What Help is Available for those in Fuel Poverty

With the recent price rises from Npower and other suppliers likely to follow suit, a large number of people throughout the UK now falls into being in fuel poverty. The Energy Retail Association estimates there was 4m people in this category in 2006 with a further 3m classified as vunerable, and this has been increasing year on year from 2000.

You may ask how to calculate if your household is in fuel poverty, the equation below we hope clearly shows how to calculate if you are in fuel poverty.

Fuel Poverty Ratio = ((Unit Fuel Price x Fuel Consumption) + Standing Charge) / Income

You should take all fuels into consideration (Gas, Electricity, LPG and solid fuels). Income is considered before tax and national insurance. For more information on how fuel poverty is calculated there is this very detailed document (PDF). Households are considered to be fuel poor if they spend over 10% of their income on fuel.

There is a range of assistance for those even not in fuel poverty, below is organisations and schemes that could help you alieviate the burden of fuel bills through benefits and grants;

Benefits

Winter Fuel Payments

If you are aged 60 to 79 and you are entitled to receive a Winter Fuel Payment, you will get either £100 or £200, depending on your circumstances in the qualifying week. If you are aged 80 or over and you are entitled to a Winter Fuel Payment, you will get an extra £50 or £100, so you could get up to £300, depending on your circumstances in the qualifying week. You do not pay tax on Winter Fuel Payments.

For more information please visit the Pension Service: Winter Payment Website.

Cold Weather Payment

A Cold Weather Payment is paid automatically when the average temperature is, or is forecast to be, 0 degrees centigrade or below over seven consecutive days. To qualify you must satisfy the criteria for receipt. The Social Security or Jobs & Benefits office will advertise when a payment is applicable.

To receive a cold weather payment you must be receiving Pension Credit / Income Support / Jobseeker's Allowance (Income based) for one day in the period of cold weather and be receiving one of the following premiums:

• Pensioner Premium
• Enhanced Pensioner Premium
• Higher Pensioner Premium
• Disability Premium
• Severe Disability Premium
• Disabled Child Premium
• or have a child under the age of 5

£8.50 when the average temperature where you live is recorded as, or forecast to be, zero degrees Celsius or below, over seven consecutive days during the period from 1 November to 31 March. Specified Meteorological Office weather stations are used to obtain this information.

More information can be found at DirectGov

Grants

Warm Front (England)

Warm Front provides grants of up to £2,700 for heating and insulation measures in low income and other vulnerable households. The maximum grant for an oil central heating system is £4,000. Grants are available to owner occupiers and people who rent their homes from a private landlord. To qualify householders must:

• be in receipt of designated income related benefit or tax credit and have a child under 16, or
• be in receipt of a designated disability related benefit or Disabled Person's Tax Credit, or
• be aged 60 years or over and in receipt of an income related benefit.

Grants are also available to women who are in receipt of a maternity certificate (MATB 1) as well as a designated income related benefit (or their spouses).

The national telephone number for Warm Front in England is Freephone 0800 952 0600
Recent changes include:

• Central heating measures are available for all eligible clients (not just over 60's).
• Eligible customers not connected to mains gas may qualify for oil central heating.
• Clients who have previously received a grant from the Warm Front programme can re-apply to the Scheme Manager. However, they will not receive the same measure again. They will have a new balance, minus the value of all works previously completed under Warm Front.

For further information contact the designated Scheme Manager:

Eaga for enquiries from the West Midlands, South West, London, South East, North West and North East: Freephone 0800 316 6011 or Freephone Minicom 0800 072 0156.


Warm Deal (Scotland)

The Warm Deal in Scotland provides grants of up to £500 for energy efficiency measures and energy advice for those in receipt of one of a range of benefits. A lower level of grant can be claimed by householders aged 60 and over who do not receive these benefits. For more details visit the Scottish Executive or Scottish Gas

There is also the Central Heating Programme, which provides a central heating system, insulation measures, energy advice and an optional benefits check to people aged 60 and over and to tenants of local authorities and housing associations. Claimants must live in a home without central heating or where the existing system is broken and beyond repair.


The Home Energy Efficiency Scheme (Wales)

HEES in Wales provides grants of up to £1,500 for energy efficiency measures and energy advice for those in receipt of one of a range of benefits who have a child under 16.

