15 posts tagged “green”

I can't believe that I missed Blog Action Day! However, I've subscribed for the email alert so that I don't miss it next year. Get yourself signed up too if you've not already.

Friends of the Earth has a green film competition and you can vote for film that you think deserve the People's Choice award.

Go on, have a go.

Here's a little plug for the Vox group I started a while ago, called Practical Environmental.If you are interested in doing your bit for the environment in a practical way, like changing light bulbs or getting a composter, then it is a great place to share your stories.

When we moved into our house, there were two 500W floodlights on the back of the house. These lit up the back garden fantastically but I didn't like the fact that we were using 1kW of energy in doing so. There were some low-energy lights either side of the garage door and one by the front porch, all on the same timer, but compared to the floodlights, this didn't seem to be enough.

So, this weekend we changed the lights. We replaced the lights either side of the garage door and by the porch with new, better-looking lights. We kept these as low-enerby bulbs. I had to some re-wiring in the garage but these now work on the same electric timer, but the wiring now makes sense and use proper junction boxes.

The old porch and garage lights I have cleaned up and re-used to light up the dark passage way at the side of the garage and for a light over the shed. The shed light is on a timer switch and the passage way lights on an external light switch.

As for the floodlights, we replaced the two 500W lights with three 42W low-energy floodlights, reducing the consumption here by 87%. The lights are fantastic and light up the garden very well without the glare. Each light is equivalent to about 200W of conventional lighting. I must admit that I was sceptical that they would be any good, but I'm very impressed. Although we bought them from a B&Q store, you can buy them online from Screwfix Direct.

Here's some photos of my handiwork plus a close-up of the low-energy floodlight:

Heard about this today. Got to have a proper look yet but thought I'd share it straight away: hugg

For an entertaining and profile-raising approach to the issue of flying, have a look at the Enough's Enough website.

I read about the European Commission's website about climate change yesterday. It's not a massive site but does have some practical tips, interesting videos and a few downloads. 

The Independent once again carries front-page and leading stories about the environment and global warning. The lead story today is "Global Warming: The vicious circle".

I've just come across a great product from One Click Technologies that lets you swith off power to your PC peripherals when you turn of your PC. Turn your PC back on and it powers up the peripherals. Brilliant. I'm going to get some.

The Independent (UK newspaper) has been running a series of really interesting articles this week about the excess packaging in our society. Here are links to the articles. In particular, it advocates that you write to the company in question when you come across as case of excess packaging.

• The Independent's online environment section
• Campaign aims to reduce waste mountain
• From tomatoes to yoghurts, the packaging that infuriates you
• Minister backs campaign to cut packaging
• 'We live near swede fields. Yet we were offered shrink-wrapped Tasmanian swede'
• Disposal has 'shifted to consumers'
• Supermarket packaging: How you can fight back
• The campaign against waste: Tesco's packaging cover-up
• The campaign against waste: Asda's packaging cover-up

I've not done anything yet in terms of complaining, but I'm going to start!