Wasting water

Here's a concept - stop me if you've heard it before - how about you only pay for what you use? Those clever folks at the electricity and gas companies have been at it for years: install a meter and then charge your customers for what they actually use. Clever idea really. Much like the woman (or man) at the supermarket checkout that totals up your bill when you're paying.

Well, in recent years, those tardy folk at the water companies have decided to get in on this act. Water meters (!) - what a great idea. You can almost see the eureka moment when someone thought that they would charge for what people were using... So now, you can move from an estimated bill (the water 'rates' system) to an actual 'pay for what you use' bill. As you're going from a fixed rate to a variable rate, then (assuming your water use doesn't change) your water charges could go up or down. It would all depend on how much water you used compared to the rated estimate. Ofwat (the regulator) have a water usage calculator that allows you to compare your usage on a meter with their rated prices (but frankly I found the uswitch version to be more user friendly - and worked more reliably)


Anyway, we thought it would be a good idea to get a water meter. My reasoning is this: even if it means we pay more for our water, at least we're paying for what we're using. As such, it means we'll understand how much we use and waste - and help us reduce our water usage. Seems to make sense to me.

Apparently Ofwat and the Environment Agency agree. Apparently studies show that houses with meters use between 5 and 15% less water than those without meters. This seems to make sense - as soon as you realise you're paying for what you use, you'll probably use less. However, trawling through Ofwat reports and the internet, I haven't been able to confirm this - though the Environment Agency refer to this report by the UK Water Industry Research. Unfortunately, at £70, I wasn't buying a copy. Anyway, seems like a good idea to me - though so far, not that many people have jumped on the boat. Ofwat said that only 25% of Thames Water customers would be metered in 2007-8.

Anyway, so we had a meter installed (piccy above). This nice chap came along and told us how much money he makes installing meters. Only has to do a few a day (think it was 4) to meet his minimum target, then gets paid loads for any extra ones. He took all of about 15 minutes to do it, then was gone - though only after making my builders envious of his easy job and good money. Then a few hours later, we had a look at the meter, and yes, there was water dripping from it. Mr Overpaid not-a-real-Plumber managed to install a leaky meter. Well, actually, it's not the meter's fault - it's the way it was all installed. Builders were suitably annoyed that he's overpaid and can't do the job properly. Luckily, my builder is a plumber, and is going to fix the joints so it doesn't leak.

How about this for a commute?

Let’s start by saying that I’m not a morning person. At all.

This morning, I got myself up at 5am to meet a friend that I’d not seen for a good few years (come to think of it, it may have been more than 10 years). We were at school together and I can say, without hesitation, that our main connection in the five years of boarding school was a shared love of athletics. That’s what I’ve come to call ‘Track and Field’ these days: Simon was a 110m hurdler and I was a sprinter that used to think a mile was a long way to run. We’ve been back in touch for a while, but meeting up hadn’t quite happened yet, so I think it was fitting that we actually got to meet up again over something sporting.

At 6am this morning, Simon and his friends, Tim and Matt, got on their bikes at Marble Arch to cycle to Edinburgh (450 miles) before running the Edinburgh Marathon (26.2 miles). Strictly speaking, they started their challenge last night with a swim in the Serpentine Lido, but the bike and run was the original idea. In these days of Ironmans and Ultramans, I suppose many wouldn’t think that this was such a hard challenge – but I was impressed for several reasons.

How often do people come up with an idea in the pub and then never do anything about it? These guys came up with the hair-brained plan and are actually doing it. Simon and his friends have a great adventure ahead of them and are doing it to benefit Cancer Research. You see, Simon's mum was diagnosed with brain cancer, and tragically passed recently. This has only steeled Simon to make sure they went ahead. I really admire them for having a good go at this. I tagged along to see them out of London (well, for the first few miles anyway) and wish them the best of luck on their journey.

So, if you need an excuse to donate to Cancer Research, follow this link and make their efforts worthwhile:
http://www.justgiving.com/edinburghmadness

2 wheels good, 4 wheels bad

After several months in the wilderness (Cambridge), I'm moving back into London. Unfortunately, it's not into the flat - that's still being worked on... But really, we can't take the commute from Cambridge any longer. 4 hours of our day was just way too much. So, I thought this would be a great time to get a new bike, to pootle around London on. Since it looks like summer's coming, this has got to be a great time to get back on a bike.