HEES Plus offers grants of up to £2,700 for heating and insulation improvements to householders who are 60 or over and to lone parents with a child under the age of 16. In both cases claimants must be in receipt of one of a range of benefits. A lower level of grant can be claimed by householders aged 60 and over who do not receive a qualifying benefit. For more details contact HEES Wales: Freephone 0800 316 2815 or Freephone Minicom 0800 072 0156.

The Warm Homes Scheme (Northern Ireland)

The Warm Homes Scheme offers grants of up to £850 for insulation and heating improvements for owner occupiers and those who rent their homes from a private landlord. Claimants must receive one of a range of benefit payments and have a child under 16.

The Warm Homes Plus Scheme offers grants of up to £4,300 for an enhanced package of heating and insulation measures, including central heating. Claimants must be aged 60 and over and be owner occupiers or tenants of a private landlord. For further information contact Eaga Partnership: Freephone 0800 181 667 or Minicom 019 1233 1054

Energy Saving Trust

There is financial help available if you're planning to make energy saving improvements to your home. The Government, energy suppliers and local authorities all provide grants to help you implement energy saving measures in your home. To search for grants visit their grants finder or you can call them on 0800 512 012. There is also information on simple energy saving tips which could save you several hundred pounds annually

Local Councils

Your local council may also offer assistance, as this varies across each council area, you should contact your local council for more information and advice on the help they offer. To find your local council contact details visit DirectGov

Advice Service

Citizens Advice Bureaux

In 2005-2006 Citizens Advice Bureaux in England, Wales and Northern Ireland received 27,000 general enquiries about problems with fuel plus 45,000 enquiries about fuel debt. Following the prolonged series of fuel price rises we are beginning to receive evidence of CAB clients struggling to pay their bills. They can help you too, you just need to ask for advice.




There is also information on how to reduce your energy bills on the following blog posts;
Is it Time to Switch Energy Providers?
Winter Warming Tips
10 Things to Reduce Energy Use
Cavity Wall Insulation Grants
General Energy Saving Tips

Is it Time to Switch Energy Providers

Npower has just announced double digit rises in fuel costs for their electricity and gas customers. Below is a Q&A on should you switch.

Should I look to change providers?

Not necessarily. Before the price rises, Npower was seen as one of the cheaper providers. The independent watchdog Energywatch has said that, given other firms are likely to also raise their prices, it may be worth waiting to see what Npower's competitors do. If you switch to a cheaper supplier today, you may well find that they too put up their prices, as all of the companies have to buy gas in exactly the same international market.

So switching is a waste of time then?

Not quite. The argument goes that savings can still be made, especially if you have never switched before and are still with either British Gas or the company that took over from your regional electricity board. In those cases, you are likely to be on their highest tariff. So you may still be able to achieve a significant relative cut in your bills.

How common is energy switching?

The full figures for 2007 are not yet available, but in 2006 about 4 million households changed their gas or electricity supplier, according to the energy regulator Ofgem. In April 2006, when wholesale energy prices were last at very high levels, and price increases were starting to bite, a record 900,000 customers changed supplier. However about 50% of UK households have never taken the opportunity to switch their provider and it is these people who are likely to have the best opportunity to make hefty savings.

How do you switch energy companies?

In theory, it is relatively easy to switch your energy supplier - and should certainly be less arduous than changing, say, a mortgage provider. Regardless of where you live in the UK, there are several suppliers to choose from. You can opt to have separate firms supplying your gas and electricity - or choose one company to supply both, commonly known as dual fuel. The most common and effective way is to firstly identify the company which can offer the cheapest deal is to use a price comparison service. Energywatch has approved 13 companies providing price comparison services both via the internet and on the telephone. These are;

• www.moneysupermarket.com
• www.energylinx.co.uk
• www.ukpower.co.uk
• www.saveonyourbills.co.uk
• www.homeadvisoryservice.com
• www.theenergyshop.com
• www.uswitch.com
• www.simplyswitch.com
• www.unravelit.com
• www.confused.com
• www.energyhelpline.com
• www.moneyexpert.com/energy
• www.switchwithwhich.co.uk

Most of these companies will deal with your new supplier on your behalf, and also contact your old supplier to organise the switch. It does not cost the consumer anything - with the firms receiving a payment from the energy company which has won the new business. However if you would rather go it alone, you can talk with the firm you want to be your new supplier and agree a contract. Then you tell your existing provider that you wish to end the service - usually having to give about one month's notice.

