Efficient Things Blog

Being energy efficient isn’t just about saving energy and money in your house, it’s about saving energy and money across all aspects of your life. One of the hidden wastes of time, energy and money if the daily car based commute to work.

The average cost of running a car is increasing nearly as fast as home energy bills are and as result your commute to work could well be costing you more than you realise.

Fuel

It’s not difficult to see the potential saving here, average petrol prices in the UK have sky rocketed in the last 5 years from 95p a litre in 2007 to a staggering 140p per litre currently. Let’s assume the average commute to work is 8 miles, at 48 working weeks a year this is an eye watering 3840 miles per year or £550 in fuel! Cycling can save you this as it requires no fuel and even paying the shop to do your maintenance will be less than £100 per year.

Potential annual saving: £550

Fitness

Most people join a gym to loose weight and go 3 times a week. A lot of people join a gym to loose weight and never go to the gym. In both cases the gym can cost anywhere between £30 and £60 per month. If your aim of joining the gym is to loose weight then cycling to work can save you this monthly cost. Not only that, but cycling to work lets you kill two birds with one stone, your commute and your workout are the same thing so you no longer have to find 1.5 hours during the evening to go to the gym.

Potential annual saving: £540 (£45 per month gym membership)

Car insurance

Car insurance costs are now pretty sizeable, with the average now being more than £1,000 per year it’s no wonder that insurance comparison sites are so popular. Some insurers have a “Not used for commuting” option where your premium can be reduced quite significantly if you don’t use your car for commuting on a regular basis. This has a two fold benefit as it means you save money on your premium and you have no excuse not to cycle to work more than you drive to work – how’s that for some motivation!

Potential annual saving: £100

Time

Living in or near a large town or city is great for convenience but the busy roads can make driving to work a stressful and time consuming processes. A bike can move through stationary and slow moving traffic with relative ease though and over short distances can be much quicker than the car. Even if it doesn’t save you time though it will save you the stress of sitting in traffic.

Potential annual saving: 5 stressy days (30 mins per day, 48 working weeks)

Fun Factor

Lets face it, sitting in you car is ok for a bit but when it’s a glorious spring or summer’s day it can be hot and unpleasant. Jumping on your bike on a day like that is hugely fun and will add a level of enjoyment to your commutes that can’t be matched by a car.

These are some of the reasons why cycling to work is awesome and a great decision to make. You bike doesn’t need to cost the earth and many companies now take part in the bike to work scheme in the UK so you can get it even cheaper. If your work has showers it can work out really well regardless of your job and best of all the savings we’ve roughly calculated above work out the be the better part of a nice holiday in the sun or a good addition to your savings.

For other ideas and products to help you save money and energy take a look at our main site Efficient Things.

Given all the talk in the media recently about energy prices and their continued rise we thought it might be fun to see how the UK compares to the rest of Europe and to see if government measures related to energy prices are working and, more importantly, keeping the UK competitive in Europe.

The data can get pretty involved so we whipped up this fun little infographic to show how the UK compares to the Europe.

Infographic

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<a href="http://www.efficientthings.com/blog/2012/10/25/energy-showdown-uk-vs-europe-energy-prices-and-energy-consumption-infographic/" alt="energy prices and consumption for uk and europe compared"><img src="http://www.efficientthings.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/small-infographic.jpg" alt="UK vs Europe energy consumption and energy prices - infographic" title="UK vs Europe energy consumption and energy prices - infographic" width="150" height="453" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.efficientthings.com" target="_blank">Efficient Things – Helping you save energy and money</a>

Conclusions

You can see from the data that as far as domestic energy prices go our energy prices are below average for the average EU 27 countries and although our prices are rising quicker than the average we are still far cheaper than the most expensive. As far as energy and the economy goes, we have room for improvement compared to Italy but on the whole we are pretty effective at extracting GDP from our energy consumption.

It’s important to say that this doesn’t take into account the fact that we have some of the oldest housing stock in Europe and in general have to use a fair amount of energy to heat our homes.

Head over to Efficient Things to discover and rate the best energy saving products on the market right now.

As energy companies just put their prices up (again) we thought it was a good time to give you our top tips for keeping warm and saving energy and money this autumn.

