony Williams is building the property in Braybrook near Desborough.
It will include a number of energy-saving features so that it never has to be connected to mains electricity.
Mr Williams, who used to work in battery maintenance services, said: “I’m doing this partly out of long-term interest and also because I’m an electrical engineer.
“It’s going to be better than anything built in the UK before. We have to design the house not to lose any energy. We’re treating each wall as a separate wall and will do what’s best for that wall.
“The ultimate goal is to be off grid and not connected to the mains. We will have a fibre optic lighting system going down to the basement so that we use natural light as much as possible.
“We will also be collecting our own rain water and we’re getting quadruple glazed windows. It’s going to have air tight standards but we will be able to bring in fresh air using a heat exchanger, which will warm the floor during the day.
“The Government needs to build 15 million houses like this to have a chance of reducing energy use.”
Mr Williams expects to have the house built within a year and has undertaken around 90 per cent of the work himself.
Matthew Moden, branch manager for Skipton building society in Northampton, which has mortgaged the house, said: “The impact that homes have on the environment is a growing issue and attention is turning to ways to reduce that impact as much as possible.
“For someone like Mr Williams to take this to the next level and build his house in such an eco-friendly way is something we applaud and we’re here to help with funding for others that might follow his example.”
full article
Wednesday, 7 November 2007
Global warming 'cure' found by scientists
A "technical fix" that could stop global warming by taking billions of tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and save the coral reefs from being destroyed by acidification has been developed by scientists.
The process could be used on an industrial scale to remove excess carbon dioxide caused by the burning of fossil fuels from the atmosphere in "a matter of decades rather than millennia," according to researchers from Harvard and Penn State universities.
The process relies on speeding up a process that happens naturally, whereby carbon dioxide dissolved in sea water breaks down volcanic rock and soils to make alkaline carbonic salts.
The water flows into the ocean and increases its alkalinity. Sea water containing more alkali can absorb more carbon, so more carbon from the atmosphere is "locked up" and becomes harmless bottom sediments, according to the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
Researchers estimate that it would take a cube of volcanic rock 10 kilometres across to return the concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere to pre-industrial levels.
Unlike other proposed "technical fixes" that "sequester" carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, this one makes the sea more alkaline and therefore counteracts the other side effect of more carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere - the acidification of the sea.
The alkalinity of the sea has remained the same for 60 million years but the burning of fossil fuels has caused it to decrease.
It is feared that the drop in alkalinity will slow down the oceans' take up of carbon dioxide - which accounts for half the Earth's natural capacity for "scrubbing" carbon from the atmosphere.
It will also threaten animals whose bodies are made from calcium, which is alkaline, such as corals, shellfish and phytoplankton.
Scientists say the technique is adaptable to operation in remote areas, run on natural gas or geothermal energy.
"The technology involves selectively removing acid from the ocean in a way that might enable us to turn back the clock on global warming," said Kurt House, a graduate student at Harvard University.
However, Prof Andrew Watson of the University of East Anglia, who was one of the authors of a Royal Society paper on the acidification of the sea, said the "fundamental problem" with dissolving rock into the sea was "the immense scale on which you need to do it to make any impact."
He added: "We are producing 8 billion tons of CO2 a year and that takes the combined efforts of all coal mining, oil and gas production. If you want to make an impact on that you need a process of the same order of magnitude to make a difference.
"The local effect would be alkali pollution of the sea - but we are polluting the sea globally by putting carbon dioxide into the ocean. This method is expensive and therefore it's not the first line of attack for the global warming problem.
"The first is energy conservation, the second the substitution of fossil fuels with solar energy or biofuels, and the third - and above dissolving rock into the sea - comes carbon capture and storage from power plants. We know what technology is needed for that and engineering companies can do it."
Prof Watson, an expert on the carbon cycle and the oceans, said that dissolving rock was "worth considering" if the world got into a situation in which the oceans were dying because of acidity and we needed to alleviate the problem. "If you did it the right way you might be able to save the coral reefs from the worst effects. I would see it being done in areas where there may be another reason for doing it as well, such as this.
"There is no single 'silver bullet' for global warming."
Other "technical fixes" for global warming have concentrated on seeding the oceans with iron filings or nitrogen to stimulate algal growth in the hope that this would then die and take the carbon the plankton contained to the sea bed.
By Charles Clover
full article
The process could be used on an industrial scale to remove excess carbon dioxide caused by the burning of fossil fuels from the atmosphere in "a matter of decades rather than millennia," according to researchers from Harvard and Penn State universities.
