15/07/2009 by admin.

Households and communities which contribute electricity to the National Grid will receive payments from April 2010 under a new government scheme.  You can read more here. There is no report yet indicating what the payments will be, but hopefully they will be priced sensibly to encourage more people to get involved.

The Energy Saving Trust now have a useful tool showing predicted wind speeds for your postcode, and whether a wind turbine would be viable. This tool can be found here.

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10/07/2009 by admin.

The G8 countries have set a target of trying to limit global temperature rise to 2C above 1900 levels by 2050.

They have also set targets of reducing carbon emissions by 80% by 2050, and would like world-wide emissions to be down 50% by then.

At least this is a step in the right directions, but many questions remain. How are they going to achieve these goals? Why have they only set targets over 40 years in the future, and not have any interim targets? If they wait many years before doing anything, it might be too late. Are they just choosing 2050 so that they can be seen to be doing something, without actually having to doing anything that might be politically unpopular?

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06/07/2009 by admin.

This Friday, 10th July, is Green Britain Day. Join Team Great Britain and do something green for the team.

Visit Team Great Britain here for more information.

This looks like a good idea to raise awareness and get more people involved.

438,000 people have already signed up already for this, which is a great start.

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02/07/2009 by admin.

What is the best way to keep cool in your car during the hot weather?

The most efficient way is to use the fans/vents without the air conditioning turned on. However, this will not always be sufficient as all it does is blow in the hot air from outside.

If travelling at low speeds, opening a window will allow a much larger air flow within the car, but the faster you go the greater the drag.

Using air conditioning should normally be avoided as it can reduce your fuel efficiency by up to 10%. However, at times it is almost a necessity to use, especially in very hot and sunny weather when the car has been sitting in the sun. At high speeds, it may also be more efficient to use the air conditioning than having the windows open. Please remember to switch the air-con off when no longer required. One thing that I would like car manufacturers to adopt is to have the air conditioning switched off by default every time that the engine is started, so that the driver has to physically switch the air-con on every time he/she wants to use it. How many people drive around all year with with the air-con permanently on, without thinking about it. always wasting fuel and increasing emissions? 

More driving tips can be found at on the Green Saving Expert website.  

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