Strategies to lower my ecological foot print.
Now that all the data has been collected to a point I need to develop some strategies towards reducing my ecological footprint and live more efficiently. So basically I sat down with a few girls who are also doing this unit and we came up with a list of things to do to lower out water, electricity, gas, transport costs and waste. Meeting with the girls was an excellent decision because they brought up ideas such as using cold wash rather than hot. It makes sense that heating water would use more energy but it had never crossed my mind.
The following are some images of what I did to attempt to reduce consumption in my family’s home. Some strategies I could not use because my family did not want to participate for various reasons…and ultimately as my father says “This is not a democracy, if I don’t want it end of discussion.” (I am not going to rock the boat too much because I don’t want to pay for a dingy if you get my drift)
Water Strategies
Putt a stone in the toilet
I used a water bottle because my family didn’t want a “dirty” stone in their toilet. Anyway this is a simple way to lower the amount to water used per flush. Another is having separate half and full flush buttons but we have those so it wouldn’t be an improvement.
Water Tank
Great idea, use the surface area of your own home to collect rain water. (Or even wasted water, such as from showering, if you’re up for the effort). Unfortunately this is a dead idea as the family does not want one. There are rebates for water tanks available to residents of Melbourne. See the link for details.
http://www.ourwater.vic.gov.au/saving/home/rebates
Bucket in the shower.
Instead of wasting water waiting for it to heat, place a bucket in the shower and save it for the garden. We do this now in the down stairs bathroom but not the upstairs bathroom. 23 years old and I am not trusted to take a bucket of water down stairs.
Grey water.
Collecting the wasted grey water from your washing machine is good ways to save previously wasted water. We try and do this now; it’s just a matter of remembering to stick the hose out the window to let the water flow into an old tub.
Timing showers
Morning showers can become a little bit of a nap for many of us so in order to help promote the target 155 campaign the Victorian Government has sent out 4 minute timers to the public last year. You can buy this yourself but free is always better.
Ours is a little incapacitated at the moment as my brother has issues with being timed in the morning. At least I know I am saving water even though it’s from running late rather than timing.
Wood chips
Rather than bare soil woodchips can be used to keep moisture in the soil so plants will not need watering as often. My Father had a better idea. Get rid go the trees and place stones or concrete everywhere. The little grass we have is the Dogs, and the stones have not negatively affected the remaining trees. May not be the best way but it does have some benefits.
Water saving shower head
According to Savewater.com these shower heads use only 9 Litres of water per minute, as opposed to the traditional 15-20 Litres. (http://www.savewater.com.au/how-to-save-water/in-the-home/bathroom )
That’s great but my family has decided they are not paying taxes and then having dodgy showers…in fact I think my brother has tweaked ours to a downpour as my measurements took a reading of 25+ litres a minute. Maybe I should push this strategy more but my brother is a plumber and doesn’t believe in water saving shower heads. To the family I am the ignorant one no matter the information I attempt to present. (The Photo is of the shower I suspect has been tampered with…it’s more a vertical bath!)
Electricity/ Gas
Energy Efficient Light Bulbs
According to earth easy (http://www.eartheasy.com/live_energyeff_lighting.htm ) these can use around 80% less energy than their incandescent relatives. And they last up to 10 times longer. They do cost a lot in carbon emissions to make but as a consumer how can you go pass not having to change a light bulb as often? Never again will you have one too many drinks and find that you need to go blindly up the stairs because the light bulb failed…at least a whole lot less often.
To top it all off you can get them for free off your energy companies…they get a kick back but at least you win a little too.
Turning off appliances at the wall
Pesky built-in standby is constantly running power through most of our modern appliances. While generally not using as much electricity as when in operation these appliances are sucking power all day (let’s say 8 hours while you’re at work) for no other reason than to save you 10 seconds when turning them on. It’s just foolishness. I don’t think I have ever been raving about how I had to wait an extra 10 seconds to toast my bread. It’s just a matter of remembering to do this that’s all. It’s all habitual. (The photo is of my power supply, I have moved it all onto the one board to help me get the habit going)
Limiting Heating and Cooling costs
Instead of running straight to the heater or air conditioner it is often much simpler to just put on a jacket or wear shorts. Think about it, why control the entire houses temperature when it’s just you who needs the heating or cooling? Granted if it’s 45 degrees you may want a little more than shorts but most of the times it’s only a matter of 5 degrees to get comfortable and that’s not hard to achieve without wasting resources.
Cold wash and Sun Dry
This saves energy because up to 90% of the energy used in a standard watching machine is used to heat the water; the strange Mr Electricity has lots more information (http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/laundry.html )
What works out even better is that it doesn’t take as long either, with cold wash saving me around 20 minutes.
With the same principle in mind it should be an obvious that if there is an immensely large heat producing ball doing it for free so there is no reason to use a tumble drier unless there is a down pour. (Or you forgot to muzzle the dogs)
No washing on the line in the photo I know but I wasn’t going to do a load for a photo.
Failure from the start…
This is the depressing part. As a few of the above have side notes stating that my family would not participate I have gotten to the point in my list where I have no more positives so I am going to state these simply.
Buying more energy efficient appliances
It is a no brainer how this helps, but who wants to buy new things that cost more and do less (at least that’s the family’s argument, which doesn’t have to make sense…they buy me food).
Buying green energy portions of your power bill
Family’s point was a rather good one here I thought. “Why should I pay for them to do a little when we need a lot? The bastards will make a profit on our feel good payments and I will have no proof I have made any impact” – Seamus O’Connor
Waste
All changes here have failed under fire from the family. At this point I think they were rather sick of my talk about saving. My ideas were to use local produce to lower the impact of our shopping culture, compost to use waste efficiently and organising waste properly. The first idea was shot down because I don’t pay for the food so therefore I am out of the decision making process. The latter two may come into play later but for now they met with simple resistance. Instead of compost we have dogs so I plan to watch that and see what happens.
Transport
Costs will not change because even though my father and brother leave together and drive past each other’s work independence is an issue. I don’t drive by choice as much as possible already and that’s seen as scummy, I believe because people have tied their status and lives too tightly to a car culture. (Remembering before my head gets to big I also don’t like cars for the cost and effort…so I am no saint)
Light! It’s the end of another massive post, if they are all like this I will give up.
I ramble though: p
I will be implementing most of these strategies (providing it works for the family) and have plans to investigate more into specific areas but that’s for the future. So if I don’t mention these strategies assume they are still running until further notice.
AiDz Out!