The process relies on speeding up a process that happens naturally, whereby carbon dioxide dissolved in sea water breaks down volcanic rock and soils to make alkaline carbonic salts.
The water flows into the ocean and increases its alkalinity. Sea water containing more alkali can absorb more carbon, so more carbon from the atmosphere is "locked up" and becomes harmless bottom sediments, according to the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
Researchers estimate that it would take a cube of volcanic rock 10 kilometres across to return the concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere to pre-industrial levels.
Unlike other proposed "technical fixes" that "sequester" carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, this one makes the sea more alkaline and therefore counteracts the other side effect of more carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere - the acidification of the sea.
The alkalinity of the sea has remained the same for 60 million years but the burning of fossil fuels has caused it to decrease.
It is feared that the drop in alkalinity will slow down the oceans' take up of carbon dioxide - which accounts for half the Earth's natural capacity for "scrubbing" carbon from the atmosphere.
It will also threaten animals whose bodies are made from calcium, which is alkaline, such as corals, shellfish and phytoplankton.
Scientists say the technique is adaptable to operation in remote areas, run on natural gas or geothermal energy.
"The technology involves selectively removing acid from the ocean in a way that might enable us to turn back the clock on global warming," said Kurt House, a graduate student at Harvard University.
However, Prof Andrew Watson of the University of East Anglia, who was one of the authors of a Royal Society paper on the acidification of the sea, said the "fundamental problem" with dissolving rock into the sea was "the immense scale on which you need to do it to make any impact."
He added: "We are producing 8 billion tons of CO2 a year and that takes the combined efforts of all coal mining, oil and gas production. If you want to make an impact on that you need a process of the same order of magnitude to make a difference.
"The local effect would be alkali pollution of the sea - but we are polluting the sea globally by putting carbon dioxide into the ocean. This method is expensive and therefore it's not the first line of attack for the global warming problem.
"The first is energy conservation, the second the substitution of fossil fuels with solar energy or biofuels, and the third - and above dissolving rock into the sea - comes carbon capture and storage from power plants. We know what technology is needed for that and engineering companies can do it."
Prof Watson, an expert on the carbon cycle and the oceans, said that dissolving rock was "worth considering" if the world got into a situation in which the oceans were dying because of acidity and we needed to alleviate the problem. "If you did it the right way you might be able to save the coral reefs from the worst effects. I would see it being done in areas where there may be another reason for doing it as well, such as this.
"There is no single 'silver bullet' for global warming."
Other "technical fixes" for global warming have concentrated on seeding the oceans with iron filings or nitrogen to stimulate algal growth in the hope that this would then die and take the carbon the plankton contained to the sea bed.
By Charles Clover
full article
Tuesday, 6 November 2007
Rainwater harvesting - green and cost effective
'It's crazy to be paying for water to be drained off, processed by the utility company and returned to you when the original water is fine to use for flushing your toilet and in your garden,' Bob Imrie tells me.
Instead, he channels the rain that lands on the roof of his three-bedroom home through a filter and into a tank sunk under his lawn. It is then pumped to his toilet, washing machine and an outside tap, enabling him to slash his water bill by at least 40 per cent and do his bit for the environment.
It also provides him with an emergency supply in the event of a hosepipe ban.
The Freerain (www.freerain.co.uk) system was already in place when Mr Imrie moved into his home in 2001, but typically costs £2,000 to £5,000 to retro fit in an existing property.
And with climate change experts warning that water shortages will become increasingly common, installing a system is likely to make a property far more attractive to potential buyers. In fact, it was the reason that Mr Imrie bought the house.
'I had driven past it before and not paid much attention. I had assumed the house, which is on an estate, was a standard new build. But then I read about it in a local newspaper and discovered that the properties had been built to a very high standard and designed to reduce their environmental impact.
"I suppose the property must have been more expensive as a result, but it didn't seem to be out of line with what I would have paid elsewhere.'
As a result of the rainwater harvesting system, and other eco technologies in his Nottinghamshire home, Mr Imrie's monthly water bill is just £7.
But despite the pressing need for water conservation, the industry is in its infancy in the UK, with only around 5,000 domestic properties benefiting from the technology. This is due, in part, to the fact that just 20 per cent of homes are metered and therefore most householders lack a financial incentive to cut water usage.
But Mr Imrie also believes that the Government is failing to promote the technology. 'It's mad that the Government hasn't made rainwater harvesting the standard for new builds,' he says.
It has also failed to offer grants to homeowners wishing to install the technology, unlike in Germany, where a mixture of carrot and stick has led to more than half a million rainwater systems being installed in homes and workplaces.
