Help combat Climate Change

SAVE Energy - Use GREEN Energy - FUTURE solutions

Like the last meeting, the latest meeting on April 25th 2007 at the village hall was enjoyed by all those present. To begin with we played an informative ecological footprint game which encouraged us to try a little harder to find ways of limiting our impact on the environment.  We then listened to a very interesting talk on Poynings wildlife, the work of the Wildlife Trusts and global warming effects on species from Henri Brocklebank of the Sussex Biodiversity record bank. This was followed by a lot of networking amongst ourselves. I was asked to leave out the bit about Sheila getting a bit tipsy!

Here are some simple measures that you can put into action today.

Save 20% of your energy!

1. Turning your thermostat down by 1⁰C could cut your heating bills by up to 10% and save you around £30 per year.
2. Is your water too hot?  Your cylinder thermostat shouldn't need to be set higher than 60⁰C/140⁰F.
3. Close your curtains at dusk to stop heat escaping through the windows.
4. Always turn off the lights when you leave a room.
5. Don't leave appliances on standby and remember not to leave appliances on charge unnecessarily.
6. If you're not filling up the washing machine, tumble dryer or dishwasher, use the half-load or economy programme.
7. Only boil as much water as you need (but remember to cover the elements if you're using an electric kettle).
8. In just one day, a dripping hot water tap wastes enough water to fill a bath.  Make sure they're turned off.
9. Replace your light bulbs with energy saving recommended ones: just one can reduce your lighting costs by up to £78 over the lifetime of the bulb - and they last up to 12 times longer than ordinary light bulbs.
10. Do a home energy check. Just answer some simple questions about your home and you'll get a free, impartial report telling you how you can cut up to £250 a year on your household energy bills.

Various other ways of saving energy were discussed at the meeting and the following sites have been recommended.

www.renewabledevices.com  These sell the Swift and Swiftlet. Said to be silent.

www.windsave.com  These also sell a small domestic turbine.  More affordable and very simple. (£1,595 plus 5%Vat installed, about 5 years payback)

www.sunpowered.co.uk   These cover a variety of solar and wind technologies.

www.suntrader.co.uk  This is Helmut Teichert who spoke at the meeting about Solar energy.

www.viridine.co.uk   This is the site for Local Bio Diesel that was discussed at the meeting.

You can see what wind turbine products are available on Ebay by clicking here (They have some Ebooks on DIY Turbines).

Matthew Bird and Trevor Mann from Lewes district Council gave us an excellent, if disturbing, presentation complete with slideshow on climate change. (See Lewes District Council website-Climate Change). We were shown ‘a worst case scenario’ map of Great Britain in 2080 if all the icecaps and glaciers melted - the South East of England could be completely under water up to London!! This was followed by John Hoyland from West Sussex County Council filling us in on the recent history of the government and county level politics involved with sustainability. Green policy was on course until oil prices changed etc. He told us this was our last chance to get it right! We then had Helmut Teichert of Suntrader talking on Solar panels, grants etc and David Gower of Viridine talking about Biodiesel. Apparently you don’t have to convert your engine, just do it gradually and change the filters at some point.