Electricity Usage

In my never ending quest to ensure that I limit the impact my family has on the planet (and reduce our household costs), we've recently installed an electricity meter. It gives us instant feedback on how much electricity we are using in 6 second intervals. We can see exactly how much it costs to turn on the lights, run the tumble dryer, boil the kettle for a cuppa or toast a few slices of bread. You can get the feedback in kilowatts, how much CO2 is being released or based on your electricity tariff, how much per hour it is costing.


We have now become obsessed with it. Sebastian has pointed out that it costs about 2p to make toast in the morning. It appears the toaster is the most expensive piece of kit we have in the house. It has also armed me with a pretty good argument back to Marc about why line drying clothes is a much better idea than using the tumble dryer regardless of how much he hates stiff clothing. I am now super careful about how much water I put in the kettle. It's quite handy for using it to tell us when a light has been left on somewhere in the house.


What is astonishing is how much it costs us to sleep. There are certain things in the house, like the refrigerator and the freezer which don't ever get turned off. They cost us about 4.5p/hour all night long.


And it costs us about .5p/hour to read in bed before I go to sleep. Maybe we should get us some candles. Or not take the meter to bed with us.

Chicago's Alleys

Chicago is a fascinating city. It was one of the first big cities I ever traveled to as a young adult first let lose in the big wide world. It is home to my beloved (if ultimately unsuccessful) Chicago Cubs. The people of Chicago are scary and friendly in equal measure at the same time.

Scariest for me has always been walking the streets of Chicago. I've walked the streets of New York at all hours including the wee hours of the morning and never felt fear the way I've felt fear at just about anytime on the streets of Chicago, specifically down the alleys of the city. But it looks to me like Chicago is looking to make a change.

Read this story about what Chicago is doing about their alleys. I love it. Even if you believe those crazies (Janell and Joe) and think global climate change is a bunch of malarkey, you can't argue that everything Chicago is doing isn't a great idea!

Go Windy City!

Worst That Can Happen

Editor's Note: The original video I posted has been deleted from YouTube. This is the second version from the same guy talking about the same thing....only better.

Must See Blog

Seriously, you have got to check out the progress on my husband's biodiesel blog!

Work in Progress Blog

OK, so I've got a link to this blog on my blog. It is one of only 3 links to blogs for people outside my friends and family circle. Lisa Takeuchi Cullen writes Work in Progress, a blog for Time magazine which explores issues in the workplace. She gives me a shout-out in a Recent Post and asks for my opinion on the role of the corporation in the green debate and whether it does inform our employment decisions.

Give it a read and leave her your opinion. Maybe we can change her mind and help save the world.

An Inconvenient Truth

I'm a healthy cynic. About 5 years ago when the whole global warming things starting humming in my ear I went and did my only little research project. Among other things I read The Skeptical Environmentalist by Bjorn Lomborg which had me convinced that a large part of the global warming warnings were scare tactics and that many of the statistics I was reading about were skewed so as to misinform and scare the living daylights out of me. The book was published in 2001 and additional scientific data has proved that whilst a debate needed to be had, Bjorn was wrong and Global Warming is indeed melting the planet. OK, so now I am scared.

The humming has become shouting and my mild concern has turn to an active fear bordering on paranoia. I felt it was time I revisited the data and turned this fear into an action plan I could believe and participate in. This is particularly relevant because I work for the largest energy/utility company in the UK. I believe the energy & utility companies are in the unique position to do the most to stop the trends which could avoid the catastrophic events possibly in our life and most certainly in my children's life.

The first action on my plan was to watch An Inconvenient Truth which is the documentary film featuring the PowerPoint presentation by Al Gore the former US Presidential candidate. (He's the one that should have been president in 2000 since he won the popular vote but the US Supreme Court broke the law and intervened in an election result and the most powerful country in the world had a fixed election (just like they do in 3rd world countries like Uganda) but that is the topic of another post.

Please, everyone who is reading this, promise me you will give this a go and watch this. If at the end you are still unconvinced well so be it. But at least listen to this side of the story. Now, if you believe what he has to say then get busy and change the way you live and encourage our political leaders to change the way they regulate and encourage the businesses you do business with to change the way they use and abuse the scarce resources our planet has to offer. It is not too late. The evidence of this in the film is when Mr. Gore talks about how individuals, government and businesses working together changed the damage that was being done to the ozone layer and eliminated this threat to our planet. We can do the same with global warming. We have got to take action now!

Go to www.climatecrisis.net for inspiration.

My Husband is a Mad Scientist

Marc has become obsessed with the idea of making his own bio-diesel. I now know why he wanted to buy the BMW estate. It is a diesel. He can make his own fuel.

The idea of him making his own fuel is just an opportunity he can't pass up. This appeals to his very primal urges to really be a scientist instead of an IT professional. He would much prefer doing experiments in the garage, especially experiments that have the potential to blow things up, than just about anything else.

Last evening I bore witness to him using my kitchen utensils including a roasting tin and the cutlery (forks/spoons/knives) to cleanse (with boiling water) and then cook (in our oven) some sand. He then taped my prized kitchen funnel to the top of a thin cooper pipe and poured the sand into the pipe. He then coiled the pipe around a can and these coils are now sitting on my kitchen counter.

I am afraid......very afraid. Stay tuned. Unless we have to call the fire brigade. The number is 999 in the UK.

LATE EDIT
PS Link to his blog here

Global Warming

It scares the living daylights out of me. I find the whole idea that we've ruined the planet for our grandchildren incredibly frightening. Unless, of course, I don't have any grandchildren. Both of my children could grow up and decide that children strips you of your identity, money, and free time. So they don't have any of their own. But this is the subject of another post I fear.

I confess. I am one of those. I drive to work. I do live close to my office (about 4 miles) so I'm not one of those people travelling over 60 miles to get to and back from work five days/week. I could take the bus, if only it went anywhere near my office. I could ride my bicycle to the office but honestly how practical is it for a woman to bring all of her work clothes (including hair and makeup supplies) to work in her backpack along with her laptop and briefcase? Not very I say. I can hardly fit the stuff I carry back and forth in the boot of my car. Luckily I do work for home 1 day/week so there's my bit done, right?

Also, there's the school run. I work flexible hours so I can pick up my son at school. On my way home I pick him up. Except 1 day/week I take my daughter to ballet. My childminder drops of Abigail since she is already out and about doing her school runs. So we combine trips. not bad, eh?

I run the tumble dryer probably < 6 times/week in the winter and hardly ever in the summer. Not bad, I say, for a family of 4.

I run the dishwasher just once/day.

Lights are off in the house in the rooms unless we are in them. Even in the lounge we only turn one overhead light on unless I am doing my quilting. We have a number of energy saving lightbulbs in the house where I can cope with the blue light they give off.

We keep the house cool unless I light a fire in the fireplace but that is a carbon neutral heating source, right?

OK, I keep the computer and TV on standby which I probably shouldn't do. But that might be our only energy extravagance. And now I feel so guilty just admitting that to my devoted blog audience that I will stop doing that at once.

We recycle. We compost. We grow (to the best of our abilities) our own vegetables.

And still the planet melts. What are you doing to stop the melting? What more can I do?