Now, I should say that I already have 2 other bikes. Unfortunately, neither is really appropriate for leaving on the street and going around town on. I don't think they would last very long. So I figured I'd get a cheap second hand bike from Cambridge. After all, there's nothing like re-using something good. I went to a small shop in Cambridge where they were insistent on me trying out loads and loads of bikes. I was there for almost 2 hours - riding up and down. It was a great way to shop, and I did finally get myself a bike. It's a beautiful 1980s gent's 3-speed made by Hercules.

It doesn't quite compare to my super light race bike, but it's got tons of character. Maybe a bit too much, judging by the rust on the wheels...but it's a joy to ride. So, as much as I can be, I'm off the bus and the tube now. There's nothing quite like traveling under your own steam.

Carbonated Water

April comes and goes with the usual stories of spaghetti trees, flying penguins and Google Romance (dating is a search problem), but this year there had to be something related to the environment (you'd have thought). This one tickled my tastbuds

Recharge for 2008

Someone asked me about recycling of batteries and lightbulbs, since we all seem to go through them. I don't have an answer on the lightbulbs just yet, but long life energy saving bulbs should help (although the person who asked also mentioned the issue of mercury in CFLs). CFLs are recyclable - I just don't know how to do it. I'm sure it won't take long to find out how though. In the meantime, there's an article from 2006 which covers the topic (and says that the extra mercury emissions produced by a power plant for a incandescent bulb is 3 times that of using a CFL).

Back to batteries... I found this on the internet last year. It's a device that lets you re-use regular alkaline batteries once they're 'dead'. My girlfriend tried to get me one for Christmas but couldn't find it anywhere, so I've not tried it yet. It sounds pretty good though. Just think of all those batteries you've thrown away. Of course, if you're not using rechargeable batteries already, I'm not entirely hopeful that this product will work for you. I think that people are much more open to rechargeable batteries these days anyway - we all have mobile phones which we charge regularly (and often forget to turn the charger off at the wall when they're done - no, they don't all go off automatically).

A quick search today found that there are at least 2 companies producing devices that re-charge or recondition alkaline batteries: the Souvenir Cranwell one above and one from EverCharge. If anyone has experience of these, please let me know.

Why boilers are sexy

OK, so you know you're obsessed with your refurb when you talk to people about the boilers they're putting in and get all excited about flow rates and energy ratings. Well, in our place, the choice of boilers came down to this: Volkswagen or Mercedes. I had spent a fair while researching the very best boilers - going to everyone from the Energy Saving Trust to the Sedbuk database (Seasonal Efficiency of Domestic Boilers in the UK) - and basically I'd not moved massively forward. I was stuck with Vaillant, Viessmann and Worcester Bosch. All very efficient and seemingly all pretty good. So I put the question to our builder (aspiring to be a Corgi engineer) and our plumber. The response I got back was something like this: "they're all good boilers, but you've got imagine them like cars. A Worcester Bosch is like a Volkswagen, but a Viessmann is like a Mercedes." Err...ok, but I just want hot water.

In the end, we chose the Worcester Bosch. I'd asked the plumber which he prefers to install and deal with and he was unequivocal. It was also nice that the Green Homes people later suggested the same one. As did a friend of mine (graphic artist turned plumber turned interior decorator) enthusiastically agreed with the boiler assessment. So we are now the proud owners of fully operational hot water and central heating system. Gone is the old combi boiler and immersion heater (I'll mention that in another post) - in its place, a Worcester Bosch Greenstar 42CDi combi boiler.

So here are the beautiful 'before' and 'after' shots:

Bike theft

Since my last post mentioned that we had a bike stolen, I thought I'd put up one of my favorite clips from YouTube. Considering that our Mayor is trying to get us to use bikes more often, you would have thought it was worth doing a bit more to protect cyclists from theft. Right now, if your bike gets stolen, the police aren't really interested at all (after all - there's not much they can do after the fact). Anyway, here's a clip that might help people be a bit more questioning when they see someone with a hacksaw...

Small steps in the Big City

A little while ago, I decided to start making some changes in my life. There's a bunch of reasons why - some of them you might understand, some probably don't make any sense at all. Essentially, I just wanted to reduce the impact of my life on the environment. To me, that means this planet, but also this country (the UK) and this city (London).  In terms of timing, it made a lot of sense - after I left my last job, I had a lot of time to think about what I wanted to do and why. I was also buying a new flat with my girlfriend.

So this blog is really about what I've done to make changes in my life - and what hasn't changed.  I'm not an environmental advocate, but just a guy wanting to align his lifestyle with his beliefs and principles.  And I wanted to take action now.  Forget about the theories and the arguments, I just wanted to make the changes that mattered to me, and make them quickly.