What if I use a pre-payment meter?

You too can also change suppliers. People using pre-payment are often on low fixed incomes and could really benefit from moving to a less expensive provider, Energywatch says. But despite this, industry figures suggest that just over a third of pre-payment gas users and four out of 10 electricity customers have changed supplier. This compares with more than half of those who pay by direct debit and monthly bills. How much can I save by switching This depends on how much you are currently paying and on your personal circumstances - for example where you live and your level of usage. Firms often offer discounts if you buy both gas and electricity from them. But the industry regulator Ofgem has said that households changing their supplier for the first time can save an average of £100 per year.

Besides switching supplier, how else can I reduce my energy bills?

Changing your method of payment is one way that you may be able to save money. If you can afford to pay by direct debit rather than by cash or cheque, this typically can knock about £40 off your annual bill. But you should regularly send meter readings to your energy company to ensure that they are taking the right amount of money each month. The other key thing to think about is reducing the amount of energy you use, for more advice please see the following blog posts.

Winter Warming Tips
10 Things to Reduce Energy Use
Cavity Wall Insulation Grants
General Energy Saving Tips

How Are Tyres Recycled?

Over 50 million tyres (just over 480,000 tonnes) were scrapped in the UK in 2001 and around 80,000 tonnes was disposed of in landfill. When disposed of in landfill sites, tyres in large volumes can cause instability by rising to the surface of the site, affecting its long term settlement and therefore posing problems for future use and land reclamation. Rubber materials contain proportions of organic chemicals and little is known about the long-term leaching effects of these materials.

Tyres account for around 3.5% of the weight of an average vehicle, and as a controlled waste under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, a Duty of Care is placed upon waste producers to ensure that waste material is disposed of safely through registered carriers to licensed sites. According to the Used Tyre Working Group's 2001 survey 22% were recycled, 8.3% went to energy recovery, 9.9% were retreaded, 16% were reused and 3.3% were used in landfill engineering. The remainder (approximately 40%) will have been landfilled, stockpiled or illegally disposed of.

There are many ways tyres can be recycled in their original form;

• Reuse of part-worn tyres
  Extracting the maximum safe life from a tyre saves valuable resources (oil, rubber, steel etc).
• Reuse through landfill engineering
  Whole tyres can be used in the preparation/construction of landfill sites, where they are used as leachate draining systems.
• Tyre Retreading
  Tyre retreading is a major industry in the UK. Colway, now C-Tyres, processed 1 million tyres in 1999. Manufacturing a retread tyre for an average car takes 4.5 gallons less oil than the equivalent new tyre and for commercial vehicle tyres the saving is estimated to be about 15 gallons per tyre. Car tyres can only be retreaded once but truck tyres can be retreaded up to three times.
  
  

However when they can't be recycled in their original form they can be chipped. TyreGenics, the UK and northern Europe’s only cryogenic tyre recycling company has officially opened in Baglan, Neath Port Talbot, Wales. The £4m facility (£1.4m of which came from a grant from the European Union’s Objective One fund in support of the jobs and commercial opportunities) will process in excess of 9 000 tyres a day, amounting to 30 000 tonnes a year which would have otherwise been disposed in landfill or in some cases burned producing toxins. The launch follows on from a statement from the Environment Agency in 2003 that urgent action was needed to cut the number of tyres dumped illegally in Welsh beauty spots.

"The volume of tyres being recycled was the equivalent of all the tyres produced in Wales annually. Instead of those going for landfill, drainage or being burnt in cement kilns, they are getting recycled into usable product"
Nick Wyatt, TyreGenics

So how are tyres recycled?, first they are collected and reprocessed by shredding the tyres into millions of tyre ‘chip’, pieces of rubber approximately 50mm x 50mm that have a variety of uses. In the case of TyreGenics, this process is complete by their venture partner Credential Environmental, this company will also collect tyres for recycling in most parts of England & Wales.

This tyre ‘chip’ is the raw material for the cryogenic recycling process. The ‘chip’ is loaded into an enclosed freeze chamber cooled using quantities of inert liquid nitrogen. The 17m chamber takes the chip, cooling all the way along the 15 minute journey, to banks of mechanical hammers. When the chip reaches the hammers, it has been cooled to a temperature of –80 degrees centigrade where the rubber becomes very brittle. The hammers are enclosed in large steel chambers mounted some 2.5m below ground level, where drive shafts running through the chambers propel the hammers to strike against themselves thousands of times each minute. As these hammers hit the frozen tyre chip, they smash rubber off in pieces of various size (known as grade) of tyre ‘crumb’. This crumb is then extracted from the hammer chambers and graded and sorted within the plant into one of 6 grades of crumb for further treatment or direct use.

