This Christmas treat your house to a few green improvements. Not only will you save money on next years bills, you will be helping the environment and contributing to your children’s future on the earth. I am no child expert but if you explain it to them like that I am sure that they will understand why Santa brought a water butt instead of a PlayStation 3. Here are three suggestions for greening up your house:
Water Butt
Not a cruel playground nickname but a large barrel to collect rainwater runoff. This water can then be used for washing, watering and even, if properly filtered, drinking. The chances are in this country that the water will remain for outdoor purposes such as washing the car, but still the reduction in water consumption can be significant.
With the complete mismanagement of our water system in the UK this seems like a great way to maintain water. When your house is under three foot of water one week you can collect enough to see you through the inevitable hose pipe ban the next week.
They vary in price, generally depending on the volume of water they can hold. A small pipe attached to the down pipe of the gutter will collect rainfall until the Butt is full, at this point the rain water will take its normal route out.
One small consideration is that they do reduce the amount of water that reaches the ground and in times of sustained drought or in areas with heavy usage they could cause streams and ponds to dry out quicker. On the other hand the reduction in water runoff can be useful in preventing soil erosion.
Water Butts are be readily available at your local garden centre, DIY store or on-line.
Solar Heating
Solar systems are sometimes viewed with a hint of scepticism in this country. We cannot quite believe that enough sun shines on this windy, wet isle for them to actually be of any use. Well, with two or three meters square of south east to south west facing roof then it should be fine.
The system works by collecting the sun’s radiation and using it to heat up water that in turn is transferred to a hot water cylinder for use later on. These systems also have another form of fossil fuel heating to ensure there is always hot water. When the water heated by the solar radiation drops below a set level the fossil fuel heating system will kick in to maintain the temperature.
Even though these systems do not completely do away with conventional water heating methods they can meet a third of domestic hot water requirements saving around 350kg of CO2 a year. So go out and get one straight away.
Just a quick mention though, installation costs for these systems in the UK are astronomical making the average pay back on these around 50 years. Maybe leave this one to the hardcore and rich. If you are still interested then have a look here.
Wormery
Now finally here is one the kids will appreciate, a great big bucket of worms. These are pretty much just that. Worms are added to a bucket of organic material, such as kitchen waste and they munch away to decompose it.
There are several great things about a Wormery: they mean that none of your kitchen waste need go to land fill, they break down the food in a way that is a lot less smelly than bacteria would and they produce some of the most fertile soil you can get your hands on.
It is possible to buy a Wormery but it is easy enough to make one. Obviously if someone can get away with selling someone a bucket full of worms then they will. You need a container of suitable size for your space and requirements. Something like a little plastic bin will do. Put a layer of bedding material such as damp newspaper on the bottom. Then get your worms, Red Wrigglers or Red Earthworms are the best and can be purchased from bait shops or on-line, then pour them onto the paper. To this writhing mass add organic waste. Punch some holes in the side (in hindsight, probably before you put the worms in) and away you go.
After a while the organic waste is reduced to a rich soil. Strain off the worms and use the soil in the garden. There are various other designs and more detailed instructions than I have provided here. For the construction phobic try these guys.
In Conclusion
So they aren’t the most exciting of Christmas gifts but think of the all the good you are doing. Perhaps you could explain to the children that any future Christmas depends on a little sacrifice here and there. As the polar caps melt Santa is running out of places for toy factories. Elves since the dawn of time have known the benefits of being green because in the end it will be their environment that will be the first to feel the heat of global warming.
The companies recomended in this article may or may not be the cheapest or the best, so have a good shop around. |
