Earth Notes: Saving The Planet @Home

Site updated 2025-04-03 10:10 GMT.

Be a defossilisation hero, starting at home!

Want to do your bit at home to improve your quality of life, save money, cut down on waste and carbon pollution, and get the planet back how it used to be?

Did you know that the majority of your neighbours are undertaking energy saving actions every day? That is also one of the most powerful messages to encourage people to save.

This site is mainly about the practical steps that I have taken to make my own life (and that of my family) a little better and lower-carbon. Many of them are actions that you could take too...

On Earth Notes

Featured: Low-Carbon Efficient Dishwashing (easyread frugal)

Top tips on how to be green and lazy, save money and energy, and have sparkling dishes! #frugal #dishwashing #cutCarbon

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16WW Microgeneration Merit Order (microgen tech)

On Website Technicals (2025-03) (blog site tech)

⭐ Most Read

OpenTRV Archive Material and Sources (research tech)

Octopus Heat-pump Journey (frugal microgen research tech)

Updated

Octopus Heat-pump Journey (frugal microgen research tech)

Bats Around our Home aka 16WW (2025) (dataset research short)

At 16WW over 15 days from 2025-03-17 to 2025-04-01: electricity import 1.4kWh/d (net -1.4kWh/d).

At 16WW over 365 days from 2024-04-01 to 2025-04-01: electricity import 4.4kWh/d (net 0.6kWh/d), gas consumption 0.4kWh/d.

Net utility (electricity) CO2 emitted this year over first 3 months: 126kg

LIVE GB Grid Carbon Intensity (mobile), live grid-tie PV generation and off-grid PV electrical system stats, heat battery top-up control.

Main FEEDS site, podcast, data.

SECTIONS dataset, frugal, microgeneration, podcast, research, review.

OFFLINE Download to your computer before a long journey with poor connectivity. Unpack and read offline. (Also see Zenodo.)

Yearly Electricity and Gas (ie heat and light) Carbon Footprint

Things That We've Done

We've crunched our carbon footprint. We've become a SuperHome. We've pondered other changes that we might make. But most of all there's been quite a lot of fun learning. Maybe it is my engineering mindset, but I have made a hobby out of conservation and meter watching. I have had fun out of 'tuning' life a little. The rest of my family humours me!

See a full list of articles under search at the top of the page, and here's some actions to start with that we took...

made my home study/office carbon-neutral including reducing energy consumption from my Internet-facing servers at home from over 600W to about 2W
switched our electricity supply to a "100% green" tariff with Ecotricity so that what we do consume is as green as possible
cut our electricity consumption and added grid-tied solar PV microgeneration to the point where we are net exporters to the grid
weatherproofed/weatherised our home amongst our other conservation measures such as using (OpenTRV) thermostatic radiator values and aerogel insulation and upgrading to energy-efficient appliances
built a little off-grid solar system that provides lighting and mobile phone charging and power for my Internet servers consolidated onto a single Raspberry Pi that postpones work until the sun shines
toyed with wind power (turbines) and found that wind does not really work for most of us urbanites
built a compost heap or three and we grow a tiny amount of veg in our postage-stamp garden...

Things That You Can Do

Effective changes that can be made at home are based on lowering energy/resource demand...

Saving electricity (and gas) in all sorts of ways, including,
Lighting: low-energy light bulbs (eg CFL / compact fluorescent and LED preferably at 60 lumens per Watt (60lm/W) efficiency or better). If rewiring, then look at 12V light circuits connecting to PV/battery systems.
High-efficiency white goods (eg fridges) and other electrical goods at home and at work. Look at energy consumption in use, eg per wash or while on, and in 'standby' mode if you won't be turning them off at the wall. Choose an energy supplier that provides 'green' energy and supports renewables.
For cooking: investigate CO₂ savings with induction cookers and microwave ovens.
Clothes washing: alternate ideas with drying (eg on a line), and low-temperature (cold/30°C/40°C) washing and do full loads. Also, simple changes in habits and textiles (wool is brilliant compared to cotton for whole-life costing as well as washing/drying/ironing). Re-use fashions!
Low water-use toilets, showers.
Insulation and thermal capacity (over-cladding buildings).
Close curtains at dusk to retain heat (and on hot sunny days to keep the sun/heat out).
Turn down your heating thermostat 1°C for up to 10% saving. 18°C to 21°C is about right during the day (and hypothermia is only really a risk when temperatures at home are as low as 5°C, but spending more than two hours at 12°C raises blood pressure), and nearer 14°C at night when sleeping. Only heat rooms that you are using. Use a timer (or something smarter) to avoid heating when no one is home! Wearing the right clothing helps keep you comfortable at lower temperatures.
Don't have your hot water thermostat set higher than 60°C/140°F, and 'instant' water heaters avoid losses from a tank for new systems.
Don't leave gadgets and appliances on standby/charging, turn them off (maybe with a smart power-strip or trailing adapter) or unplug them. You might trim as much as 30% off your electricity bill.
Check your mains electricity use at home with tools such as the Kill-a-Watt meter, or just read your supply meter daily or weekly. Gas too.
Minimise the electricity you use at times of peak grid load (eg 4pm to 9pm in the autumn/winter in the UK) since more carbon-intensive and expensive fuels may be burnt in 'peaking' plants, and the grid is under most strain too. Intensity at peak time circa 2009 was ~0.6kgCO2/kWh, as much as 50% over typical levels.
On the flip-side, make good use of energy when it's abundant such as saving up computing work until the sun is shining for low-carbon results.
Reduce, re-use, recycle (including electricals).
See some thoughtful tips at MoneySavingExpert.com.

News

2025-03-12: Analysis: UK emissions fall 3.6% in 2024 as coal use drops to lowest since 1666: ... emissions fell to just 371m tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) in 2024, the lowest level since 1872.
2025-03-06: Europe's largest battery, located in UK, begins operations: The largest battery site in Europe has commenced operations in the UK. The 200MW/400MWh Blackhillock site in Moray, Scotland, is now live, with a further 100MW scheduled to come online in 2026, making a total of 300MW/600MWh.
2025-02-28: European wind power capacity grows but expansion rate slightly down in 2024: Europe installed a total 16.4 gigawatt (GW) of new wind power capacity in 2024, down from 18.4 GW achieved in the previous year ... With an added capacity of 4 GW, Germany led last year's growth, followed by the UK (1.9 GW) and France (1.7 GW). In total, Europe now boasts a wind power capacity of 285 GW, of which 248 GW are installed onshore and 37 GW offshore. ... At 56%, Denmark achieved the highest share of wind power in its electricity mix in 2024. The country was followed by Ireland (33%) and Sweden (31%).
2025-01-24: UK government approves almost 1 GW of solar across two projects.
2025-01-17: Octopus overtakes British Gas as Britain's largest household energy supplier: Company grew share of market to 23.7% of households in Great Britain by end of 2024 ... It now has 12.9m domestic accounts across gas and electricity, and serves 7.3 million households.
2025-01-15: do not clean solar PV with dishwashing detergent! [poskela2024cleaning]
Archived news...

References

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