The process delivers three end products; rubber crumb, steel and fibre.

• The main by-product is rubber crumb, separated and graded for a variety of uses. Around 70 percent of the plants output is used by Field Turf Tarkett who designs and manufactures the surfaces at some of the world’s most famous sporting clubs and stadia including the Denver Broncos, New York Jets and Barcelona’s Nou Camp. Other uses for the crumb include as a component in the manufacture of durable recycled safety flooring systems, within specialist sound insulating wall coverings and in the manufacture of other rubber products.
  
  
• Annually the 4000 tonnes of steel that is recovered during the process at the plant is used by Welsh steel works to produce a wide range of steel products.
  
  
• Annually the 6000 tonnes of fibre extracted during the process is recovered and is currently sent to landfill, but soon hopefully to be used to produce energy. Other potential uses include insulation and cattle bedding.
  
  

If you have Tyres that need recycled find a company that can take them off your hands.

Life Style Green Show

Opening my electricity bill this morning I was greeted with a voucher for the LifeStyleGreen Show to be held at the Kings Hall in Belfast from Saturday 15th September to Sunday 16th September. LifeStyleGreen, is a not-for-profit green living magazine established in June 2004, based in Ireland. Published quarterly, they target the consumer and all businesses who service green living, harnessing this collective power to further the campaign.

LifeStyleGreen Show is the first dedicated green lifestyle show in Ireland and will showcase some of the best local and international green companies. The Show will be sub-divided into defined sections to cover all aspects of a greener lifestyle from organic food to ethical fashion; from green business to transport with about 100 stalls in total. One confirmed sponsor Northern Ireland Electricity has over 10000 energy saving bulbs to giveaway at the "Your Energy" section. This could prevent 1 900 tonnes of CO2 over the bulbs life time.

A downloadable "2 for 1" ticket is available on their website. Further information on the event will be released early next month. Businesses interested at attending the event can book stalls by downloading an application form.

LifeStyleGreen, Kings Hall, Belfast
Saturday 15th - Sunday 16th September 2007, 10am - 6pm
Entry Fee: £5 (Adults), Free (Children Under 16)

How to Choose the Right Sized Bike for Children?

With biking becoming a popular mode of transport due to environmental and health benefits there has been growing demand for bicycles around the UK. One age group which has always been large sector of bike users are children and choosing the right size bicycle for you child improves comfort and more importantly safety.

Most stores will be more than able and willing to give you advice as to the size requirement. Below is a general guide that most stores will work to.

Always ensure safety equipment is used when riding a bike.

Age of Child	Inside Leg	Height of Child	Frame Size	Wheel Size
3 - 5 Years Old	13.5" - 16"	Under 90 cm	8.5"	12"
4 - 7 Years Old	15" - 17.5"	90 - 115cm	9"	14"
5 - 7 Years Old	17" - 20.5"	105 - 120cm	10"	16"
7 - 11 Years Old	20" - 23"	115 - 140cm	11"	20"
7 - 11 Years Old	21" - 24.5"	115 - 140 cm	12"	20"
11 - 14 Years Old	23" - 26.5"	Over 135cm	13"	24"
11 - 14 Years Old	23.5" - 27"	Over 135cm	14"	24"

May's Questions & Answers

I run night clubs. is it better for the Environment to have the fridges on timers or constantly running?

Due to the variation in brands models and styles, I would say I dont know which way to swing, plus I am aware cooling and warming of certain beverages will have an affect on their quality.

What I would suggest is that you do a trial at one club. By taking a meter read immediately as you switch off at 4am then again at 5pm after switching them on again at 2pm. And on a simmilar day at 4am leaving them on until taking a read at 5pm. Obviously try to keep factors the same as best as possible. I know most over night equipment use in food establishments is pretty constant.

I would suggest these other money and energy saving tips;

• You could reduce your fridge usage on quiet mid week nites. For example if operations allow operate with only 3 or 4 fridges Sunday - Thursday. Then for the busy weekend increase to full capacity. (This could be a big money saver if operations allow)
  
• Try to keep stock naturally cool. This will help when restocking fridges as the energy to cool them will be decreased.
  Increase the fridge temperature slighty, increasing gradually to see if it has an affect on quality, you might beable to get it as high as 5 degrees celcius and will save alot of energy.
  
