www.everythingsgonegreen.co.uk

Ignore the name on the device (We’re thinking of going to our friends at Ecotricity for their green gas scheme) but this is our new smartpower meter. OK, we’ve had it a few weeks now, but this little device is a lifesaver. OK, moneysaver. Energysaver.

Since plugging this meter we’ve monitored our electricity consumption, which is pretty low we think anyway, and it’s made us even more aware of our energy use than ever. It’s interesting watching the meter as the kettle is boiled or the fridge kicks into life but we’re happy that we’re consuming very little (Compared to some households we know)

The other device that has helped us reduce our electricity costs has been the excellent Energenie Automatic AV Standby Shutdown gang socket which totally switches off our TV, Wii & DVD when we’re not using them.

We got this from our gas supplier but if we can find a link or place where you can grab one too we’ll let you know.

Does anybody else think it’s ironic that we have to plug in an electricity-consuming device to monitor our electricity consumption?

Today a contractor turned up on behalf of South East Water and installed a water meter at my request. It was a pretty quick and easy job and the water meter was actually installed at the point in the public highway (the footpath at the end of my drive actually) where the water pipes into my property rather than in the house as I had suspected (I was concerned it would be yet another  a big ugly box just like the gas and electric meters that take up space inside an understairs cupboard in the hallway)

I have to admit, the main reason for getting a water meter installed was a financial one. Currently I occupy a 3-bedroomed semi-detached house on my own whilst my better half and daughter spend an extended period of time abroad. The local council reduce my council tax rates for single occupancy but the water company do not. The annual bill for water is approximately £320 and that is based on the rateable value of the property.

Somewhere down the line you can only assume that the water companies have estimated the average use and cost of water supply, drainage and sewerage for a typical 3-bed semi with X amount of people living there. In my case that doesn’t apply so it makes pefect sense to be metered – So, presumably, the cost of my water bills should  come down.

Now here’s the green bit…

Because this is a green-thinking household there is a bath in the house but showers are more than 99% of the time. A shower uses a third of the volume of water that a bath does (plus it’s quicker to take a shower than run a bath, as we all know) OK, there is a Turner Monsoon pump fitted to boost the water pressure of the shower (and it uses electricity) but that’s because the water pressure is really pathetic in the bathroom and it’s virtually unusable without a boost. Continuing to have showers rather than baths will keep the water consumption down. Winner.

Then there’s the fact that  a low-flush toilet was installed in the bathroom, the only WC in the house. Not only does it use less water to flush than the previous Armitage Shanks cistern from 1964 but it has a dual-flush that uses less water (depending on whether you flush number 1s or number 2s ). Winner #2.

Also, by not driving a car, partly out of green choice, partly for health & fitness and partly for financial reasons, the cars don’t get washed. Winner #3.

And then there’s the water butt in the garden. Because the local council had a great deal on a compost bin we saved enough money to have a water butt purchased & delivered for the same cost as had we just had the composting bin on its own. Winner #4.

So it looks like this could be a win-win situation – Not only does this household save water but it saves money too. If you’re green and you haven’t got a water meter installed then it might be time to consider doing so. I’ll keep you posted as to how long it is before the water company start reducing our water bills – you know what these big companies are like when it comes to letting go of your cash…

Footnote: I just had a look at the volumetric water meter manufacturer’s website. Being a marketing guy myself I wasn’t totally enamoured at the language used for the V210 meter:

V200 and V210 volumetric meters are designed to maximise revenue collection.

Now I know the website is not consumer-focused but when they stumble across the term “maximise revenue collection” it doesn’t sound fair does it? Maybe I should suggest to the manufacturer that they use the term “optimise revenue collection” – that would be far more agreeable, don’t you think?

Every so often you find a piece of clothing that you really like. And I mean REALLY like. You like it so much that it becomes your favourite piece of kit and you want to wear it every day. That’s how we feel about the organic t-shirt range from Red Robot.

Not only are Red Robot’s t-shirts made from supersoft, guilt-free environmentally-friendly organic cotton but they’re also incredibly cool too. Of all their range we particularly liked their Mono Turbine in a gorgeous yellow (Aspen gold) with a fantastic distressed print graphic.

Their attention to detail is sublime too, with an embroidered logo on the sleeve. Some of their other shirts also have a  signature single arm ringer; those sort of details are always a nice touch but also the mark of quality.

So if you’re a Joy Division fan (see their Robot Pleasures design), a Quentin Tarantino fan (have a nosey at the Robot Dogs T) or just a lover of great quality organic cotton t-shirts then go check out Red Robot for some additional cool wear for your summer wardrobe.

Pardon?

I said Ecoballs^™.

We first heard the term from our friends Howies a few years back. Of their organic cotton jeans they always say

ecoball^™ washed for softness

So when @dombat said on Twitter the other day;

Ecoballs £5.35 in Aldi currently http://tinyurl.com/djl4ro

I jumped on my bike and pedalled through the woods to our nearest Aldi, just a couple of miles away (and nearly got squashed by a dangerous driver in the process!) and picked up a box of ecoballs^™ for the special offer price of £5.35

Of course I wasn’t the only one buying eco-friendly washing products and you could see the cashier’s face as another box of ecoballs^™ came through the till.

So how do they work then?

…she said to the woman next in the queue. That was close – if she’d asked me I wouldn’t have had a clue!

