Turtle shower timer

Whenever you shower you use water and energy - energy to heat the water and perhaps also to pump it. You have to pay for that energy through your gas or electricity bills and of course you pay for the water used.

But there's not just a financial cost. As you use water you reduce the level in our reservoirs and aquifers. And the energy you use means more CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere. More.

This easy to use, battery-operated shower timer can help you cut down. It is steam proof and waterproof, with a strong suction cup that holds it fast to any non-porous surface, such as bathroom tiles. You decide how long you want to spend in the shower and the timer will sound the alarm when your time is up. £10.00

More information from Biggreensmile.com
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FREE Shower Smart water device

What is this all about?

Eaga, an energy efficiency provider and store, which sometimes delivers government energy saving programmes, has 100,000 free Showersmart devices, which make your shower more energy efficient, to give away to households in England, Scotland and Wales. Plus if you’re over 70 or receive means tested benefits (eg working tax credit, income support, housing benefit etc.) you can get 4 free energy saving light bulbs.

How do I get one?
Go to the eaga website and select if you are applying for just the Showersmart or the energy light bulbs too. Then just ‘click to apply’, ‘add to cart’, ‘checkout’ and enter your name and address. It should be dispatched within 6 to 8 weeks. They are only available while stocks last but with 100,000 on offer this shouldn’t run out any time soon. Its likely you will receive details of further offers, so beware if you dont want that.

How does the Showersmart work?
The Showersmart is a small device that you attach to your shower that claims to make it more energy efficient.The unit works by regulating the flow of water through your taps to an even 7.8 litres per minute, which according to the manufacturer saves a two person household £20 year in energy costs & water meter users £20/year too.The unit is about 5cm long and fits between your tap and the end of the shower hose. It’s supposed to be really easy to fit, so you don’t need a plumber to help.

Does it fit my shower?
The Showersmart is suitable for all mains-pressure showers where hot water comes from a combi-boiler or hot water tank. This includes non electric showers and bath/shower mixer taps but does not include electric showers, showers with multiple jets or rainwater showers.

Quick facts on eaga ShowerSmart
Save up to £600 over the product's lifetime.
Save up to £20 per year* on fuel bills.

Save up to £20 per year* if your water is metered.
15 Year manufacturer guarantee.
Easy self-installation.
Suitable for use with non-electric mixer showers or bath/shower mixer taps, provided they run off the mains water pressure.
Works by regulating the water flow, saving you water, energy and money

Paper Bottles

We all try to do our bit by recycling our plastic bottles but it seems it amounts to around 14% of the total 60 million plastic bottles thrown away each day (in the USA anyway). What we do recycle helps but the rest ends up in our land fill. A lot of that 60 million are water bottles.

So, how about paper bottles? Design company ‘Brandimage’ have come up with a concept bottle made entirely of renewable and recycled paper which is strong enough to contain liquid. Not surprisingly this just received an International Design Excellence Award.

Put into production, and accepted by us as a design icon, this might just be the tool to remove all those plastic water bottles from the supermarket shelves - and the land fill!

[Via Dvice ]

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 ]

Save Water in the Shower

We all know that it is better to take a shower than a bath because it does not use as much water. However, it can be difficult to tell. A bath uses, on average, 80 - 100 litres of water. A power shower can use 100 litres in 5 minutes!

If you need some way of monitoring how much water is used, rather than how long you are in the shower, this little Showerdrop monitor might be the answer. Once set up (which they say is very simple and needs no tools), Showerdrop measures the amount of water being used in your shower and lets you know when you reach a pre-set limit. You can, of course, keep showering if you need to - it doesn’t eject you from the cubical - but can help give you an idea of water usage.

Waterwise and the Energy Saving Trust have verified that by using the Showerdrop, for a family of four, savings can amount to £180 a year saved on water and energy bills, as well as over 40,000 litres of water and two thirds of a tonne of carbon!

It costs £11.97 and is available from www.nigelsecostore.com

Wake up with Water

We throw away millions of batteries each year. Perhaps you use rechargeable ones - which helps a lot - but how about no batteries at all!

