Climate change

[xelasnave]

I have heard we can all make a difference so I will run with that...

I want to make a different and help with the global warming so I suggest we start a list of what could be done to help.

Replacing your light bulbs with lower wattage is a start they say..still there must be more that could be done...

So what energy saving ideas can you come up with... I think turning off the lights in the city office buildings could be helpful..maybe reducing car engine capacity to around 2000 cc ... maybe walking to work or riding a push bike???
Maybe staggering work times so we dont have traffic jams???
But for the sake of a bit of fun on a wet day post your energy saving nay world saving ideas....

alex

[Ric]

Morning Alex, I have been doing my bit for many years now.

Our house has low wattage bulbs throughout, our 5 acre bock is covered in trees with more to come and we subscribe to the theory of permaculture and self sustanability. My next step now is hopefully to go onto full solar power and reduce our footprint even further.

I also have ridden motorbikes all my life and still average 1 tank (21 litres) to the fortnight and that is riding it just about everyday.

Cheers

[xelasnave]

Hi Ric...
I was going to get a road bike and run it on the fuel I brewed myself... never did but I remember when I used to be into the racing reading that you could run a bike for racing on home brew (distilled) is you went up 100% in main jet size..

I never ran it because the rules did not permit it from memeory ..but I have often thought about it because of economy ... I think the driving force for change can only be money even for me.. what a realization... well I am a scrooge and I like solar because its free in effect... and I would have an electric car on the same basis...

I hope they pay folk like us in some carbon credits we can trade..

I have maybe 50,000 ton of carbon I am keeping out of the air... could be a good earn maybe..

I think one may even be able to make money selling power to the grid the way things will go to support alternatives... so being green will not necessarily be being silly I feel.........all is good eh

alex

[vash (Ashley)]

I flick the wall power switch off on the computer, (mainly because it has a clear window and the motherboard light keeps me awake all night) but also I only use it to process my photo's, seeing as how I haven't taken many in a long time the computer just sits there, so no need for power to be running to it.

I do the same for other electronics that just sit there and do nothing when I'm not there.

[rogerg (Roger)]

We switched our light globes, but didn't notice a noticable difference on our power bill above the usual fluctuations. We normally only have a few lights on in the house on any given night, turn them off unless we need them.

My partner and I share a lift to work as much as possible, most days. To make this practical I needed to work a 38 hour week instead of 40 hours, to match her 38 hours.

We switch may things off at the wall when going away for a night or more, but that is probably counter-acted by my router and some other computer equipment staying on most of the time 24x7.

We have fully insulated our house, as a result only use our aircon for about 3 hours in the evening on hot days, and use noticably less LPG to heat the place in winter.

We do grow many vege's ourselves but I don't believe that has an impact considering the water etc needed to grow them.

If going to shop in the city we park at the nearest train station (15mins) and catch the train in. Saves about 60min round-trip driving and is more relaxing.

We are switching a proportion of our power to green energy (by choosing the option from Synergy, not installing solar pannels or anything).

To be honst I think I'm a pretty bad person when it comes to "carbon footprint" and the like: We drive 50mins each way to work and back, I have several PC's and other related equipment running much of the time, we use the average amount of water for our area, but there's only 2 of us, etc.

Our neighbour bought a dirt bike that he rides to work now. Perhaps because of cost or environment, i don't know. But I hate it. Can hear it 5km away at 5:30am, let alone next door.

[xelasnave]

You have made a good point...phantom loads are so un necessary and by eliminating them a consumer can save money.. many appliances still draw power even when you think they do not. As a generalisation if you save money you reduce your carbon footprint... buying $300 worth of anything a month will be a greater footprint in general than buying $30 worth of stuff a month.

alex

We could make another list of phantom load sources
alex

[Ric]

Distilling your own fuel is an interesting thought and a bit of moonshine on the side as well

That reminds of a funny story when I was working as a builders labourer on the new Parliament house, there used to be a Hungarian chap that distilled his own plum Brandy in his shed down the back of his yard for many years. His father had started doing it in Hungary and he had continued on the tradition when he emmigrated to Australia.

At one stage we had mentioned to him to be careful as it was illegal and so he thought he would do the right thing and inform the police to come and have a look to see if it was ok. When the police arrived apparently they had kittens and called the bomb squad to dismantle it and evacuated the street as well.

He was telling us all this one Monday morning as we fell of our chairs laughing. The police never charged him as he had done the right thing and told them but in his eyes he could never see what all the fuss was about.

Cheers

[xelasnave]

Roger as I said saving energy saves one money which could be put to better use..maybe the money you save could be accumulated in a astro savings fund..
alex

[xelasnave]

Well Ric when one distills one touches the revenue nerve..probably the worst crime of all...a mate used to do the plumb brandy and it was neat stuff.
alex

[Ric]

I remember his Grappa was a ripper as well.

I remember riding my Kawasaki at the time to work on a Canberra Winter morning and arriving frozen solid and he'd say have a nip of this and within 5 minutes I'd be walking around in a T-shirt, talk about firing up the blood flow.

Cheers

[Glenhuon (Bill)]

Lets see, we have 2x 5w solar panels on the roof that run the main light on the patio, the lights in the back toilet, an LED spotlight that shines on the outdoor table (but can be directed onto the hills hoist if someone wants to hang some evening washing out, manual switched) and runs a radio/cd player for outside entertainment. The other lights are triggered by a light sensitive switch.
The patio is lit after dark by 4 multi coloured strings of lights, solar powered and switch on when the sun goes down but are low enough not to be intrusive and look pretty to boot. There are 2 single LED lights above the door to my workshop, the tops of salvaged garden lights, these are not only to save power but prevent me falling over tools I have left outside and nearly breaking a leg as happened a few weeks ago.
Future projects are an internal light near the main bathroom that switches on at dark, powered from the same panels, that saves leaving a mains light on all night, and a solar charging point for my Astronomy gear batteries.
The charge rate is slow with such small panels, but since most things don't draw much current or get used infrequently, they do the trick.

