EDF ENERGY birmingham
half marathon
Advanced Schedules – Climate Champions
- Making turning appliances off easier can be done by buying an eco-friendly gadget which allows you to turn off appliances by remote control rather than having to go to the socket each time. (Available from Primrose London)
- Generate your own renewable energy – without producing CO2 emissions whilst generating. Options include solar thermal to produce hot water, photovoltaics to produce electricity and wood fired boilers to heat your home and produce hot water. A solar thermal unit for the roof of your home could provide up to half the hot water needs of an average home.
- Install a roof mounted wind turbine on your home or block of flats. Wind power is a clean, renewable source of energy which produces no carbon dioxide emissions or waste products whilst generating. Typical domestic turbines are 1to 6 kilowatts. The amount of energy and carbon dioxide that roof top micro wind turbines save depends on several things including size, location, wind speed, nearby buildings and the local landscape. The BERR funded low carbon buildings programme (www.lowcarbonbuildings.org.uk) provides grants to help with the costs of installing small scale wind technologies. You will need a professional assessment of your site for suitability, e.g for planning permissions and assessment of the local windspeed. You should consider a wind turbine only if the local annual average windspeed is 6 m/s or more and there are no significant nearby obstacles such as buildings, trees or hills that are likely to reduce the windspeed or increase turbulence. Planning issues such as visual impact, noise and conservation issues also have to be considered. System installation normally requires permission from the local authority, so it’s important to always check with your local authority about planning issues before you have a system installed.
- Low energy LED bulbs can be used instead of normal spotlights for a fraction of the energy (3W instead of 60W!).The light produced by these bulbs is now very good and LEDs can last for decades; costing around £7 each, they may seem expensive, but last many times longer than normal spotlights and use a fraction of the energy, making them very economical. Available at hardware stores
- Note that there are grants available if you want to improve your home energy efficiency, for insulation and renewable energy, even for efficient light-bulbs.
- For more information and advice Contact the Energy Saving Trust on 0800 512 012 . www.energysavingtrust.org or EDF Energy, Energy Efficiency Advice Service Freephone on 0800 096 9966*
*Lines open 8am – 8pm Monday to Friday, 8.30 – 2pm Saturday. Calls may be recorded for monitoring and training purposes