This alarm clock is powered by water! You just fill the inbuilt water tube and, after a few minutes the display starts working. It only needs topping up about every two months. You can’t get much more environment friendly than that. Get yours from amazon

An Eco Team will give you a chance to DO something!

Are you concerned about climate change and environmental issues? If you are, and you’d like to know what else you can do…

Make a real difference! Become an ECOTEAM PARTICIPANT

What’s it all about?

An EcoTeam is a group of 6-8 local people who meet to discover simple, effective changes for a more environmentally friendly lifestyle and is a great way to meet new people in your local area.

Previous members have;

• Cut household bills
• Improved the environment
• Received our newsletter
• Lead a healthier lifestyle
• Visited eco houses
• Made new friends

No-one can do everything - but we can all do something!

Everyone is welcome - It doesn't matter if you’re already very green or not! EcoTeams are easy, supportive and free to residents in Broxtowe, Rushcliffe, Gedling and Nottingham City!

EcoTeam meetings are held locally (usually within walking distance of participant’s homes) and are informal and very friendly on dates convenient to the participants. It takes just five monthly meetings to take the EcoTeam from start to finish. We look at shopping ethically, saving resources, saving energy and traveling wisely and even have a celebration meeting! Every participant receives our information folder which is filled with useful tips, web-links and information. And, if you’d like to be more than a participant, why not receive our one day training to become an EcoTeam Facilitator?

With simple monitoring, you’ll also generate your own ‘before’ and ‘after’ results showing the effect of your more sustainable lifestyle.

For more information on joining an EcoTeam, contact Global Action Plan on: (0115) 9223298 or nottingham@globalactionplan.org.uk

Solar Heating - The Law in Hawaii

Generally installing solar heating in homes is a question of choice and revolves around how strongly you want to help save the planet and how large your bank balance is.

In 2010 the choice element will be (partly) reduced in Hawaii as they have just signed a law which makes it mandatory to install solar water heaters.

They will not issue building permits for single-family homes unless solar water heating are included in the construction. Hawaii relies on imported fossil fuels for its energy so anything which will help reduce that dependency will certainly be of help. Five years ago, when the idea was first suggested, a barrel of oil cost about $40. The price has now tripled and who knows what it will be in 2010.

[ Via Metaefficient ]

Waterless (almost) Washing Machine

A British invention, from Leeds University, looks set to revolutionise the humble washing machine and save billions of liters of water in the process.

Using only a cup of water this new machine can wash a full load and leave it almost dry! It works by using thousands of plastic chips (20 kilos per wash) which absorb and remove dirt. During the wash cycle the cup of water, with detergents, is heated to help dissolve the dirt (just like in a normal machine) but then the dirt is ‘collected’ by the chips which can be used up to 100 times - about 6 months worth of washing!

Professor Stephen Burkinshaw, the machine's inventor, said tests have produced “..quite astonishing” results... “We've shown that it can remove all sorts of everyday stains including coffee and lipstick whilst using a tiny fraction of the water used by conventional washing machines,”

Although still in the design and testing stage it is thought the machine will be on the market during 2009.

[ Via MailOnline ]

The Earthbox

The EarthBox is simply the easiest gardening system ever developed. It automatically grows bumper crops of vegetables, flowers, and herbs - anywhere you want - without any work or gardening experience!

No gardening experience required
As easy as "Just Adding Water"
Guaranteed higher yields
Self-watering, self-feeding
Grows anywhere where there is sunlight
100% natural and Earth-friendly
No weeding http://www.earthbox.co.uk/

We are expection Eric from the Earth box at Saturday's Summer Gathering, so if you would like to get your hands on one soon, pop by in Bridgford Park between 10-2pm

The online retailer is Harrod Horticultural, www.harrodhorticultural.co.uk, their telephone number is 0845 402 5300.

Solar Heater from Beer Bottles

Solar water heaters have been around for a while and appear to work well. Cold water is circulated through glass tubes which face the sun. The sun’s energy causes the water to heat up and this is then stored for later use.

