A Thought about Energy Costs

I've been reading lots of articles recently about the rising cost of oil making it more viable to drill hard to reach reserves. When previously this would have been too costly, now it looks more sensible for oil companies. This is obviously not the world's best news. However, the increase in energy costs is starting to make quite a few people think about going 'green'. This makes a lot of sense since people and companies generally care a lot about what's in their pocket. For many, 'going green' isn't so much about saving the environment, but saving money.

Last week, we went to the Green Car Guide show in Liverpool. The show was mainly geared towards businesses, but the message was clear: with rising fuel costs, businesses want more efficient cars, vans and trucks. It's a simple equation - greater efficiency means less fuel, meaning lower running costs. Of course, there are other potential benefits from greener cars (lower car tax, congestion charge exemptions, and even free parking). As costs rise, this will become increasingly important for businesses (and individuals).

The other thing I have been thinking about is the rising cost of home energy. A couple of days ago it was reported that energy bills could go up by 40% (an increase that could mean paying £400 more this winter for the average household). That's a huge increase. This is what got me thinking about the interconnectedness of the oil price rises. This could, and should, make people think about increasing their home energy efficiency. Yes, it does cost money - but as energy costs rise, so do the potential savings. The investment payback time is shrinking significantly now.

So people should be thinking about reducing their heating and electricity bills this winter. There's loads of things people can do: improve the insulation, ensure their boiler and heating system is efficient, double glaze (or even more..), use low energy lighting. Aside from that there are all the easy things like turning off lights. Like many things in life, we'll change only when we're forced to. The pinch on your wallet is definitely something that will do that.

Getting into hot water

You might wonder why we overhauled the heating system in the first place. After all, you've got to figure that leaving things as they are has less of an environmental impact that refurbishing something. Well, this flat had a bit of a bizarre heating system, especially given its size. It had a combi boiler feeding the sinks and the heating system, but a large hot water cylinder with 2 electric immersion heaters that fed the showers. You find houses that have cylinders fed by the boiler (and often have back-up immersion heaters), but this was a little strange - and not that efficient. Couple this with a boiler that was going to need replacing at some stage in the not too distant future, we thought it was an appropriate time to put in a new system. Little did I know that it involved re-piping most of the flat to get it all working and to meet current standards.

So the plumbers descended en masse and managed to do everything in a matter of days. I missed the yellow gunk that came out of the hot water cylinder, which fed the showers (my builders thought it was disgusting), but I did catch the radiators being emptied:I'm told that our new system shouldn't ever end up black like that...

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:

How do I get rid of all this stuff?

We're embarking on a complete refurbishment of the flat we bought.  First of all, you might think that a refurbishment is not the right thing to do in the first place - one of the lowest impact things to do would be to simply leave the flat as it is.  After all, the last people lived there perfectly happily.  Well, to be honest, I can't say we thought about that one for too long.  It's only really in retrospect that I've considered this.  However, I don't think we're doing the wrong thing.  You see, homes need to be upgraded periodically - hopefully not too frequently, but often enough to make sure that the places we live in are in good shape.  Also, as we've learnt more about energy efficiency, it makes sense to upgrade our homes - realising though, that some of the benefits may take a while to pay off.  In other words, we all need to maintain our homes, for ourselves and for those that may live there in the future.

With that in mind, we set out to get a few things right from the start - we wanted to replace the old (and slightly strangely but very ineffciently arranged) heating and hot water system with something more efficient; we wanted to use low impact materials for our floors and walls; and we wanted to put in as much energy efficient lighting as possible.  All that was a great plan to begin with, but we soon found ourselves with another problem.  Even though the flat seemed completely empty, as soon as we started taking the flat apart, we realised we were sitting on top of a huge amount of really useful stuff.

OK - what I mean by stuff is:

• an oven
• a fridge
• a gas hob
• 2 different sets of wood floors
• a carpet that was under the wood floor
• underlay that was under the carpet
• massive mirrored sliding doors
• 2 wooden cabinets
• 2 bathroom suites
• a bunch of old radiators
• 5 radiator covers
• a mirror
• 2 shower doors

So my goal became - How do I get rid of all this stuff?

At least, how do I get rid of it all without sending it to a landfill - or in our case, to our eco-friendly waste company that recycles as much as 80% of the waste they collect.  Keep tuned in to find out what happens.

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.