1. Loft insulation

The most effective way to keep your house warmer for less is to insulate your loft. If your loft is empty or relatively organised then this needn’t be a big job and so a great place to get the insulation is B&Q as they sell it very cheaply/for free. If your loft is a bit full then E.ON are running their Love Your Loft campaign where they will empty, sort, remove and replace the stuff in your loft whilst insulating it! (it’s not cheap though)

2. Seal up your windows

Unless you’ve got relatively new double glazing there is a good chance that some of the seals round your windows are starting to get a little draughty. Just a couple of these little draughts can lead to quite a chill in some rooms so it’s worth hunting them down and sealing them up with draught excluder tape. The best way to find them is with a small candle, if the flame flickers near a window seal then you’ve got a draught that could do with sealing up, careful though – don’t burn anything!

3. Find your power hungry devices with an energy monitor

Energy monitors are a great way to find out what electrical appliances are costing you more than they should. Some people claim a 40% saving on their electricity bill but realistically it will more likely to be around 10-15%.

Pro tip: Mount the display by your front door for a quick way to see if you’ve left anything on when leaving the house.

4. Insulate your hot water tank

Again, another fairly unsexy tip but 20% of the average UK domestic energy bill is spent heating water, once it’s heated make sure it’s staying hot as long as possible by insulating your hot water tank.

5. Carry on drying your clothes outside

Autumn is still warm enough to dry clothes outside, we tend to avoid it though because it rains more and so you land up using a tumblr dryer anyway. By using this handy washing line rain cover you can avoid using the tumble dryer until winter sets in properly and be safe in the knowledge that your clothes won’t get soaked through again when it rains.

All these tips are relatively easy to do and have a reasonable pay back time (less than 1 year for some) so you’ll notice the difference soon enough. If you’re looking for some other measures then our post on the top three energy saving products might be worth a read or just have a browse through our collection of energy savings products.

XFBWBV9XVN4RRight now the three best in class energy products available are:

1. Automatic Radiator Bleeder
2. Radiator Reflector Foils
3. Watson Energy Monitor

Not what you were expecting?

Here’s why we chose these products based on our reasoning from our post on “Redefining the Energy Saving Market“.

1. Automatic Radiator Bleeder

Not the most exciting product in the world but it has some massive benefits when installed:

1. No more tapping, clicking and banging central heating system
2. No more time wasted bleeding radiators after months of noisy central heating
3. More efficient radiators with less air in them
4. Reduced energy bill without any extra effort

As far as a product which helps you save money and improves you lifestyle this product is right on target. Other products in this tier include the Door Draught Excluder, the Ecoflap and the Eco Fan.

2. Radiator Reflector Foils

Radiator reflector foils are the classic save energy with little impact on your lifestyle product, slot them behind your radiator and forget about them until you get a reduced heating bill. The benefits of this product are:

1. No impact on your lifestyle, carry on as normal
2. Fit and forget, maintenance free
3. Small up front cost which is paid back over time

Other products in this tier would be Radflek Radiator foil, Chimney Pillow, Eco Balls and Energenie Standby Shutdown.

3. Wattson Energy Monitor

Energy monitors are a great way to get a handle on your electrical energy consumption but they do require a behaviour/lifestyle change for you to get the full benefit of them. The Watson is great because it uses colour to show your current energy consumption rather than relying on numbers alone.

Other products in this tier are the Eco Kettle, Pulse Eco Shower Head and the Honeywell eco Radiator valve.

Pretty soon the UK news is going to be full of Green Deal and ECO announcements as the Government releases the final legislation. The legislation has been delayed a couple of times but the essence of what the government is proposing hasn’t changes all that much. So, in summary what are the important things that you need to know about Green Deal and ECO?

Green Deal and ECO are replacing CESP, CERT and Warm Front (eventually)

The old schemes are out and the new schemes are better is the Tory party line on why they are being introduced. Essentially, the new schemes are a finance/debt way of getting the efficiency measures that you could once get via government handouts on the old schemes. Only time will tell which is better but right now it probably depends on your political view point.

Green Deal is a debt but not tied to you

Green Deal is a way to get energy saving measures added to your home without a big upfront payment. Instead of you paying a few thousand pounds upfront, the cost of the measures is spread over a few years and you pay it back through your energy bill rather than in a separate payment. The important bit is that the debt is tied to the property and not you you personally. If you move home, you stop paying to debt back and the next owner picks up the tab.

ECO is for vulnerable customers

Not everyone will be able to afford the repayments through their energy bills, and this is where ECO comes in. ECO stands for the Energy Company Obligation and will mean vulnerable customers will have the cost of some measures covered by their energy provider.

