QOTW: What steps do you take to reduce your carbon footprint?

[Saracen999]

Good point about freezer space, Rad. We have two, a main, modern and highly efficient one, and a smaller (about half the size) old one which is only used part-time, and otherwise would be in a landfill. I am aware of the implication of running that. But we buy most of our meat direct from farm shop, or from a butcher that buys locally from sources we don't have access to (or not easily). Some of that is from a butcher 100 miles from where we mostly live, but 1 ile from where we regularly visit. Almost no food miles added, as we'd be doing the 200-mile round trip anyway.

It works for us.


Note: On freezers, I put an old freezer onto s plug-in power meter and noted both total use and usage profile over some weeks. When we got the new one I was shocked to find it ran, in the same location, at between 10% and 15% of the power consumption, agzin over some weeks, despite being about 50% larger. Wow.

[Shogo]

Put on my anti-carbon socks.

[Rad77]

Good point about freezer space, Rad. We have two, a main, modern and highly efficient one, and a smaller (about half the size) old one which is only used part-time, and otherwise would be in a landfill.

I had to buy a second smaller freezer but I think the savings in shopping trips, food waste and energy to cook more than outweigh the extra electricity used (although the carbon footprint of manufacturing it will take many years to claw back...).

As my energy supplier is 100% renewable electricity then I should be at pretty much carbon neutral on the freezers overall and meanwhile I'm reaping all the convenience and cost benefits.

[DavidC1]

It must be a slow Tech news week. Climate
change or global warming is a scam. And
since Australia has embraced this scam
everything that uses electricity has gone
up dramatically in price inc electricity
itself to being the highest in the world !
I just hope HEXUS has not gone woke.

Yes its a politically motivated scam, so the bankrupt governments can raise taxes.

[EN1R0PY]

not having children.

+1 this

this++

[EN1R0PY]

- Cycling as this keeps me very fit and none of that electric cycle cheating rubbish.
- Triple A rated fridge freezer - this has cut down on my electricity usage and keep my food fresher for longer (double whammy).
- Thorough research on items before purchasing to ensure they are fit for purpose and doesn't end in landfill.
- Buy less stuff - learn what you need rather than the marketing executives.
- Choose greener electricity tariffs.
- Don't vote Tories - total disaster on green issues supported by the loony right ERG.
- Vote EU Remain that way we can work together to solve climate change.

Suggestions:

- Use the Daily Telegraph/Daily Mail for toilet paper since their news is practically made up for their gullible readers.

10 this++
20 goto 10

(First ever use of goto in several years of c dev)

[EN1R0PY]

I hope all you climate skeptics are joking, or sterile.

[Dashers]

I see we have a few conspiracy theorists on here these days!

Obviously, reducing one's carbon footprint is only part of the solution to becoming more sustainable and environmentally friendly.

I don't think I'm doing anything drastically different from what other people have said here. Most of it comes from my other half, who is on-the-ball with it all. I don't let her get too out of hand and turn us into some hippy commune. I think we've struck a good balance, but there's always room for improvement.

We do have a sprog, and whilst the extinction of the human race is clearly the most environmentally friendly thing, it's a little OTT IMHO.

Food and produce

- Reduction in beef consumption (further progress on meat meals, but manage to have one or two days meat free in most weeks)

- Kettle with a temperature selector, and most coffee on a bean-to-cup machine that only heats the water needed for that cup.

- Bulk shop done on the "green" delivery van (whatever that is supposed to mean).

- Buying more food stuffs from local producers where feasible (meat, veg box etc)

- Err'ing towards Organic as it promotes sustainable farming (don't care if my food is GM, but I do care if the bees are being wiped out).

Household

- Using a dishwasher on a short cycle, and ensuring it's full.

- Reusable/cloth nappies

- Non-petrochemical based cleaning produce where feasible (haven't found good dishwasher tablets yet, and the bog cleaner isn't fantastic)

- Shower instead of having a bath (think that's the norm these days anyway, was never an eco reason I did this), and not dragging them on too long

- Proper ventilation in the utility room allowing us to dry clothing indoors in the winter without much use of a tumble dryer (have found wet summer months the worst for indoor drying as there is no central heating on). If I do use it, try and keep it on solar power.

House

- Reasonably modern timber-framed house with good insulation, double-glazed.

- TRV in all rooms, with an automated radio thermostat

- Reasonably modern condensing boiler

- All windows have a thermal film applied

- Very slowly replacing windows with argon-filled K-Glass

Energy

- Solar panels

- Carbon-Neutral energy tariff

- EmonPi energy monitor (I even review it occasionally!)

