Energy - part 1

Wind Turbines at Sunset, Caithness, Scotland


I want to go back today to the post about 90% cut in CO2 emissions and elaborate a bit on a the energy section .

. Electricity. Average UK usage is 4900 kwh PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR,( it is 11,000 KWH per household in the USA) . 80% reduction would mean using 81 kwh PER HOUSEHOLD PER MONTH
• Solar Renewables are deemed to have a 50% payback - that is, you get twice as many watts.
• Hydro and Wind are deemed to have a 4 to 1 payback over other methods - you get 4 times as many.

Where to start to figure this thing out ?
Our current supplier gives us an accurate picture of the energy we are consuming on a daily basis which has gone down from 20 units per day to 16 units per day on average. In percentage terms that means that we have cut 20% so far through awareness and changing the lightbulbs. We still consume more than the average household at 5840 units.

The breakdown of the average energy consumption in the Uk would be :
5% cooking
13% lights and appliances
25% water heating
57% spaceheating

The home energy check goes through detail by detail and then provides you with a report on what could be done. ( Mine had an error in it so am still waiting for the info). Looking at the 10 tips does not give me any further confirmation of what I could change that has not been changed already.

The carbon emission calculator is pretty and should give you an idea of where you are and how much you need to change. Our foot print is lower than average. I am confused by it all now.

For grants and offers on more energy efficient heating and insulation you can go visit warmfront and see if you qualify for a grant.

The next step after that is the low carbon buildings programme where you can get a grant towards fitting solar panels or windturbines to your property.

Back to the calculation and the target of reducing energy consumption by 80%. The easiest option to increase the target amount times 4 is to change to renewable energy. That would bring the total amount we use to 3888 or an average of 10 units per day. I'll stick to that as my target then.

Where would you go to change to renewable energy?

ecotricity.co.uk
www.good-energy.co.uk
www.greenenergy.uk.com
www.nieenergy.co.uk ( for Northern Ireland)
www.npower.com ( juice from npower)
www.scottish-southern.co.uk

or visit the green energy marketplace
www.greenelectricity.org
electricity ino at www.electricityinfo.org
socially equitable electricity available from www.ebico.co.uk

Climate change blogs

The low carbon kid
David T is a novelist and environmental journalist. His blog is about fighting climate change without supporting nuclear power. Writes extensively about renewable energy technologies.

Climate Change Action
Calvin Jones writes extensively on climate change, global warming, environmental, greenhouse effect, Kyoto protocol, aviation, sustainable development, climate change mitigation and more.

Climate ark / blog
The Climate Ark is an Internet search tool and blog that provides access to reviewed climate change, global warming and renewable energy conservation news, information retrieval tools, and original analysis and action opportunities.

World Climate Report
The web's longest running climate change blog. Gives detailed and fascinating synopsis of climate change, which is both accessible and informed.

We are already on renewable energy tariff and I will need to monitor the amount we use and how I can reduce our dependency on that. This is not going to go away and will need some action.

Today's action : check your energy consumption and change to a green tariff