So what’s in the box? Well, you get 2x ecoballs^™, 2x extra bags of washing pellets, a tube of eco-friendly stain remover (let’s hope it works on the bike chain grease on my jeans) and a set of instructions including an Ecoballs^™ FAQ.

So. How do they work? You pop an ecoball^™ or two into your wash load and wash as normal at 30-60°C. You can skip the rinse cycle apparently. The cleaning pellets inside the ecoballs^™ raise the level of alkaline in the water and there are a few other processes that take place which loosen the dirt from the fibres, plus clever things about activated water molecules. Unfortunately our resident biochemist isn’t around at the moment to explain, so hopefully when Dr. B is back, we can get a decent explanation of what saponification is.

I haven’t has the chance to use the ecoballs^™ yet but will be doing a washload this weekend and report back. with the box boasting up to 150 washes at around 6p per wash (or less than 3.5p with the Aldi special price) it looks like we won’t be using our ecover for a while. It’ll be interesting to see how our clothes turn out in terms of cleanliness and freshness.

Ecoballs^™ are a registered trademark of Ecozone (UK) Ltd.

My local Morrisons store has a stand near the counter full of Philips Energy Saver lightbulbs. The offer, whilst stocks last, is for Energy Saver bulbs at just 39p each! And, better than that, you can get 5 bulbs for just 59p! Now THAT is a bargain.

I expect this is a heavily subsidised promotion because these particular bulbs have the slogan “Working with E.ON” splashed over them. E.ON are the energy company who are threatening to build the coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth, who tried to get football fans to reduce their “carbon footyprint” and whose executive Mark Owen-LLoyd recently quipped that high energy prices meant more profit for E.ON.

We grabbed a handful of 11 watt (60 watt equivalent) and 14 watt (75 watt equivalent) Genie bayonet bulbs. They’re all A band energy efficiency and good for 10,000 hours of light (around 10 years they reckon) We’ll use these in the last of our outhouses like the garage and the workshop.

So if you don’t mind having the name of an energy company with questionable ethics scrawled on the box and the fact that the things are produced in the P.R.C. then you’ve actually got a good deal subsidised by someoone else’s customers. (We use ecotricity)

What’s that? T-Cycle? Sounds like an amalgam of T-shirt and Recycle. And you’d be right!

We spotted T-Cycle this morning; they’re a little company that sell recycled t-shirts with fresh new designs on them and all their designs are bicycle themed.

T-Cycle are well into promoting greener modes of transport, pushing the bike agenda (sorry about the cheap pun there – Ed) and making the fashion industry far more ethical and environmentally-friendly than it has been in our modern, consumerist society.

So have a look at their designs and grab yourself a green, eco-friendly biking t-shirt. And when you’ve finally worn out your beloved threads in a few years time maybe you could freecycle them?

Farmers Markets are a great way for people to find local producers and cut down on the usually unseen environmental costs that globalisation brings.

Whenever there’s a local farmers market on we go down to see what we can do to assist with “localisation”. Afterall, if there is an oil crash and we all end up being unable to travel, we’re not going to be able to get our flowers from Kenya and beef from Argentina, so it makes sense to rely on local producers.

Farmers Markets also boost the local economy and stimulate the sense of local community.

And saying all this we’ll be down at our own local farmers market in Milford, Surrey on Sunday 18th May. We’re helping out on a stall and rolling our sleeves up to get involved, so let’s hope the weather and attendance are good.

Milford Farmers Markets are held at the Secretts Garden Centre and Farm Shop which is in Chapel Lane, Milford, Surrey GU8 5HU (We even put in a link to the map for you there). The market is open from 10:00am until 1:30pm so get there nice and early to get the best of what Surrey’s local farmers have to offer.

Nokia’s President and CEO unveiled a new concept Nokia mobile phone that is, at last, pretty environmentally friendly.

The new Nokia concept mobile, branded “Remade” is supposedly constructed from nothing new, thus reducing the carbon footprint of the device, using less raw materials, reducing landfill waste and making the whole production process more energy efficient.

The Nokia remade is a recycled, post-consumer piece of modern technology. Made from recycled aluminium (old drinks can), plastic from recycled plastic bottles, old car tyres and, rather than the old acid-etched circuit board, the green mobile phone has printed electronics.

But before you rush out and ask for a Nokia Remade to replace your funky iPhone or N95, remember that this is just a concept phone. For now.

Let’s hope Nokia do the right thing and start using recycled material in ALL their products.

After last month’s online purchase of fantastically warm and environmentally-friendly hemp insulation, we saw hemp insulation for the first time locally in our nearby B&Q on Saturday.

Above the usual and itchy suspects of fibreglass loft insulation was a sign that read “Buy One Get One Free on ALL insulation and insulation wrap”. So we asked a girl at the till whether the Breatheâ„¢ Hemp Insulation was covered in this deal, after all the sign did say ALL INSULATION.

At the till the computer says NO, but we pursued justice to the letter and asked a higher authority if they would honour their promotion. They did.

So, if you want to save a few pounds and make your loft or walls all warm and toasty by going green with your hemp insulation then scoot down to B&Q double-quick and take advantage of this offer.

As well as the 6 packs of Breatheâ„¢ Hemp Insulation (which is grown in the UK) we saw B&Q were selling Thermafleece natural wool insulation too.

So finally, the high street retailers are actually going green in the products they provide for us. It’s nice to see that green products are not just a specialist commodity any more.
Personally I wish the less environmentally friendly products would be priced higher than the green products…