Not everyone has access to ready made solar heaters, or the funding to buy one so you might like to do-it-yourself. Ma Yanjun, a carpenter, from the Qiqiao village, located in Shaanxi Province, China, has made his own using beer bottles.

The bottles are arranged on a board and connected by hoses through which cold water flows. Once the water has passed through all the bottles it is warm enough to use for showering.

Ma Yanjun produced the heater for his mother so that she could shower in warm water. He has now helped 20 families in the village build their own beer bottle heaters and has plans to build a public bathroom for the village when he has enough beer bottles.

[ Via Ananova ]

Grey Water Sink

We ‘throw away’ a enormous amount of water on a daily basis. One solution is to recycle it so that this ‘grey’ can be used for other washing or cleaning activities.

Ainslie Asher, a design student at the University of New South Wales, Australia, has come up with a prototype sink with built in filtering.

The EULO Kitchen Sink recycles water via a series of specially designed filters. The water passes through a primary particle strainer that fits into the main sink basin. It is then filtered again by a gravity activated carbon filter located directly beneath the plug-hole and then sanitised using ultra-violet light. The water has detergent mixed automatically before being pumped back through the grey water tap.

Although this is very much a prototype it has been tested - actually works and could be priced at about $3,000.00 Australian Dollars (about £1,400.00). Mass production would bring that pricing down and offer a ‘one stop’ self contained installation.

More details at: www.student.designawards.com.au

Green Parliament in Germany

Germany has always prided itself on its eco credentials and now the Reichstag is reported to become the greenest parliament building in the world.

When it was refurbished in the 1990’s, ready for the move of Parliament from Bonn back to Berlin, its glass cupola, designed by Sir Norman Foster, was not only seen as an architectural beacon but also helped make the building more energy efficient. The Reichstag managed to cut its carbon emissions by 94% after the refurbishment.

Now, they are going one step further and this summer will switch completely to renewable energy which includes wind, water and solar. The massive glass cupola already provides passive solar power and bio fuel is used in generators in the basement to provide 40% of the building’s energy. Currently the other 60% comes from coal and nuclear generation. This will be replaced, using outside suppliers with renewable sources.

Nothing like leading by example!!

[ Via: Metaefficient ]

Save Water for Free

If you fancy saving water and not spending a penny doing it, then get in contact with Severn Trent Water who are giving away save-a-flush. You pop the small bag into your WC cistern, they expand and displace about a liter of water. That’s a saving every time you do “spend a penny”!! You can order up to 4 save-a-flush bags which are designed to work in toilets installed pre 2001 (after that they should already be watersaving!).

The average household flushes 5000 times a year so thats a saving of 5000 litres!!!

Contact Severn Trent Water on 0845 603 4413 or via their website:
www.stwater.co.uk

If you would like more details about saving water, and how the save-a-flush works, have a look at the Waterwise website:
www.waterwise.org.uk

Ditch Those Bottles – Filter Your Water

We buy a lot of bottled water – we throw away most of them. In fact, in America they dump two million drinks bottles every 5 minutes! If you want to see that that looks like see our previous item on Chris Jordon.

Drinking tap water is a logical alternative but if you don’t like the taste you can buy a filter jug and filter your own. This reduces the price of a litre of water to pennies, you don't have heaps of plastic bottles to trow away and you can also recycle your filter cartridges. The ones from Brita are fully recyclable. Just take them back to the store where you bought them.

There is also an interesting refillable cartridge available from Natural Collection, which uses ‘rechargeable’ cartridges – you simply add more filter granules which means no plastic filter to throw away and a 90% saving on waste!!

[Via: Hippyshopper]

Green(er) Loo

Take a shower, bath with a friend – all good ways to reduce water consumption but the humble ‘loo’ is one of the largest users of water in the house.

Although water saving toilets are becoming common for new installations most of us have ‘old’ ones which use masses of water each time we flush.

A simple device, which is simple to install, can save you around 2,000 litres of water, per person per year.