• Try not to open and close the fridge door too often. This is very difficult for catering establishments.
  
• Don't overstock your fridges, it's important for air to circulate.
  
• If your fridge has coils, dust them regularly to remove dirt, which stops them working efficiently.

If an event such as an NFL game uses enough power to power 2,000 homes, what would be the carbon footprint?

According to two sources (BBC News & Times Online) they suggest that the electricity required to power 2000 homes is between 2MW and 3 MW, thus for this assumption I will use the mean, 2.5MW. Taking the average length of an NFL game, 3hrs 06 minutes, this would equate to 7.75MW of electricity. According to DEFRA research from 2005, the average emissions per KW/h was 0.43kg. 7.75MW is equal to 7750kW and multiplied by the Co2 per kWh would equal 3333kg or 3.33 tonnes of Co2.

How much litter is collected in the united states per year?

The United States generated approximately 245.7 million tons of waste in 2005, a decrease of 1.6 million tons from 2004. Excluding composting, the amount of waste recycled increased to 58.4 million tons, an increase of 1.2 million tons from 2004. This is a 2% increase in the tons recycled. The tons recovered for composting rose slightly to 20.6 million tons in 2005, up from 20.5 million tons in 2004. The recovery rate for recycling (including composting) was 32.1% in 2005, up from 31.4% in 2004. This equates to 4.54 pounds per person per day. This is a decrease of 1.5% from 2004 to 2005. The recycling rate in 2005 was 1.46 pounds per person per day. Discards sent to a landfill after recycling declined to 2.46 pounds per person per day in 2005.

For information on why we should recycle see our article Why Recycle?, Also for information on reducing household waste see our Guide To Home Composting and There's Nothing Wrong with Mouldy Cheese.

How much of the UK/Britains energy is provided by Fossil Fuels?

In the year 2005 the percentage of energy derived from major sources was as follows;

• Natural Gas 40%
• Oil 33%
• Coal 17%
• Nuclear 8%
• Renewable 2%

If you would like to switch to renewable energy from your supplier, some offer this switch for free, but have not publicised it. For more information visit Carbon Free Electricity.

Does anyone know how to get swansea council to start back up the plastic collection?

I don't understand why a council would stop recycling plastics. Even if they were to only collect the most common plastic PET. The questions you should pose are not only environmental but financial.

The current government landfill tax is £24 per tonne, plus a fee to the landfill owner. In addition to that each tonne of PET generates revenue of up to £270 per tonne. So by failing to collect PET it would cost them about £294 tonne in net revenue plus the landfill owner charge. If the collection network is in place and bins are provided, in a council area the size of Swansea substantial revenue could be generated at little cost.
Incinerating plastic releases chlorine into the atmosphere and leaves heavy metals in the incineration ash. If plastic is put in landfill, additives such as phthalates can leak into the water supply.

Plastics are derived from energy resources such as coal, petroleum, and natural gas, so any material recovered is an energy saving. 90% of the manufacturing process energy needed to produce new plastics is saved by recycling.

PET bottles and other plastics also take hundreds of years to break down, added to that the space they will also be taking up in landfills especially if not flattened would be large. Leading to the need for additional landfills, if constructed by the council or not this cost will ultimately be borne by the local residents through increases in council tax.

Legislation which is particularly relevant to plastics is the 1994 European Union Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste 94/62/EC (the Packaging Directive), which aimed to establish producer responsibility for packaging waste. The directive was implemented in the UK through the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 and the Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulations 1998. The former sets targets for the recovery and recycling of packaging wastes, including plastics packaging waste. These targets are currently being revised by the EU. The UK government has published the national packaging recycling and recovery targets for 2006 and beyond. These require 23% of plastics waste to be recovered by 2006, rising to 25.5% by 2010.

After checking the Swansea Council website, they collect paper and glass, these both generate revenue substaintially less than that of PET, Glass about £20 a tonne most likely will be mixed, and paper, from £60 - £140 a tonne.

They state on their website;

"Plastic is collected at two of our Civic Amenity Sites.