However, there is an additional financial advantage from installing the system that few people are aware of. 'About 5pc of your water rates cover drainage from your house,' Mr Imrie says.
'In my case, a pipe comes from downpipes off the gutter, goes into the tank and exits to the nearby dike, so if it's over full it flows into the dike That means I can get a reduction, but the water companies won't tell you that. It's only because I've worked in consumer law for years that I was aware of this,' says the former trading standards officer.
John Thorne retro-fitted a system to his four-bedroom property in Leicestershire last year and his only regret is that he didn't fit an even larger system.
He installed a number of green technologies, including solar panels, during the refurbishment, but it is rainwater harvesting that has impressed him the most. 'It is the most reliable and trouble free of the various systems we installed.'
As his wife is a keen gardener, he sank a 2,300 litre tank under his lawn but now wishes he had even more storage capacity. 'If I was doing it again I would have had a second tank just for the garden,' the 79-year-old says.
The Stormsaver (www.stormsaver.com) system, which cost him around £8,000 in total, has halved his water bill, delivering a saving of £300 per year. As well as providing water for his garden, it is also used to flush his toilet and supply his washing machine.
Although it will take decades to recoup his investment, Mr Imrie believes that it still makes financial as well as environmental sense.
'I'm sure installing rainwater harvesting has increased the value of the property. So I think I would get my money back because of the growing interest in environmental issues.'
Jules Young, on the other hand, will be recouping her investment in about three years. The management consultant installed a Klargester Environmental/Envireau (www.envireau.co.uk) system during major refurbishment work to her semi-detached Victorian home last year.
'We originally looked at using it for the toilet but the economics didn't pay out because you would need two sets of pipes running through the house, which would take about 12 years to pay back, so we restricted it to the garden,' Miss Jones says.
As a result, her system cost less than £2,000 in total to install and involved little disruption. It also means that if the UK suffers another drought, her garden, which covers almost an acre, is likely to survive relatively unscathed.
'When we installed the system last summer there was actually a hosepipe ban in this area. Avoiding the full impact of a ban in the future was certainly one of our motivations. As we develop the garden over coming years it is going to be very useful.
"It would give us five to six hours of continuous watering, which, during an extremely long period of drought, would allow you to maintain your high specimen plants rather than your whole garden.'
Installing and maintaining the system has also been remarkably stress free.
'Even the builders found it straightforward and self-explanatory, even though they hadn't done it before,' she says. 'It's also easy to maintain as it's not difficult to get to the filter and remove any leaves.'
But is a rainwater harvesting system really necessary in the light of last summer's wash-out. 'Hot dry weather is sure to be a feature of the future, so unless you intend to grow palms this seems to be the way to go.'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fact file
5 litres per day is the minimum amount of water we need to survive
120-220 litres is the typical domestic consumption per person
35 per cent is flushed down the toilet
12 per cent is used in washing machines
6 per cent is used in the garden
65 per cent of water consumption occurs in the home
5,000 UK homes use rainwater harvesting
500,000 homes and workplaces use the system in Germany
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Useful links
The Environment Agency website has lots of advice on saving water at home, as well as a report on rainwater harvesting. Go to: www.environment-agency.gov.uk/savewater
For data on average rainfall for various parts of the UK, go to www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/averages
For details on suppliers of rainwater harvesting technologies, go to the sector's trade body, the UK Rainwater Harvesting Association at www.ukrha.org
For information on this and other environmental issues, go to the Centre for Alternative Technologies at www.cat.org.uk. You can also gain advice by calling 01654 705989
If you wish are interested in buying low-flush toilets, waterless urinals, water efficient taps and showers, and flow restrictors, go to www.greenbuildingstore.co.uk
By David Waller
full article
Instead, he channels the rain that lands on the roof of his three-bedroom home through a filter and into a tank sunk under his lawn. It is then pumped to his toilet, washing machine and an outside tap, enabling him to slash his water bill by at least 40 per cent and do his bit for the environment.
It also provides him with an emergency supply in the event of a hosepipe ban.
The Freerain (www.freerain.co.uk) system was already in place when Mr Imrie moved into his home in 2001, but typically costs £2,000 to £5,000 to retro fit in an existing property.
And with climate change experts warning that water shortages will become increasingly common, installing a system is likely to make a property far more attractive to potential buyers. In fact, it was the reason that Mr Imrie bought the house.
'I had driven past it before and not paid much attention. I had assumed the house, which is on an estate, was a standard new build. But then I read about it in a local newspaper and discovered that the properties had been built to a very high standard and designed to reduce their environmental impact.
