Lets all get a little greener!!

As mentioned above in the header I will be adding some home energy tips over time, here goes for an easy introduction.

The environment is something I feel strongly about, I am definitely not one of those tree huggers but I do feel that we can all help out the planet a little without too much effort.

On another note surfing through the many blogs on the Internet they are pretty much all, well over 95% about peoples families and new Born's etc. I don't have a problem with any of these posts and some are very interesting but they really are only good for Grannies and aunts and immediate families.

I would like to open out my blog to everyone, naturally there will be posts for the family to enjoy but hopefully by adding some practical tips everyone can use will make it more appealing to a wider audience. Anyway enough about that and keep on blogging everyone!!

There are many hundreds of ways everyone can improve the environment, oh and did I mention you can save some money, maybe that's really why I feel strongly about saving energy, after all I did live in Scotland for 6 years. :0)

Going green can be a major lifestyle change or it can be doing some very simple things. The areas I will be concentrating on are saving energy. As for recycling, yes we do do that but from what I have seen most people have a pretty good idea what to toss in the blue bins or the compost bins etc.

OK, I will start very easy. - Energy!!

Lets take a look and have a little lesson for those who are not aware.

Electrical power is measured in Kw hrs (Kilo Watt Hours), OK what is that? Most kettles or toasters will use about 1000 watts or 1 Kilowatt of energy, so if you ran it constantly for an hour you will consume in the region of 1 Kw hr.

If you look at your hydro bills you will be charged, among other things, a cost of around 5 or 6 cents per Kw hr. This varies dramatically worldwide. An average household, well at least mine, uses around 400 Kw hrs per month. This Kw hr consumption is what all hydro bills are based on.

OK, everyone knows about CFL's (Compact Fluorescent) light bulbs, but do you know why they are better than other light bulbs? Basically whenever you apply energy to something it will convert this energy into something else typically motion, noise, heat, light etc. Another thing to understand is that always "energy in = energy out", that being said there are always losses so some of the "energy out" portion is wasteor friction or loss. For all light bulbs when you switch them on you are providing energy to that bulb, the energy in is always electrical power and the energy out is always light and heat.

With the aid of a thermal imaging camera you can clearly see, hopefully, what all the fuss is about, obviously when we turn on a light the intent is not to heat the room but provide light in that room, that's why they are called light bulbs after all, if you look at the information below some of then should be called heat bulbs and not light bulbs!! If you click on the image you can see the temperature readings on the left hand side.

The first image shows a standard incandescent bulb which has been around from the early days when Thomas Edison first invented it in 1879. Its not obvious from the image, unless you click on it, but I can tell you that the measured temperature of this 40 watt light bulb is 113 degrees Celsius, that's why you burn your fingers when you touch them, please don't!!

This second image shows a 50 watt halogen bulb, get this, the temperature reads 206 degrees Celsius.

And finally our good old CFL, this one is a 150 watt equivalent, same light output as 3 of the first incandescent bulbs but is only 35 watts. This bulb measured 56 degrees Celsius. The images are not the best but hopefully you can see why the CFL can save you money over time, bottom line more of the energy goes into producing light and not heat. Another benefit of CFL's is how long they last, generally they will last longer than traditional incandescents.

The CFL's do not provide the same intense light as the halogen's but they definitely have their place.

If you start replacing worn out incandescent bulbs with CFL's it does make a difference to the environment and a little to the monthly budget. Their price was always a contentious issue but they are now very reasonable, I think the last time I went to Costco

you could pick up a pack of 9 bulbs for less than $20. Money well spent and if your family is anything like mine then with lights left on constantly it makes me feel a little better.

In my next simple energy saving post I will outline the importance of leak detection.

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