- LED or CCFL lighting throughout, outside lights left off.

Transport

- Primary car is leccy, which charges at home on our carbon-neutral tariff

- Let car battery run right down before charging again (would love an 80% cut off option, but it doesn't exist)

- Other car is second hand, although still Euro 5.

- Only commute to an office three days a week. Usually car share 2/3 of these trips, mostly in the leccy car.

Tech stuff

- My home server/lab/nas/internet router/et all, is a single old computer, switch, access point and VDSL modem (not router). The whole lot uses ~50W at idle and runs everything. Anything that is "running" is on SSD to allow disks to spin down when not serving up media etc.

- Computer set to hybrid-sleep after half an hour of inactivity

- Any standby electronics are < 1w (verified), time switches on some things

Wants

I'd like to also do these, but they're either unfeasible, expensive, or I haven't got round to it yet:

- Solar-capacity-linked charging for the car, so it only charges when solar is available (requires replacing our charging infrastructure)

- Battery storage (finding it difficult to find a battery with backup and not cost more than the cost of buying leccy from the grid over ten years).

- Hot water storage (combi boiler, and replacing the lot would require a lot of gutting and expense)

- K-Glass throughout (expensive and wasteful to throw away functioning windows)

- Wet underfloor heating (got electric underfloor heating which is a massive energy hog so we don't use it, not feasible to convert to wet)

- Ground or Air-source heat pump (without wet underfloor heating or radically bigger radiators this cannot deliver enough heat on a conventional system, disruptive to retro-fit)

Things I could do better

- Wife uses a shampoo bar, I haven't made the move, don't particularly want to either

- Drop the temperature. Our house heats between 18°C and 21°C depending on time of day, occupancy etc. I could keep it closer to 18, but I hate it, I'd have it at 24°C if I could get away with it. I have realised that thermal conduct is largely down to radiation instead of blanket air-temperature. It's possible to be 21°C and feel cold, or 19°C and feel warm, and it correlates fairly well to how cold the walls feel. If you have heat radiating off something you feel warm, where if it's cold, you pick up on the energy transfer going into the walls. My house has lost the latent heat from the summer now and I can feel it.

- Migrate the kid to showers - bit young at the moment, but only has shallow baths which is something

Irritations

- The amount of stuff that still comes in black plastic, or packed with polystyrene.

- The difficulty in sourcing things locally

- Things that can't be repaired

- How fluffing energy my fridge-freezer uses. It's not the latest greatest, but I've done the calculations and it'd take over 10 years to break-even on the best super-duper A rated available (most of the really efficient ones have suspiciously small freezers)

General approaches

- Schedule white-goods to come on during the middle of the day when solar power is most likely to be available and less likely to be in demand (e.g out at work).

- Repair items instead of replacing where possible

- Buy good quality items that are likely to last longer

- Don't keep up with fashions so clothing lasts until it's worn through

- Turn off what's not in use

- Don't fly or travel abroad

- Tactically buy tech to get maximum life out of them to reduce churn

- Recycle everything that can be, minimise what can't

- Rechargeable batteries

- Wear warmer clothes

Probably missed some stuff!

[nobodyspecial]

I eat as much steak as I can. Every cow I eat is less farts right? ROFL. I couldn't care less about this fake news topic. We have no affect on this crap as shown by millions of years of data we now have. Not worried about the world ending in 12yrs either AOC...LOL. How dumb do you have to be to win office? VERY, and apparently lacking the ability to reason or do simple math too. Now she's offering free housing for all homeless and free education (wasted these days, learn NOTHING about REAL work, go trade schools or bust). Why do I have to pay for your degree or home? Uh, NO. Many are too dumb to be in school (really, no IQ), so money in that person is wasted (like the hollywood kids that have to buy sat scores etc) and I'd rather grow my own home (upgrade larger etc) than buy you one...LOL. Recycle? ROFL. Help you make money with no discount on my bill? FU on all counts. EARN IT, or get lost.

[Millennium]

- Drop the temperature. Our house heats between 18°C and 21°C depending on time of day, occupancy etc. I could keep it closer to 18, but I hate it, I'd have it at 24°C if I could get away with it. I have realised that thermal conduct is largely down to radiation instead of blanket air-temperature. It's possible to be 21°C and feel cold, or 19°C and feel warm, and it correlates fairly well to how cold the walls feel. If you have heat radiating off something you feel warm, where if it's cold, you pick up on the energy transfer going into the walls. My house has lost the latent heat from the summer now and I can feel it.

