Recycled Lighting

We are all encouraged to switch to more energy efficient light bulbs and, apart from the lower energy consumption, they offer an interesting benefit - new designs for lampshades.

As the low energy bulbs generate very little heat, a wider variety of heat sensitive materials can now be use for light fittings, particularly plastic which would have melted if placed close to the old stye incandescent bulbs.

Someone who has grasped this opportunity with both hands is designer Sarah Turner.

She makes beautiful light fittings from recycled plastic bottles.

The lamp shown here is from the ‘Lily’ range which are made from  either 9 or 12 two litre drinks bottles. You can buy them on their own or with a table lamp base.

The Sprite bottle's colour makes the inside sections green with the outside white, but when switched on these colours seem to reverse and make the lamp truly stunning! Also available in plain white in both sizes.

For more stunning designs, which you can now buy online, visit Sarah’s website www.sarahturner.co.uk

Sarah  has just been shortlisted for a competition over at Inhabitiat.com so, if you would like to make her day, you can vote for her here : and then simply click on the green leaf vote symbol at the top of the page.

Energy Saving Trust's advise: New Year’s resolutions to save you money

Make 2010 count by making little energy saving measures that could knock up to £300 a year off your fuel bills. It really doesn’t take long to make a difference. There’s always something you can do, however little time you have. If you want to get the full details why not visit the Energy Saving Website

This Intelli panel will save you time and energy

Say Good bye to Stand by:

My husbands office has reduced loads of energy by using this Intelli panel. To get employees to switch computers, telephones, copiers etc is quite cumbersome as they are not all as green as we hope. My husbands secretary took a stance, 'invested' in a few intelli panels and never looked back.

I noticed that the Ethical Superstore is selling them at a discount, so take the plunge and start saving energy and money!

• Energy Saving Trust Recommended• Powers all Desktop Computer peripherals ON or OFF automatically• Pays for itself many times over• Simply PLUG-IN and SWITCH-ON• Reduces the risk of fire• Provides high quality surge protection for your whole system• Increases the Lifespan of your equipment• PC and MAC compatible• British Standards compliant

Energy Efficient Fluorecent Lamp for Security Floodlights

From our Southern Electrics energy meter into our home, it became very clear how much more energy we use since we introduced some Security Floodlight. The bills rocketted! After speaking to my friend Mike about this issue he pointed me in the direction of a local company: Phase Lighting I bought their Titan Energy Saving lamp. It is a 24 watt alternative for existing TH 119mm lamps. It has a 95% energy saving against 500w TH lamp and an average life expectancy of 8000 hours, giving a crisp white light.

For those of you who have energy eating security floodlights, Energy saving week might be a good reason to get ready for the dark autumn and winter days. So get on those ladders and change the bulbs!

Island Update

So, 24 hours later, how did the Isles of Scilly do in their experiment to reduce electricity consumption?

See the previous item for background details: Switching off an Island

Normally, on a Tuesday, energy usage rises and in mainland UK it did just that by 1.7%. In contrast the Scilly isles reduced their consumption by 1.2%.

It isn’t a massive drop, but the elements were against them with a miserable and dark rainy day - not the best time to encourage people to turn their lights off.

Coverage on BBC TV new, which has been following the project, suggested that this wasn’t a massive drop, but if every community could reduce its electricity consumption, on just one day by this amount, the total savings would be massive.

Naturally some people found it difficult to take part - businesses, shops and restaurants just couldn’t turn off their freezers or stoves, but switching off a couple of computers on standby and the odd light bulb, can clearly make a difference.

What was interesting is that although the island as a whole reduced its consumption by 1.2% this is made up of some significant savings: The local schools reduced their consumption by 8.3% and a family, being monitored, reduced theirs by 50.3%. Perhaps not just a project about 'reduction' but more about awareness!

Updated details of the project can be found at:

More details at : http://e-day.org.uk

Switching off an Island

Today, people on the Scilly isles are switching things off in aid of E-Day.

This experiment hopes to raise awareness of how much energy residents use and how, simply by switching something off (or using it less), they can reduce their energy consumption.

The reason this is interesting is that power to the islands is delivered by a single underwater cable from the UK mainland. Monitor this and you can see how the whole island is dealing with its energy consumption.

You can monitor how they did on the e-day website as well as find some helpful tips on energy saving and watch the UK national power consumption (and what it costs) tick over.


More details at : http://e-day.org.uk

The Queen Switches Off

We mentioned, last week, about the pending Earth Hour “switch off” (see the original item here).

There are already lots of images of how successful the event was around the world. Many people followed the various city switch-offs via networking site Twitter, which kept them up-to-date as the lights went out around the globe.

Even Buckingham Palace, in London, took part. Have a look at the photo here.

Vote with Your Light Switch

We are forever being told that if we each do a little, we can achieve a lot. Here is a chance to do very little and make a massive impact.

On SATURDAY 28th March you can join Earth Hour. Vote for the fight against global warming and switch off a light for one hour. Unlike other campaigns where we have been asked to switch off lots of things all evening - this is painless.

Earth Hour has been transformed, this year, into a global election. For the first time in history, people of all ages, nationalities, race and background have the opportunity to use their light switch as their vote – Switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, or leaving them on is a vote for global warming.

WWF are urging the world to VOTE EARTH and reach the target of 1 billion votes, which will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009.

It all started in Sydney during 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour (Earth Hour). In 2008 the message had grown into a global sustainability movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights. Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all stood in darkness.

This year it is VOTE EARTH. More details can be found on their website, www.voteearth2009.org

Join in by switching off your lights for one hour on Saturday, March 28th, 8.30 - 9.30 pm.

Greener Washing

Well, more efficient washing machines anyway. LG is about to launched a new range of A++ energy efficient machines which hope to compete for your ‘green’ pound.

The new washers use 35 percent less water and 21 percent less enengy than the more traditional ones. LG say this can amount to a saving of about one months annual energy usage, which can’t be bad. Keep an eye on the LG website for release dates and more details.

[ Via Hippy Shopper ]