Energy efficiency

This week I attended a regular industry forum on energy efficiency which I have been going to for more than a decade.  Over the years there have been many instances when we've been sitting in a meeting room discussing low energy lighting, whilst the room itself has been lit with a mixture of halogen spotlights and tungsten incandescent tubes, both of which are far from efficient.

As usual we got onto the subject of lighting and I noticed that we were actually sitting in a room which was really very efficient, with a mixture of LED spotlights and CFL bulbs.  It's encouraging to see that things are changing...

I frequently have to remind my family not to leave lights and gadgets on when not required.  Last night my 7 year old caught me out when I left the TV on standby.  My defence was that TV standby was less than 1 watt and that it's the games consoles and set-top boxes which have the high standby cost.  I also tried to point out that putting the TV on standby was much better than just leaving it on and walking out of the room.

It’s my job to find ways to save energy in the home and as my colleagues know I’m a keen cyclist, they often joke; “Why don’t you connect your bike up to a generator? You could power your whole house”.

I went to see some cavity wall insulation being installed today! Not very exciting is it? Or is it?
Seeing guys hanging from ropes carrying out a somewhat complex process of drilling, filling and sealing all whilst requiring the equipment to be hanging off them at the same time was impressive to watch. They made it look so easy from where I was standing…yes at ground level.

I was recently visiting my parents for a family celebration which was also attended by friends from Australia. As it was a cold and rainy day in Scotland the coal fire had been lit. I was surprised when my Australian friend said he had never before seen a coal fire burning, although he did remember his mother describing coal fires when she was brought up in England.

Low-energy lamps have come a long way since they were first developed in the late '80s. The very first examples were known as ‘jam jars’ because of their appearance. This example I recovered from a friend’s house and is still working, I'm thinking of sending it to our Museum of Electricity in Christchurch.

Have you noticed that lightbulbs of a certain wattage have become harder to find?
The major retailers and lighting industry have entered into a voluntary agreement to phase out incandescent lightbulbs.

A few years ago I had a crackdown on standby power in my home. With three children, two of whom are teenagers - and all their gadgets – standby usage was growing and approaching 200W of continuous power use.

From the comments we’ve received, it seems that many of you are in the same boat...

The energy used in our homes is determined by several factors, one of the most important of which is the things we own and use. To make our homes more energy-efficient, we need to get into the habit of checking the energy consumption of things we buy for our homes.