At home

The price of clean dishes

January 14, 2008

In November last year, dishwasher manufacturer Bosch got its wrists slapped by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for claims made in one of its adverts. Running one of its fully-loaded dishwashers, it said, used less water than washing by hand. Or, to use the ad’s exact wording, ‘Did you know that washing up by hand [...]

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Home wind turbines and self-sufficiency

January 9, 2008

Laying in bed at the start of the week, the wind was enough to keep me awake. It was pulling at the window frames and rattling something on the roof. Living beside a nature reserve, the house is on the edge of a fairly low plain across which the wind can – and does – [...]

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Are energy saving light bulbs dangerous?

January 8, 2008

Energy-saving lightbulbs can induce migraines, epilepsy and skin rashes, and are dangerous when it comes to disposal as they contain tiny amounts of mercury. Well, that’s what the papers are saying, anyway. It’s been a bad week for the one-time darlings of the green lobby, which can save 26kg of CO2 for every regular bulb [...]

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Free water saving kit

December 29, 2007

Essex is the driest county in the United Kingdom, importing more than half of its water from neighbouring counties. So it’s good to see that Essex and Suffolk Water is doing its bit, offering 7500 customers the opportunity to get their hands on some free water-saving kit, which they’ll even come around a fit entirely [...]

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Frugal Christmas tree

December 28, 2007

Christmas branch Rather than buy a tree this year, we headed out into the woods to pick out own. It would have been wrong to hack one down, of course, so we walked through the trees until we found a pile of cut branches drying by the path, and dragged one home. It’s spent the [...]

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Recycled furniture

April 5, 2007

I discovered at the weekend that you don’t have to buy from eBay to get your hands on recycled furniture. You can actually buy recycled new. On a trip to Braintree to buy a new mattress for the spare bed (the last one got thrown out after eight years’ use and a further year of [...]

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The house

April 2, 2007

Blagger’s been in a bit of a limbo lately, on account of sorting out the final purchase of my house. The idea for the site was to chronicle efforts to live a low-impact, low-cost life, and really the last few months were just warming the engines, hence the sporadic updates. Anyhow, the purchase went through [...]

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Electricity monitor

February 22, 2007

The current edition of The Week shines a light on green gadgets. You know the stuff – clockwork radios, wind-up torches, energy efficient washing machines… Most interesting of the lot, though, is the Electrisave, a digital monitor that tracks your energy consumption, measures your carbon footprint and could, the manufacturers claim, cut your energy bills [...]

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Easy ethical shopping

February 20, 2007

Etheco is an ethical shopping engine. It’s a bit like the price-comparison services offered by Pricerunner, Kelkoo and Froogle, except that rather than financial cost, the products are rated on their ethical and ecological costs. It’s a great service for someone, like me, looking to kit out a house, as you can include your budget [...]

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Washing the dishes

February 13, 2007

How green is your dishwasher? That’s something I was wondering, as I plan on getting one once I move (should be seven week, by the way, so watch this space). I was feeling slightly guilty about it, as I was sure it must be a set backwards where greening is concerned. But apparently not. According [...]

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