Black & Decker have just brought out a tool called the 'leak detector' which helps you spot the points where draughts are entering your home. This could save you 20% of your energy costs, they say. Now, I'm pretty sure that my own body is capable of doing this job all too well on its own, but am willing to believe that the less thin-skinned may need the help of a gadget to find those trouble spots. Then, all you need do is buy a stack of tools to plug those gaps (or just rely on the time-honoured method of a tights sausage.
With the first October snowfall in 70 years and the temperatures dropping rapidly, it's around this time of year that saving energy at home becomes the biggest challenge. Big Green Smile offer all kinds of gadgets and gizmos to help you heat your home as efficiently as possible, and in the name of driving down carbon emissions in homes everywhere, we've joined up with them to you the chance to win a bumper energy saving pack in time for winter.
It's concept design eco-lamp heaven. So long as the Krank lamp works a little better than the Gary's look at the wind-up torch, then it's a good bit of work from Mr Efrain E. Velez.
Of course, the danger is that you rip off the head of the lamp from irritated excess kranking every five minutes between reading three pages of your book before the light fades. However, the magnet and copper coil internal mechanism is promised to produce between 40-60 minutes of light with "just a few kranks".I can imagine the Krank being a total pain in the arse but I can also imagine coming round to the idea pretty quickly as the sea-levels approach my doormat.
I love draught excluders! No other domestic item is quite so good at being simultaneously cute, retro and functional in quite the same way. Of course, you could always get a plain strip of plastic or brush to stop air escaping from under your doors, but what would be the fun in that?
Follow the jump to find out where I found these guys
In most corners of the media, money-saving has already eclipsed planet-saving, which has suddenly become yesterday's news, leading many to believe that the two concerns are worlds apart. But they couldn't be more wrong, because being green is all about resourcefulness, economy and frugality -- and not necessarily about buying expensive organic chicken. Follow the jump to find out some really useful ways of saving money and the environment at the same time.
It's taken us a while to get to this point, and we lost a couple of testers along the way. But finally, I can reveal just how much electricity Katie and I used at our respective homes over the past couple of weeks, how much we differed, and how we compare to the UK average...
But how much did we use? Read on over the jump
This video is, apparently, what happens when you let geeks loose on the pressing question of energy efficiency. Tech Digest's Gary Cutlack is clearly on the right track when it comes to the complex science of turning stuff off, but should he perhaps be focusing more on the C02 cost of his idiot toys rather than blaming everything on his poor old fridge? Proof if proof be needed that nutrition is a mere accessory to the truly dedicated gadget freak, I'd say...
Black & Decker have just brought out a tool called the 'leak detector' which helps you spot the points where draughts are entering your home. This could save you 20% of your energy costs, they say. Now, I'm pretty sure that my own body is capable of doing this job all too well on its own, but am willing to believe that the less thin-skinned may need the help of a gadget to find those trouble spots. Then, all you need do is buy a stack of tools to plug those gaps (or just rely on the time-honoured method of a tights sausage. 
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