Can you do the light fantastic?
WITH the polar ice caps melting and the weather causing global chaos we are all under pressure to be as green as possible.
And if our conscience doesn’t prick us then our bank balances do when we see how much we are paying for utilities.
Saving the planet can all seem a little overwhelming but sometimes it is the little things that make a difference. Which is why I invited Ecocamel energy efficiency consultant James McDonald into my home for his advice.
There are certain things we have already done such as updating the boiler and central heating system, double glazing the windows, insulating the loft but there are still changes we can make, says James.
Eagerly, he heads off round our house to check water flows and lightbulbs.
And the results are not pretty.
As an employee of Ecocamel, which makes reduced water flow showerheads, James is far from impressed with the amount of water our shower is pouring over our heads.
“Your showerhead is using about 13 litres a minute which is pretty typical,” he says. “But when we replace it with the Ecocamel it will reduce to seven litres a minute which makes a big difference.”
And he tuts as he checks our taps as every single one is belching out between 12 and 18 litres a minute – a whole load more than the 3-4 litres of water we need.
On the lightbulbs we are partway there. When we moved into the house nearly three years ago we decided that when a bulb went we would replace it with an energy-saving one but we would only do it as we went along.
But James’ colleague, Iona McCaie, says that is not necessarily the wisest step.
“Everyone has to make their own decisions but you will be saving so much energy with each lightbulb that it is worth changing them,” she says. “Some people can feel daunted by that task so our advice would be to tackle one room at a go.”
When James has finished surveying the house, he has written a shopping list of all we need to reduce our energy – new lightbulbs, tap aerators, cistern bags and a shower head.
The plan is for us to monitor our use of utilities for a week in our current condition, install all the new energy-saving items, then monitor it for another week to compare the difference.
Bearing in mind using less hot water in showers and taps will also reduce the heating bill we are taking gas, electricity and water into account.
So a week later, James arrives with a huge box of various bits and pieces. But he is the first to admit not everything has gone to plan.
Our pre-war house has an assortment of light and tap attachments making the changes no easy task.
For a starter, James has discovered that all but one set of taps will need a plumber to install the aerators – so we decide against that at this stage.
He also says that some of our dimmer switch energy-saving candle bulbs are really costly at £10.45 each – and we have seven of them. Plus there are certain lightbulbs which cannot be changed at all as he cannot find an energy-saving match for them.
As we go round the house installing the various changes, we also discover that some of the wrong bulbs have been ordered. We install the majority but a handful are only put in five days later, which risks slightly skewing the weekly comparison.
Once the changes are in place we live with them for a week – with a mixed reaction.
These may be the latest trendy design of energy-saving lightbulb but they are still rather ugly. Those inside shades are no problem but the visible candle lamps are huge compared to the light fittings and look, to be honest, pretty awful.
Plus they may be saving on wattage but not all of the new bulbs offer the same light, so our house is plunged into a murky netherworld each evening. It takes a good minute for each bulb to reach full intensity so there is the temptation to leave lights on in rooms we will be returning to rather than turning them off each time we move around the house. Furthermore, in some rooms we are using more lights than before to reach the same illumination.
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