Bill

[paninaro]

Hi Alex,

Nice idea for a discussion

What we have done so far:

1. switched to the low power light bulbs
2. switched to green energy suppliers
3. turn off lights in rooms when not there
4. moved to laptops instead of desktop computers
5. we only buy energy efficient whitegoods
6. converted to instantaneous hot water system

what i want to do in the future:

1. take one room at a time and solar power it - this is a big project as i need to know consumption levels at todays rates for each room and then convert that to an amount of active panels and storage units.

Cheers, AlexT

[glenc (Glen)]

We bought a 1kW solar array that feeds into the grid. The cost was $3,500 after the rebate and RECS and it supplies 35% of our electricity. Our solar HWS supplies nearly all of our hot water.
Our 2L turbo diesel car uses about half as much fuel as the old V6 and it's nicer to drive.

[ving (David)]

hows this for climate change, its warm and sunny now labour is in

[Kal (Andrew)]

Sometimes the simplest changes are the easiest to implement, so I'll say avoid using the clothes dryer if possible - the clothes line uses solar power and zero electricity!

Also use cold wash cycle instead of warm wash when washing clothes.

You can also try to minimise your shower time. Not only do you save water, but you save electricity (well, I do at least, I don't have a hot water tank)

[Outbackmanyep]

So what about christmas? People are encouraged to stick lights all over their houses and electricity companies are putting up prizemoney for the effort!
So whats that doing for climate change?? LOL

[xelasnave]

Well I think we should be pushing the powers for a city light cerfew... it will save the planet..or thats the way to present the case... all lights off say between midnight and 2 am should reduce the city carbon foot print... and lets face it most will be in bed between those hours... I am not worried about the light polution you understand I am only interested in reducing the carbon footprint with less night lighting

I wonder what the carbon footprint is of v8 super cars? air craft racing? boat racing???.... I bet we can make them feel guilty and support the night light cerfew thing.

Solar will handle lighting in an average house with ease, ordinary TV,s (non plasma) dont draw much power.. but heating and cooling is the big draw...

I heard that something like 10% of cloud cover in Europe is due to aircraft one would think if "they" were serious about addressing the problem "they" say we have that one would be limiting air travel in some form... but of course I doubt if the GW thing is promoted for good reasons but finally by those wishing to make us feel so guilty that Neuclear power seems a sensible option... I thought of the recent deals at the big world meet in Sydney that such deals would have been frowned opon if not for the GW scare.
alex

[Alchemy (Clive)]

sadly as a whole it gets worse and worse,

larger houses.... heating and cooling. is your house bigger than 20 squares
evry gadget is now powered ie those new lcd picture frames, what was wrong with a photo.
plasma tvs how big is yours
computers...how many do you have?
cars do you own more than one
industrialization of previously agricultural societys
5c airfares, how many times did you fly this year
sprawling cities...
deforestation... how many trees cut down since this post

etc etc . examine the problem and we all contribute in some way, and the big picture gets worse all the time. of course by the time everyone agrees it will be too late.

[Glenhuon (Bill)]

Originally Posted by Outbackmanyep

So what about christmas? People are encouraged to stick lights all over their houses and electricity companies are putting up prizemoney for the effort!
So whats that doing for climate change?? LOL

Almost all those christmas lights are available as solar powered versions now. We have had the ones on the patio and a string of 60 blue LED's in the front garden for about 6 months now and they still stay on all night even after a couple of cloudy days. Its actually getting quite hard to find the ones with the small globes in them now, even the plugpack ones are LED's. Maybe someone should offer a prize for the best garden display thats totally solar powered (Don't think the power companies will be interested in backing that one )

Bill

[xelasnave]

I guess my point with all this is I am sick of hearing what a problem it is and yet when you look little is really being done and anything that is done is the nature of a public relations thing by Government or Corporations...

Still I suppose some progress is good...however given the case that the matter is so serious it is sad no major moves are being made... as I said if so serious why not restrict car motor size... retrict air trav ell..well you can make a list... no... nothing really will be done but when NP is mentioned all will be made to feel guilty if one objects to this clean power option..or as the last PM said one would be...not real.. how transparent is that statement of our old PM in the context of the push for NP....We need less greed and better control of resourses... could not be too hard ... war on drugs..war on terror..why not war on climate change and greed.

The market system can not win this battle as the market simply does not wish to reduce comsumption... lets face it everyone wants everything ..thats ones right ..tv tells us that..you are a sucess when you can own more houses than you can occupy... you are a sucess when you have a garage with over 100 cars... you are a sucess when you can fly your own plane and sail your own boat... No one holds up a man of moderate needs and consumption as a role model... and whilst we promote greed as part and parcel of sucess we dig a deeper do do hole.

Still climate change does not worry me ...thru history we see many nations rise and fall due to water supply and finally so often a climate change meant they could not do what they have always done..so civilizations simply disappeared...but life did not.

What does worry me is the folk who sell the guilt trip that we the ordinary person should be making our personal change when they .. do not do zip but continue to consume at greedy levels....

But at a simple level if you want to work hard to waste energy do so... but so many folk spend so much money on their energy requirements they must be working a day a week or more just for the energy bills... less consumption means less work finally... less work means more time for the important things.
alex