Plastic is a very difficult and expensive item to collect for recycling (collection methods however are already in place ??). There are currently no appropriate plastic recycling companies in the local area, so any plastic collected for recycling needs to be transported long distances across the UK to a processing company. Plastic is very light and would need to be sorted into the different types, squashed and baled to make it cost and environmentally effective to transport it these long distances. (then why collect them at amenity sites at all ??)"

I did a search for a reprocessor of PET bottles, using google maps there is one located a mere 76 miles away, and upto 6 or 7 within 200 miles. Is this really a long distance which would be evironmentally ineffective to transport the bottles too? Using some figures I have it would be feasible to transport them to the supplier and the energy saved would be far greater than that of the road transport.

You need to contact your council to ask for a real reason why they have halted collection of plastics. Many other councils areas in the UK can sucessfully collect PET bottles for recycling without the problems encountered by Swansea Council.

email: recycling@swansea.gov.uk

tel: 01792 635600

fax: 01792 511925

You should then send them a formal letter addressing your concerns environmental and financial. Obviously the more support you can generate from the community. You may wish to contact a local newspaper about the issue and let the community know the affects of not recycling plastics again financial and environmental.



If you have any Questions please feel free to ask them in the comments section or email us at support@howtosaveenergy.co.uk. If you need immediate answers for that question that's just nagging you why not try out Yahoo! Answers Environment & Ecology section where you can get a plethora of answers from other members of the public.

April's Questions and Answers

How to calculate carbon footprint?

It would be very complicated to offer a manual calculator due to the huge variations in regional areas, carbon emissions from varying types of cars and each source saying varying amounts sometimes with a huge range.

If you still wish to go with the manual calculation here are some of the multiple factors for the calculator from sources I have looked at in the past.

Electricity - 0.43kg of Co2 / kWh (Defra 2005), if from renewables, then 0.00kg/kWh

Natural Gas - 0.19kg of Co2 / kWh

LPG - 1.49kg of Co2 / litre

Oil - 2.69kg of Co2 / litre

Coal - 2.55kg of Co2 / litre

Car Milage - You can find Co2 data for all car types at
VCA Car Fuel Data it might be best to offer 3 to 5 different types of car in varying engine ranges.

Bus - 0.073kg / mile (Department of Transport, Canada)
Train - 0.027kg / mile (Virgin Trains)
Underground - 0.070kg / mile (kingston.ac.uk)

Flights - This is not hugely accurate however you can break this down to; Short-haul (within US) 600kg of Co2, Medium-haul (transatlantic / east coast to west coast) 1300kg of Co2 or Long-haul (world wide) 3700 kg of Co2. If you want to work this on miles rather than types a factor of 0.15kg of Co2/km (Defra 2005)


You should also include a secondary carbon footprint as follows (these are UK figures);

Food and Drink - 585kg
Clothes and Shoes - 486kg
Car Manufacture - 715kg
Buildings, Furniture and Appliances - 982kg
Recreation and Services - 1,546kg
Finance and other services - 361kg
Share of Public Services - 1,276kg

Total Secondary Footprint - 5,950kg

What is the amount of water Singapore consumes in a year currently?

Using figures from the Ministy of the Environment and Water Resources, the daily requirement of water in Singapore is 1.36 billion litres per day, of which 0.72 billion litres are for domestic use. Over a year this equates to 496 billion litres total use and overall domestic use of 263 billion litres.

50% of this consumption is supplied by rainfall, with the remainder originating from imports from neighbouring Malaysia. Two contracts for water importation from Malaysia are due to end in 2011 and 2061, the two countries are engaged in a price dispute over the charges which has lead the government to implement measures to become self-sufficient in its water supply. These include conservation, building additional reservoirs and the worlds largest desalination plant.

What are some ways to make my house more eco friendly and save money?

A few ways you can save money around the home are;

Installing CFLs in your home can reduce your annual electricity bill by 14% and last 6 to 8 times longer than incandescent bulbs. They are now widely available in many styles and designs for as low as $1.50 a bulb.

Insulation, you could consider installing cavity wall insulation or roof insulation. 25 - 40% of heat is lost through the walls and 25% through the roof. Installing both will signifigantly reduce your annual heating bills and you should beable to recoup the cost within 2 to 3 years. This will save about 2-3 tonnes of Co2 per year. The cost is about $750, but grants are available.

Purchase local produce and use tap water not bottled, not only does this support the local economy it also reduces the carbon emissions from food transport, which accounts for about 19% of all emissions.