Ain't that the truth. I heated my flat to around 21-22 for about 3/4 of a day to warm up the brickwork and now I should have a comfortable winter with some use of heating (set to 20 - like you I can't stand 18 much) regularly. It's an old house so it's just a question of trying to keep the surrounding heavy stuff somewhat to temperature. The walls feel comfy now.

"- Tactically buy tech to get maximum life out of them to reduce churn"
Excellent idea if too expensive in many cases. Replace 'tech' with 'all stuff' ...

"- Don't fly or travel abroad"
THIS. This may or will have most impact. The environmental cost of flight is Massive.

"- Don't keep up with fashions so clothing lasts until it's worn through"
Sensible chap. After my own heart!

"- Wet underfloor heating"
I'm learning!

"- Solar-capacity-linked charging for the car, so it only charges when solar is available (requires replacing our charging infrastructure)

- Battery storage (finding it difficult to find a battery with backup and not cost more than the cost of buying leccy from the grid over ten years).

- Hot water storage (combi boiler, and replacing the lot would require a lot of gutting and expense)"

Remember the environmental cost of manufacture. Just because it happens that all the dirty highly intensive manu work happens in China or some other far off place doesn't mean that it doesn't exist in the Geosphere. This is why I would never consider an electric car with all the chemical cost (for example) - I don't really want to get into this at the moment because I recognise that intention is good. But really...

"to allow disks to spin down when not serving up media etc.

- Computer set to hybrid-sleep after half an hour of inactivity"
Does this not make HDD less reliable? Has that changed since the 90s? Anyway if you're happy with the spin up spin down wear!

"- Any standby electronics are < 1w (verified), time switches on some things"
"- All windows have a thermal film applied"
Impressive!
"Organic"
Massive difference in worldwide farming, ecology and economic circumstances I feel makes this a good idea but a non starter. Much of what I might buy from an Indian Food Supermarket is probably pretty organic, doesn't make it premium or even good for Earth.

"- Reusable/cloth nappies"
eugh. I'm glad I'm avoiding kids (and relationships!)

Thanks for the excellent post. I will probably read the whole thread later I just read your post cause of the lists!

Many are too dumb to be in school (really, no IQ), so money in that person is wasted (like the hollywood kids that have to buy sat scores etc) and I'd rather grow my own home (upgrade larger etc) than buy you one...LOL

I appreciate your input but I disagree to be honest. Massive inequality of circumstance and opportunity is what's to blame here, not IQ. We are left with a lot of people who didn't put in effort (as well, to be fair - but why blame people for past mistakes?) and didn't achieve what their peers have. As for paying for people's homes, do you disagree with the entire welfare state? Surely exceptions must be made for the unfortunate to allow them to get back on their feet or subsist?
I'm applying for and have been on housing benefit - you're paying for the place where I live*. Sorry!

*more accurately you're paying for the costs and profit of my local massive London housing association. I don't love em.

[Saracen999]

....

As for paying for people's homes, do you disagree with the entire welfare state? Surely exceptions must be made for the unfortunate to allow them to get back on their feet or subsist?
I'm applying for and have been on housing benefit - you're paying for the place where I live*. Sorry!

*more accurately you're paying for the costs and profit of my local massive London housing association. I don't love em.

It's probably a better subject for a separate thread, but ....housing benefit is a tricky one.

First, yes, we should provide a 'safety net'. None of us know when it'll be us needing it.

I applaud the objectives of HB.

My problem is with how to implement it, and the results achieved.

If we just increase HB as costs (rents) go up, all you do is create artificially high rents and line landlords' pockets.

If you cap it, in current circumstances, you trigger a huge rise in repossessions and evictions. And indeed, both have increased massively in recent years. And landlords can still benefit hugely.

Why? It is hard to mess with one of the fundamentals of basic economics which is that where Demand > Supply, especially a lot greater, and supply fixed or highly inelastic in the short term, prices WILL rise. HB attempts to monkey witn that, and fails.

There really is only one solution. Massively increase supply. And that is nearly impossible in the short term, and we're falling short in the medium term.


And, of course, while governments struggle with budgets, supply & demand and macroeconomics, people still need a warm, dry and safe roof over their heads.

[Dashers]

Publicly owned housing stock worked wonders. It can be immune to market costs, and arguably keep market rents down due to "well I don't have to pay the council that much, why would I pay you" argument.

Keep right to buy, just build more stock for the next generations. Council rents out to those on low-incomes, and eventually sells the house on to them if they can afford it. The problem we have now is that the stock wasn't resupplied after everybody bought their council homes.