How to Go Green
We’re Still working on this “How to Go Green” guide so please bear with us whilst we get our teeth into the subject for you. Ta. Ed.
We get asked this question A LOT. “How can I go go green?”
Well it’s easy.
Firstly, you’re here, reading this; that’s a great step and it shows that you’re serious and so are we… we’re small and genuinely green – we’re not a big corporation greenwashing you by saying we’re green when we’re not so that we can grab your money because you think we care! We’re a one-man band and rather passionate about going green and helping you to go green too.
So down to business… How to go green, how do you go green?
The Go Green Philosophy
Basically “going green” is about getting back to our roots. Mankind has come a long way since the days when we hunted & gathered all our food and, boy, has crass commercialism taken the way we live to its very limits! Really, we are at our limits – oil is a finite resource, global warming is a very serious threat and devastation of nature has been going on unchecked for too many years with many species now extinct or under threat of extinction. Mankind is going to hell in a handbag along with all the other innocent species unless it does something about its selfish ways and FAST.
If you look up “going green” on Wikipedia it’ll direct you to the term “environmentalism” and that’s pretty much what going green is all about. It’s not about wearing sandals, living in a teepee and eating lentils, although we’re certainly not averse to that idea. We realise that it’s not practical for everybody to go green straight away and all the way so it’s a question of learning all about the green way and making those steps to have as little impact on the environment as possible.
Going Green at Home
“Greening” your home is the first and best pace to start going green. Here’s what to do…
Lightbulbs
Changing all the lightbulbs in your home is probably the first and easiest step to going green at home. Energy-efficient lightbulbs use less energy than standard lightbulbs. The energy saver equivalent of a 60 watt bulb uses only 11 watts and has a lifetime of around 6 years.
Energy-efficient bulbs have been slated as not producing enough light, making buzzing sounds or having a “cold” glow and even looking ugly. Manufacturers have been working on these issues for a while now and lights are getting better as we demand less energy and better features.
One day soon the “Edison” bulb could be obsolete with manufacturing slowly being phased out.
But aren’t energy-saving bulbs more expensive I hear you say? Initially yes, they are, but in the long term they save money and energy, so they are actually cheaper. Keep an eye open for deals. In our house we just received free energy saving bulbs from our electricity company and a few years ago we took advantage of the BOGOF (buy one, get one free) deal at a local store. Two bulbs for the price of one and more free from our electric provider. Genius.
And what about LED lighting? LED lights are even more efficient – When I rebuilt the bathroom in my 1960s home I made the separate toilet and bathroom into one room, changing the two energy efficient lights into three down-lighters. The GU10 halogen bulbs in the 3x lights were immediately changed from 70 watt halogens to 1.2 watt LED lamps. Similarly the one 60 watt lamp in the kitchen was swapped for a 3x spot unit where again 3x 70 watt halogens were replaced by 3x 1.2 watt LED spots. In fact one of the bulbs in the bathroom is a rather funky “colour changing” bulb that cycles through red, green, blue and only uses 0.5 watts of energy.
And when you’ve gone green in the lighting department don’t forget to switch off lights when they’re not in use. Even the 3.6 watts in my kitchen gets turned off when we’re not in there 
Energy Providers
Switching energy providers is another good way to go green. By choosing a good green energy provider you will be investing in alternative energy. Here in the UK Ecotricity is the biggest investor in green energy and builds its own wind farms. In 2007 they invested £25 million in wind energy generation.
The easiest way to switch is to either get directly in contact with ecotricity or to go via the uswitch energy comparison website.
Alternatives to switching to green energy providers include producing your own energy. This is commonly known as microgeneration and can be done via wind, solar, hydro or bio-mass energy generation. This may be a more expensive route than simply switching provider as there are initial costs in purchasing and setting up, for instance, a home wind turbine. Be aware that home energy generation might not be suitable for every household so you’d need to have a professional survey before launching into home generation – is there enough wind, do you need planning application, is there enough sunlight where you’d be installing your solar panels etc.
However, if you do manage to generate your own energy and you produce excess units you can even be paid for feeding that energy back into the national grid. Ecotricity will pay you 9p for every kilowatt of energy you generate and feed back into the grid. What could be better than going green and being paid for it?