GOLDEN RULE

The Golden Rule is so important I had to make it all capitals. Essentially the measures installed under a Green Deal must not increase your bill once the repayment is added. So, if you get £1000 of work done which will save you £15 per month in energy cost, the repayments for that £1000 debt must be £15 or less each month. This will take just over 5 years to pay back.

You can still move house

Although you have taken on a debt you can still move home and not worry about paying for something you are no longer using, the debt stays with the house not with you. You must disclose this debt when selling your home though.

It’s heavily regulated

Although the government is keen to look hands off once this is up and running the fact of the matter is that the legislation makes this one very regulated plan. Everyone needs to be accredited by the Green Deal Gods and homes need to pay for an assessment before they can make use of Green Deal to make sure that they can benefit.

The process

Essentially it looks like this:

1. Pay for a Green Deal survey to be carried out (British Gas provide these for example)
2. From the survey choose the measures you would like installed
3. Decide which providers you would like to carry out the work (It could be the surveyor or another accredited supplier)
4. The work gets done
5. The provider tells you energy company that the work has been done
6. Energy company adds the Green Deal repayment to your bill
7. Energy company makes sure the provider gets paid from that (no irate workers knocking on your door)
8. The planet is saved (a touch of sarcasm but this is the over all nobel aim along with job creation)

This could all change

This could all still change and I will update this post when I can to reflect any changes.

NB: This blog is not associated with Green Deal or ECO and is for information purposes only, the information is as accurate as possible at the time of writing but please do check everything through with your accredited Green Deal expert.

If you take a broad look at the eco product market it can be broken up it some clear categories, for example:

1. Products made in an eco friendly way (clothes, stationary)
2. Products that don’t harm the environment when used (cleaning products)
3. Products that reduce our energy usage (efficiency measure)

There are others but this will do for now.

All of these rely on, at some level, the consumer making a conscious decision to take an eco step to the detriment of something else, either through increased purchase cost, reduced product life span or an outright behaviour modification. Sadly, this means that market penetration of some amazing products is limited because traditionally an eco choice means taking a hit somewhere else.

This needs to change. We need to re-categorise the market.

It is becoming ever clearer that asking people to modify their behaviour for the greater good of being more sustainable isn’t working. The reason for this is that people work hard and have more pressing concerns than how the planet will look in 100 years. This is understandable given that for millennia our average lifespan was less than 30 years, we are hardwired to live in the short term and as a race we really struggle to think long term.

So, what can be done?

Well, we make decisions based on short term gains that are hard to quantify. The most rational of us will buy to save money yes, but in the main we buy stuff based on emotional pushes and pulls. Simply put, we buy to stop bad things happening to us (eg. insurance) and we buy to make good things happen to us or to feel more comfortable (eg. nicer stuff). So, how can we apply that to the eco market.

We think we should redefine how eco products are labelled. Lets have three categories:

1. Save energy and bring lifestyle improvements
2. Save energy and requires no lifestyle change
3. Saves energy but requires lifestyle alteration

Now, looking at that list it is clear which category the best products are in, category 1. Even better, they fall inline with standard consumer behaviour. If a product is designed to improve the comfort of peoples lives AND save energy without them needing to change how they live then we can finally start to make inroads to living more sustainably.

It is probably worth defining what we mean by a “behavioural change”. This change could be turning the thermostat down and so being a little colder, it could be spending less time in the shower (but maybe not noticing it) or it could be spending more money than they would have ideally done (natural cleaning products etc).

Mainstream consumers do not buy to save money, they buy to improve the intangibles in life. If the eco market can move to fulfilling those needs whilst saving energy then people will start buying more eco products without even realising it.

Now, wouldn’t that be something!?

The eco market has a whole range of products in it. Some make outright energy savings claims while others simply try to modify our behaviour with the hope of helping us save money and energy. Both of these are great, so long as they work.

Any product can work in a perfect lab with conditions set up to show the product in a positive light. But, as we all know, the real world is very different and a product that works well on paper might not do so well in semi detached house with leaky windows! So, to help decide which products are the best I built Efficient Things.

Efficient Things is a site displaying some of the more promising and best selling eco products on the UK market and allow people to either Up Vote or Down Vote depending on their experiences with the product. Each product has it’s own information page witha summary about it and then links to places where they can be purchased.

With winter setting and energy companies cranking up costs onces again I hope that Efficient Things can help you decide which products are worth investing in this winter. If you agree please spread the work and follow us on Twitter and Facebook to keep up to date on new products and which ones are trending.