We all know that the environment is important. After all, we only have one planet with finite resources – and we’re using many of those resources at an alarming rate. The average carbon footprint of a person in the UK is 10 tonnes per year, which is definitely a significant figure that we need to work to cut back.
There are plenty of good reasons for making the changes and going green, not least because it’s highly likely you are spending more money than you need to thanks to overconsumption. It’s thought, for instance, that leaving your TV on standby uses about 85% of the power it does when it’s switched on properly – so just think about how much you could be saving if you switched it off fully whenever you aren’t using it. We all use more energy than we need to, and it’s often the little things we do that add up. One popular example is leaving the tap on when you’re brushing your teeth. It’s also thought that when you wash your hands, five litres of water will be wasted for every litre you use – so simple things such as being more efficient with our water usage could make all the difference.
We’ve all heard about the importance of turning off the lights when we aren’t using them and turning the thermostat down by a couple of degrees so we don’t use as much energy for heating. It can all save you money, and lower your carbon footprint and therefore help the environment in the process.
Also, as awareness of the need to cut down on our energy consumption has increased, there has been an increasing range of products that can help you in your household drive for energy efficiency. One really good example of this is LED lighting. Most average incandescent light bulbs last for around 1000 hours. LED light bulbs can last up to 50,000 hours. That means you get significantly more wear out of your LED lighting before you need to replace the bulb.
This type of lighting is much more efficient than regular incandescent bulbs, losing only a quarter as much energy as heat – all of the rest goes on lighting. It isn’t just LED lighting that can help you make changes in your energy consumption, either. You may have heard about the range of solar power schemes that are available to help you in the purchase of solar power panels.
There are government feed-in tariff schemes that pay you for the electricity you produce from solar power, and if you sell that electricity back to the national grid, you can get paid for it again. There are also similar schemes for home wind turbines; in a windy country such as the UK, this can be a useful clean energy option, and again you have the option of selling back any green energy you don’t use or buying more electricity from the grid should you require it.
So, there are plenty of ways we can start to go green and plenty of reasons why we should. Everything you can do will make a difference –and you never know, you could even end up saving yourself some money as a result.