Energy saving
Let this be a lesson to me. Never trust elderly neighbours. When I moved into my new flat a few weeks back, my neighbour was all sweetness and light. She let us into the electricity meter box, so that we could get a reading to tell our supplier. She also revealed that she's the only person in the entire universe with a key to the electricity box. No problem. I won't need to get in there again for a long time.
Or so I thought. The following week, I stroll into work to see a big pile of boxes on the Hippyshopper desk. "What are those?" I ask Abi. "Energy Monitors" she replies, "And we're all testing them". "Cool!" I thought.
Fast forward to that evening. I'm knocking on neighbour's door, wondering whether she'll think I'm some kind of weirdo, connecting machines up to the electricity. No answer. I try again, several times that week. No answer. She seems to have gone on holiday. So to cut an even longer story short, I didn't get to test out my energy monitor - the eco-eye Elite. Instead, I'll talk briefly about the product anyway, and the kind of energy usage I think I have as a big gadget geek.
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Green Challenges
As I've mentioned before, I have a love-hate relationship with gadgets: I love it when they're up and running and improving my life in new and exciting ways, but I have a phobia of manuals and want as little to do with their inner workings as possible. For this reason, I'd been assuming I was having a rare stroke of beginners' luck with the Wattson: it was all so easy and user-friendly that surely something had to go wrong sooner or later.
And I had convinced myself that this 'catastrophe' was going to occur at this phase of the experiment: the data collection. Read on to find out if my pessimism was well-founded.
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Green Challenges
So, still in the throws of moving house, I did my bit for the environment and installed my shiny new energy reading device (before I had unpacked my clothes, books or even a saucepan). It may have helped that I was watching Earth: The Climate Wars; last night's fascinating documentary on how science has viewed climate change in recent history. Or it could have simply been my innate, eco-warrior status, which may, of course, be about to be blown completely out of the water.
Follow the jump to find out how I got on and check out my twitter feed for real-time updates!
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Green gadgets
We like LED lighting around here, but it's even better when it comes stylishly packaged and has extra gadgety bits to get excited about, too.
The Spark Lamp is not only a cool, comtemporary low energy lamp, but it also comes with a wireless device that monitors the overall energy usage in your home. Oh, and it doesn't need any electricity for itself, thank you very much, as it stores up sunlight during the day to get its juice. Just like a plant! Which is why it kinda looks like one.
[Via Ecofriend]
Related: LEDs: the lights with a lighter footprint | LED technology now available in lightbulb form
Energy saving
LED lighting is a really exciting area of technology, as it has all the energy- saving benefits of CFL bulbs, but without the harmful mercury. And it's improving all the time: the cost of LED is going down as the light quality achievable keeps getting better.
This is the first concept I've seen, however, for an LED bulb that's compatible with the fittings we all have at home. This LED bulb by Frog Design looks much like an incandescent bulb. It also works like one, uses the same sockets and gives off the same warm colour. The only difference is energy savings and a life span of 30+ years! [Via Ecofriend]
Related: How to clear up a broken CFL lightbulb without pain and death
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Energy saving
There are loads of products on the market to help you save electricity, but what about saving gas? It's in all our interests not to waste this natural resource, which is getting pricier by the minute.
This gas-saving net (which actually looks quite pretty in action!) sits on top of your gas hob and ensures it burns as efficiently as possible by capturing any unburnt gas that would otherwise leak from the stove and be wasted.
The net is a great value buy in itself at just £9.97 at Nigel's Eco Store.
Related: Energy and money-saving tips from Friends of the Earth | Demystify your bills and save energy with Ewgeco
Energy saving
It can sometimes feel like our homes are designed to test just how green we really are, and how far our willpower will stretch before we reach for those labour-saving mod cons that guzzle energy like there's no tomorrow.
Friends of the Earth is a name to be trusted in all matters green, so their guide to saving energy is well worth a read. The tips are all designed to become 'second nature' pretty quickly.
I've collected together some of the most useful tips here: read them after the jump.
Related: How to make your fridge a greener place | hand-knitted fairtrade snake saves energy, eats draughts
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