E-Day

TreeHeart · E-Day

For residents of the UK, this day is on 27th February were you can do your part to help the environment, by switching off electrical appliances when not in use. The electric people will judge how much this saves compared with a "regular day" when most people will leave stuff on.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7209817.stm

I have included a poll just because lol

The question is:

Do you have any energy efficient bulbs in your home? If the answer is yes, tell me how many and you can discuss below.

Thanks

wildflower

thats a pretty good idea!!!!!!

TreeHeart

Forgot to say we have one energy efficient bulb atm, in the sitting room, which we popped in just before xmas. Need to buy one for the one in the kitchen that just went, but they are pretty steep, so we will wait till next month. I am sooo taking them when we move out lol

699isk over here for a energy bulb which is around 5.50£

wildflower

yeah i only have one at the moment too, and thats in my bedroom, i chose that because i sleep with the light on all night aww bless me

i will get them all through the house though eventually, too bloody expensive to get them all at once!

hystericali

all our bulbs are energy efficient.

I won't let a normal bulb in the house

TreeHeart

Good for you! WOOO I love to hear that ALi seriously. It being so dark over here for pretty much half the year, you think they would give a bit of a subsidy on the energy efficient bulbs, but no. When the next few go we will replace them with the E-bulbs.

And as I said, we will be removing them when we leave, they are way to expensive to leave behind lol

They are much dimmer though and as we only have the one crappy light in the sitting room, you really notice it. It's a wall light too, not a ceiling one, so that makes it worse. I have read thats why a lot of Americans wont take them on, as they are so dim(the bulbs not the people

)
Also they have in America a lot of dimmer switches and clap on things so they dont work with them. So I have read anyway.

They are trying to ban regular bulbs in Ireland atm, which is very good and I am happy with my green party for this

Helen

I have 4 at home and one at the field =] (the rest of my lights wont take energy efficient bulbs, though I think they have just bought out some new ones - must looky see if they will fit)

hystericali

I really am borderline OCD with stuff like this, be it light bulbs, recycling, I bought a car with low emmisions yesterday (low road tax group, YES!), eco friendly washing up liquid, bio degradable bin liners..... the list goes on.

I just wish someone would invent environmentally friendly shampoo and bubble bath, I know some are low surfactant, but there's a whole money spinner right there

Helen

Ali do you watch Top Gear at all? they had this new car by Honda - not out yet that ran on Hydrogen - all it emitted was water vapour! fantastic car, they were just looking at hydrogen cells and the best way forward with that so I guess it will be a couple of years max before its out!

TreeHeart

OOh some of our buses run on hydrogen! hehe You get free prking downtown if you have an eco car too.

My local bio store, sells all kinds of bio homeware stuff, detergents, washing up liquid which I use, they do shampoos and other beauty stuff, but I don't know what their story is, they are prob more organic than eco friendly, but I will have a look for you Ali, I know a couple sites that may have it.

It is a shame it costs so much more to care for the environment

TreeHeart

Looks like it didn't work out as planned....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7270218.stm

Click here for some food for thought..http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2008/feb/29/plasticbags.waste?picture=332762622

Do any of you use canvas bags? I do, I have so many!

hystericali

I use cotton bags from Tescos. You get green points for using them.

I don't have carier bags. I have a black cotton bag that folds away to nothing and its in my handbag. If I buy clothes or anything in town they go in there. I turn carrier bags down all the time.

I have about 15 large blue Ikea bags, they come in handy!

I take all my empty pop bottles down to the plastic recycling skip in them, and I take stuff to the local dump in them, I took a load of kids toys to the charity shop in them.

told you I was bordering OCD with this kind of stuff

TreeHeart

I don't know why I called them canvas lol

Yeh I carry 2 or 3 with me at all times. If I forget them I try and stuff what I can in my bag and then carry the rest.
There are two giant ikea bags here in our flat, which I use to carry my laundry out in lol

Business people who stay in the hotel sometimes get the cloth bags to carry there notes in, so I take them when they leave them behind, so I have a few random branded ones, I have one from the London Dungeons, two from Ottakers, one from this cool shop in Germany which has a turtle and something else on it inside a rainbow! haha and other random bags, I have one sheet of transfer paper left and just got myself a new cloth bag to print on

wooooo

What do you put your rubbish in Ali? in your house bins?

hystericali

bio degradable bin liners and anything that can't be recylced goes in my bin.

Plastic bottles are recycled, kids clothes go to charity, toys too, and the local authority takes the old straw from the rabbit hutch.

We recycle tins, glass and paper through the local authority, and you can plagde that a school or charity receives a bit of funding for each tonne recycled, I chose the local school - this link explains it it in a tiny bit of detail

http://www.ne-derbyshire.gov.uk/e...cle/the-blue-box-recycling-scheme

It doesn't take much effort.

I've had to take a fair bit of stuff to the local dump (we've done house rennovations) but with a bit of careful planning, I managed to get everything in their alloted skips and nothing went in 'general non recyclable' waste.

TreeHeart

At the end of our road there are big bins for papers then one for cardboard and juice/milk cartons
The place that takes the tins/bottles is far away and I aint got no car, my boss took me once and we got around 20 quid back! We don't have any space to store them all then take them.

TreeHeart

Today in lots of cities around the world, people are participating in Earth Hour, where you turn off your lights and other non essential electricity for one whole hour. It started in Aukland, New Zealand and is making it's way West. It will happen in the UK and Ireland at 8pm local time.

So if you can, please participate. It only makes a difference if you do it. Don't not participate just because you don't think it's worth it. An hour isn't long

So, check out your local papers or websites to see if they are doing something special, as I read the local astronomy association in Dublin are holding an event in the park, so maybe you might do something cool

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD...ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

TreeHeart

Ok I am double posting, but ah well

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qczUcQ-VjM

Museclues

i have three lol[which we never use in my house!]