Have been doing reseach again today and came across these two ...

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... impressive! Think I could spend quite a time reading up on how to be come greener !!

My house is my energy problem Flo with it's large Victorian, lovely but hellishly draughty sashes. They've been restored but wind whistles through the cord holes We have no cavity to insulate either so it's difficult to do the whole energy thing without ripping out lovely features for double glazing and new doors etc. Pity we don't like uPVC cos it would cut our heating bills

I use energy light bulbs which are much better than before. I have lamps on the landing and hall and in all the guest rooms. Guests always leave tellies on standby which drives me nuts

I hardly use my car (cept yesterday to go and recycle my plastic bottles) and I don't fly. I am a recycling nut. Today I have mostly been Freecycling elderberries. One chap has been already and he's bringing me a bottle of the wine he makes and a bottle of damson booze

Mostly my problem is that we live in a rented property!

Apart from lightbulbs, turning things down and off - a lot!! re-cycling junk, and closing doors in winter etc I'm a bit stuck!!

... I have no intention of putting money into the landlords pocket!!

I reckon my next house will be ripe for doing the whole eco job on

... I can dream ...

Fancy a wind generator at the bottom of the garden and solar power, with underfloor heating throughout, and a green-oak house

... not much then

you can get a wind thing on the side of the house. Don't know if they're noisy though

be very careful Wardy, check out Hugh Piggots site first

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We have so much wind being here on top of the hill. Seems a shame to waste it

Thanks for the link G2. Will check it out

There is one near us next to the M25, it must be 30 mtrs up ... rather like it now, most people hate it.

My son used to say that when he was driving home each evening from work in the scrum, it gave him a good feeling ... he knew he was nearly home !!

i did enquire with local council if i needed planing permision for one of those smallish ones from b+q to fix it on the house they said yes i did
on a mast in the garden no if under a certain hight but b+q lot wouldnt do any other than on the house fixing so thought stuff em then found out how much power they actualy do make and the little uns just aint worth the hassle wind turbines just in case you were wondering what im waffling about

oooooh I'd love to have a wind turbine

but...
apparently on your roof or wall they pull your house down in high winds
on a mast they need 500metres 'clear run' with no buildings in order to work efficiently

and they are s'posed to be super loud up close (I wouldn't mind but I've a feeling my neighbours might )

I got this information from a nice man who sells them so I believe him....one assumes he wouldn't talk himself out of a sale if it weren't true

I'll try and find the link to his site.
lovely, helpful chap

got it

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I want one of these

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I waited for a couple of years for the Windsave turbine to get its approvals only to discover the govt grants have now run out and the bill that was supposed to negate the need for planning permission has not been pushed through (despite Govt saying it would be). Grr.

Then I heard one working, and I'd never get it past the neighbours, and the vibrations on our house would probably cause structural damage (we've a post-war 'put up as fast as possible' house with only two weight-bearing walls and the rest glass, single brick and tiles).

Then on top of that I used my head and worked out how much power it'd realistically provide: not much. Massively disappointed is an understatement.

What I want someone to invent is a turbine with suitable vibration dampers on, which is capable of putting power into the house without the need for a reference voltage. The Windsave one cuts out when there's a power cut, would you believe?

I am now determined that the next house we buy will have a clear south-facing roof (not shaded by trees) which I can get solar heating pipes on. They're much more efficient than solar electric panels. Was at Wisley today and their new restaurant near the Millennium glasshouse has solar water heating. (Pity their staff aren't a bit better trained though).

moonbells

We've got a South facing roof MB, but when we looked at solar energy it wasn't going to be cost-effective for quite some time and as we built on a tight budget, we didn't want to commit the cash at the time. That was 4 years ago though, so will have to do some more research as we do talk about it still and options are bound to have changed since 2003.

As a self build, the regs were strict and a couple of new ones had just come into force (amount and type of insulation for instance), so the house is pretty energy efficient, though these new HIPs make me think - how can they actually see, let alone measure, the wide cavities and extra insulation we put in the floating floor and loft, over and above the regs?! The central heating is energy efficient, with all rooms able to be individually heated (or not), we have low energy bulbs in all the ceiling lights, don't leave stuff on standby and the windows are all DG. At the back, which is south facing, we have a conservatory which heats up very quickly, even in winter, and helps keep the kitchen warm. I've trained the boys to turn off the tap when they brush their teeth and use the mini-flush on the loo as well.

There are niggles about the DG which is plastic rather than wood and some of the lamps and spots aren't low energy, but I do try!

have you got those "hippo's" in your toilet cisterns? I got mine free from the water authority. Preferable to a brick I think

Is it a plastic hippo - if it is, your in the wrong thread.

give ovver

No, our loos were subject to regs too!! They use half? (can't quite remember) the water in a traditional cistern and have a half-flush too. Mind, Alex forgets to flush the loo half the time anyway so that saves water anorl

Just read that back that's a lot of halves... my maths int that good

We've got energy savers everywhere now apart from a couple of places where they just don't fit (oh for really compact ones...)

We've got water-filled shampoo bottles in our cisterns, but occasionally have to take them out to clear partial blockages!

Looby - That's interesting. Solar energy's a pest, as the cells are still nowhere near efficient enough for decent amounts of electricity. But if you get super-dark water pipes in a frame with a reflective background and a glass front, you get a maxi-greenhouse effect and *very* hot water in the pipes, which can be used with a convection system to fill a hot water tank. So I'd go for that. Currently we have giant sycamores overlooking the house so no chance to get them!

But with the new (and b. expensive) window and cavity-insulated brick wall which we've just had put in to replace the old rotting wooden-framed single glazed picture window, we should have a nice cosy lounge. Won't get the money back through savings but it was that or the window'd have collapsed

moonbells