Monday, October 4, 2010

Victoria's Green Matters - 3rd Oct 2010

Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury:  
How is your 10:10 campaign going? Are you still trying to reduce your energy use by 10% during 2010? There always seems to be opportunities to try and use less energy throughout daily life. By now most of us will have low energy light bulbs around the home and will have realised that the early ones with their slow acting, dim glow have given way to much more user friendly and brighter globes. Even halogen lamps have environmentally friendly versions and soon, LED bulbs will be available with even lower energy use.

But you have to buy bulbs (don’t be tricked into buying the very cheap ones from the supermarket, they are useless) and there are lots of other ways to reduce your energy use without buying anything at all. It is very easy to get into the habit of switching off lights and appliances when you have finished using them. It is pointless, both from an energy and a cost perspective, to leave things switched on when no one is using them. It is very easy to walk away and leave ‘phone chargers still connected – and still using energy – when your ‘phone is fully charged. Why leave the television switched on when no one is looking at it? Are there lights on in rooms in your house when the rooms are empty? Even low energy bulbs use some energy!

A good way to check your energy use is to fit an energy monitor in your home. This is quite simple to do and energy companies are giving the monitors away.  It is quite a shock to see just how much electricity your halogen lamps in the kitchen are using and quite an incentive to switch them off.

There are lots more ways to save energy and money so why not join the campaign today? For more information go to www.1010.org.uk

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