Save-a-flush is a small sachet which you drop into your toilet’s cistern – and that’s it! The contents of the sachet swell up in contact with water and displace one litre of water. Each time you flush you use one litre of water less and still have enough ‘flush power’ for your toilet to do what it needs to do!

For around £1.40 this might just be the most economical solution on the market sort of putting a building bring in your cistern, which also works.

More details from: www.save-a-flush.co.uk

Want to do your bit, but don't know where to start? Set up an Eco Team

A New Year, A new start.

After a hopefully wonderful Christmas and New Year most people are wondering what this New Year will bring. Lots of good ideas on how we want to change or improve but don't necessarily know how to go about it. If that is you, why not set up an Eco Team with your street?

An Eco Team is a group of households (usually 6-8 in one street) who, for 6 months, commit to monitoring their habits with regard to waste, gas, electricity, water, transport and shopping.

EcoTeams are designed to help households reduce their environmental impact from energy and water use, household waste, transport and consumer behaviour. The aim is that, by measuring improvements, the household will be able to change its behaviour and play its part toward a cleaner, more sustainable future.

"An EcoTeam is not simply a discussion group, it is a practical workshop where words and thoughts are translated into action." says Karina Wells, the founder of EcoTeams in the UK.

EcoTeams are built upon a few simple principles:
Nobody can do everything, but we can all can do something
The work is shared by a group so that members can support and encourage one another and share experiences and ideas.

It's a step-by-step process that helps you to change your lifestyle by small adjustments that become good habits By measuring resource use, improvements can be monitored during the course of the programme. Not to mention the friendships that can be made with people in your neighbourhood you never knew were there! It simple and sociable (if that is what you want)

For more information contact: karina.wells@ntlworld.com

Load up the machine

Try to only put full loads in the washing machine and use the lowest setting possible – with today’s washing powder a 40 degree cycle will be more than adequate to clean your clothes and will reduce energy usage, saving you up to three quarters of the cost of the hottest cycle.

More from the "Top Ten List to create a greener home" on the Maplin's Solar Week website

When the well is dry, we learn the worth of water. - Ben Franklin

In England we always talk about the weather, too wet, too dry, too hot or too cold...

When it is wet, harvest the water for those dry and hot days. A water butt (or two) will help you store this precious water. They can be found in garden centres, sometimes your local council have special offers on (contact them direct)

A mailorder company might be able to drop one off to your doorstep. They come in all different shapes and sizes I found this space Saving Mini Butt for £25.00.

Even if space is an issue in your garden, the slimline Space Sava Mini Butt means that you can now enjoy the benefits of a water butt. Pre-drilled inlets and tap.
100 litre capacity,Height : 940mm (37")Width : 380mm (15")
Made from recycled plastic and guaranteed for 10 years.

A company I have used in the past with good success was: www.evengreener.com [K]

Move water easily - Save Water and Money

Watergreen has won the Waterwise Marque by Waterwise, the leading authority on water efficiency.

WaterGreen is a clever syphon pump. Put one end in your bath; the other end out the window, connect to a hose, squeeze the pump and let gravity syphon your waste water onto your garden.
It moves water from your water butt, bath, shower or sink to your garden - simply, cleanly and affordably. It can also be used to empty cisterns, blocked sinks and washing machines.
It stores neatly and can be used any time.
You can use your hosepipe to move recycled or rain water, even during a hosepipe ban!
Easy: a few squeezes of the hand pump gets it going, then it runs by itself
Efficient: empties baths in minutes and can be left unattended
Flexible: fill a water butt, wash the car or use straight onto the garden
Convenient: attaches to any standard garden hose
Effective: recycles water - saving money, your garden and the planet
WaterGreen can help save your garden.

GOOD NEWS: you may use a WaterGreen connected to your garden hose to recycle used water - for example from a bath, water butt, sink or pond - even during a hosepipe ban or Drought Order

For just £19.99

For more information see: www.droughtbuster.co.uk

A demonstration can be seen on the Water and Waste Stand in West Bridgford Park 9th June 2007