The average household wastes $76 in stand-by a year, turn your appliances off when not in use.

Reduce your heating thermostat by 1 degree can reduce your heating bills by 10% per year. Reduce your hot water tank thermostat to 50 degrees, each 5.5 degree reduces you hot water heating cost by 13%. Put a thick insulation jacket on your hot water tank (about $20), this prevents heat loss from your tank and can save about $20 a year in hot water costs.

Also check out these free energy saving tips.

Considering the mercury content of fluorescent bulbs will the disposal of these bulbs cause a bigger environmental problem than the energy consumption posed by the more common bulbs used now?

Whilst the amount of mercury used in production a CFL bulb is at most 6mg, the average mercury content is 4mg. The total emissions of mercury created by a CFL bulb from electricity consumption over its lifetime is about 2.4mg of mercury. In comparison the emissions from an incandescent light bulb is about 10mg. Therefore overall CFLs result in a slightly less amount of mercury emitted over the lifetime of a CFL bulb. The real gain is the reduction of 38kg of Co2 per CFL per year and an overall saving of 14% on your electricity bill.

To ensure the safe disposal of CFL bulbs you should return them to the retailer or to an appropriate recycling facility. Once collected the bulbs are crushed in a machine that uses negative pressure ventilation and a mercury absorbing filter allowing the mercury to be reclaimed.

In countries where recycling facilities do not exist, you should contact the manufacture who should have details of how you can safely dispose of the CFLs.


Note: It is assumed the emissions from electricity consumption is from standard electricity supply. Should renewables be used then the emissions of mercury would be 0mg (not including the production of the renewable source), however for the use of incandescent bulbs to be effective we would need to be using a high proportion of renewable energy.

PS ... you can now get CFLs with ultra-low mercury levels.

Regarding the total road humps in the UK (a) how much have they cost (b) how many tonnes CO2 have they caused?

Road / Speed humps are extremely popular the world over as an effective traffic calming measure. However there are many negatives to them;

In 2003, the chairman of the London Ambulance Service, Sigurd Reinton was reported as claiming that delay due to speed bumps was responsible for up to 500 avoidable deaths from cardiac arrest each year, however, he later denied the statement.

Research in the USA from Boulder, Colorado suggests that for every life saved by traffic calming, as many as 85 people may die because emergency vehicles are delayed.

Each speed hump slows the average fire engine by 3-4 seconds and an ambulance by 10 seconds.

The Association of British Drivers is critical of speed humps claiming Drivers are distracted by the bumps, therefore ignoring other hazards such as children.

(a) On average a road / speed hump cost from £500 to £4 850, the upper range being for the latest "smart hump" which reduce or eliminate negative effects of speed bumps such as increased noise and pollution, uneven traffic speed, and impeding emergency vehicles. Traffic tables can cost upto £10 000.

I have been unable to find a figure for the total number of speed humps, however statistics from Edinburgh Council Meeting Questions & Answers state there are 794 in Edinburgh, which has a population of 448 624, or about 1.77 per 1 000 residents. This is a lower figure as it does not include private developments. Taking the Edinburgh figure and muliplying it by the UK population of 60 609 153 this would equate to 107 269 speed humps in the UK (however this is a very unstatistical analysis of the total).

(b) Speed humps cause atmospheric pollution from the speeding up and slowing down of traffic between the humps. For example, TRL reports a 59% increase in CO, about 50% increase in HC and about 25% in CO2 from petrol catalyst vehicles averaged over all types of traffic calming measures, with even higher numbers over more "severe" measures such as speed bumps. In addition the use of bumps and cushions seems to encourage the use of larger vehicles which are more polluting.

Why should I recycle, when the government can always build a new landfill? Recycling just takes too long?

The main reason you should recycle is that it does actually save alot of energy. That in turn actually saves you money. If packaging companies have to continually use new raw materials that will mean that the price they pay for packaging will be higher than purchasing recycled material.

For example by recycling aluminium cans, it takes only 4% of the energy to recycle them than to produce them from raw materials. Saving 64,300 kWhs per tonne. Taking the US average kWh price across all states at 8.14c per kWh, this equates to a saving of $5234 per tonne of aluminium in energy costs and emissions of about 29 tonnes of Co2.

Any additional landfills that are provided by the government will increase your taxes through land purchase, construction and legal & consultancy fees.

So as you can see recycling is financially beneficial as well as environmentally friendly.



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