"I suppose the property must have been more expensive as a result, but it didn't seem to be out of line with what I would have paid elsewhere.'
As a result of the rainwater harvesting system, and other eco technologies in his Nottinghamshire home, Mr Imrie's monthly water bill is just £7.
But despite the pressing need for water conservation, the industry is in its infancy in the UK, with only around 5,000 domestic properties benefiting from the technology. This is due, in part, to the fact that just 20 per cent of homes are metered and therefore most householders lack a financial incentive to cut water usage.
But Mr Imrie also believes that the Government is failing to promote the technology. 'It's mad that the Government hasn't made rainwater harvesting the standard for new builds,' he says.
It has also failed to offer grants to homeowners wishing to install the technology, unlike in Germany, where a mixture of carrot and stick has led to more than half a million rainwater systems being installed in homes and workplaces.
However, there is an additional financial advantage from installing the system that few people are aware of. 'About 5pc of your water rates cover drainage from your house,' Mr Imrie says.
'In my case, a pipe comes from downpipes off the gutter, goes into the tank and exits to the nearby dike, so if it's over full it flows into the dike That means I can get a reduction, but the water companies won't tell you that. It's only because I've worked in consumer law for years that I was aware of this,' says the former trading standards officer.
John Thorne retro-fitted a system to his four-bedroom property in Leicestershire last year and his only regret is that he didn't fit an even larger system.
He installed a number of green technologies, including solar panels, during the refurbishment, but it is rainwater harvesting that has impressed him the most. 'It is the most reliable and trouble free of the various systems we installed.'
As his wife is a keen gardener, he sank a 2,300 litre tank under his lawn but now wishes he had even more storage capacity. 'If I was doing it again I would have had a second tank just for the garden,' the 79-year-old says.
The Stormsaver (www.stormsaver.com) system, which cost him around £8,000 in total, has halved his water bill, delivering a saving of £300 per year. As well as providing water for his garden, it is also used to flush his toilet and supply his washing machine.
Although it will take decades to recoup his investment, Mr Imrie believes that it still makes financial as well as environmental sense.
'I'm sure installing rainwater harvesting has increased the value of the property. So I think I would get my money back because of the growing interest in environmental issues.'
Jules Young, on the other hand, will be recouping her investment in about three years. The management consultant installed a Klargester Environmental/Envireau (www.envireau.co.uk) system during major refurbishment work to her semi-detached Victorian home last year.
'We originally looked at using it for the toilet but the economics didn't pay out because you would need two sets of pipes running through the house, which would take about 12 years to pay back, so we restricted it to the garden,' Miss Jones says.
As a result, her system cost less than £2,000 in total to install and involved little disruption. It also means that if the UK suffers another drought, her garden, which covers almost an acre, is likely to survive relatively unscathed.
'When we installed the system last summer there was actually a hosepipe ban in this area. Avoiding the full impact of a ban in the future was certainly one of our motivations. As we develop the garden over coming years it is going to be very useful.
"It would give us five to six hours of continuous watering, which, during an extremely long period of drought, would allow you to maintain your high specimen plants rather than your whole garden.'
Installing and maintaining the system has also been remarkably stress free.
'Even the builders found it straightforward and self-explanatory, even though they hadn't done it before,' she says. 'It's also easy to maintain as it's not difficult to get to the filter and remove any leaves.'
But is a rainwater harvesting system really necessary in the light of last summer's wash-out. 'Hot dry weather is sure to be a feature of the future, so unless you intend to grow palms this seems to be the way to go.'
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Fact file
5 litres per day is the minimum amount of water we need to survive
120-220 litres is the typical domestic consumption per person
35 per cent is flushed down the toilet
12 per cent is used in washing machines
6 per cent is used in the garden
65 per cent of water consumption occurs in the home
5,000 UK homes use rainwater harvesting
500,000 homes and workplaces use the system in Germany
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Useful links
The Environment Agency website has lots of advice on saving water at home, as well as a report on rainwater harvesting. Go to: www.environment-agency.gov.uk/savewater
For data on average rainfall for various parts of the UK, go to www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/averages
For details on suppliers of rainwater harvesting technologies, go to the sector's trade body, the UK Rainwater Harvesting Association at www.ukrha.org
For information on this and other environmental issues, go to the Centre for Alternative Technologies at www.cat.org.uk. You can also gain advice by calling 01654 705989
If you wish are interested in buying low-flush toilets, waterless urinals, water efficient taps and showers, and flow restrictors, go to www.greenbuildingstore.co.uk
By David Waller
full article
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