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Tag: eco friendly
Driving to save Mother Earth
save-our-mother-earth I’m climbing up onto my own personal bandwagon today. I would be a liar if I said there wasn’t a HUGE part of me that is writing this particular post purely in the hope of improving my daily driving frustrations. But when I put some thought into it, making the changes I am going to suggest below really can make a big difference to Mother Earth. So please, join me on a drive through the road-ragey part of my brain that secretly wishes sometimes we were all in dodgem cars so I could ram people.
Left Wing
I am going to start with one of the most basic principles of driving in Australia. KEEP LEFT. 2 little words. Pretty clear instructions. And yet, on a daily basis, I am totally astounded by how many people seem to fail to put these words into action in their driving.
I do a lot of freeway and highway driving because I live in a semi rural area. During my many hours of commuting, I have come to the conclusion that traffic congestion could almost be completely eliminated if we just spent a little bit more time educating future drivers about keeping left. Ok, maybe not completely eliminated, but I reckon we could make a good dent in it (ha ha… dent…get it?….car humour…sorry).
Did you know that, in Victoria, where the speed limit is 80 or higher, it is against the law to drive in the right hand lane unless you are overtaking someone? That’s right! It’s the law!
There are similar laws in other states and territories. It’s the reason you pass a sign every couple of kilometres on freeways that says “Keep left unless overtaking”. It’s not just there for decoration. Not only that, if you drive in the right hand lane without overtaking, you can be fined and lose 3 points off your license.
Now I can hear many of you piping up at this point with arguments such as “if you weren’t speeding, you wouldn’t need to overtake” and “I’m doing the speed limit so it shouldn’t be an issue”. I have a couple of things for you to consider.
Most speedos are inaccurate. Almost everyone has been through one of those overhead speed checker thingies at some stage and you would have noticed that your speedo generally shows somewhere in the vicinity of about 5kms higher than your actual speed. This varies from car to car. So even though your needle shows you firmly on the speed limit, in reality you’re probably going 3 to 5 kms slower. Everyone else is also driving with an inaccurate speedo. So while you think you’re doing 100, the person behind you may think you’re sitting on 95.
It’s such a shame this is one of those laws that never really gets enforced here in Victoria. Setting aside the emotional trauma suffered by frustrated commuters stuck behind tandem drivers blocking the road, and ignoring all the safety aspects, there’s a big environmental cost to consider.
Slowing down and speeding up again uses more fuel than just maintaining the same speed. It may only make a dollar or so difference to you personally each week, but multiply that across all the cars on the road and now we’re looking at a big chunk of our precious, limited resources that could be saved!
If we all make an effort to keep left and just let people past, traffic would flow a lot better, there would be less braking and accelerating which means more efficient use of fuel and less wear and tear on cars. Lets not forget that wear and tear costs money and also uses up resources in replacement parts.
And really, why not let people past? You’re still moving forwards. Moving over and letting someone past isn’t going to cost you anything. If they want to go faster than others, good for them. If they are choosing to speed, blocking them is not going to make for safer roads. It’s much more likely to end with the speeder doing something even more risky and unsafe to get past. Better to let them go in my book.
If you have a Diesel car.
My car runs on Diesel. I have had a Diesel car for at least 10 years. I learned pretty quickly that it’s splashy and smelly and there was always some residue on the pump handle. No biggie. I use paper towel to hold the pump or wash my hands afterwards. Easy done.
Not sure if anyone else has noticed that some servos now seem to offer trucks cheaper diesel than cars. This really annoyed me so I set about finding out why. The bloke working at the counter in the BP store couldn’t tell me. Super helpful…
It turns out that since so many cars are now on diesel, and there are so many women driving these diesel cars, they have put an additive in the diesel to make it smell nicer and stop it splashing as much (anti-foaming agent) so us poor ladies don’t have to worry our pretty little heads about getting it on our dainty hands or the smell offending our delicate sensibilities. Can you tell that this reasoning offended my not-so-delicate sensibilities?
The translation here is that we are paying extra for a diluted fuel that will give us fewer kilometres per tank and possibly isn’t ideal for the engine life either. So I make sure to fill up at the truck pumps. I save a couple of cents per liter upfront and I get more kms per tank, which is much better for Mother Earth. If they try and stop me, you’ll all hear me yelling about discrimination against car drivers.
Having said that, truck pumps are hi-flow. This means the nozzle is bigger on the pump to allow more fuel through faster. Yay for spending less time at the petrol station but this means your car must be able to take a hi-flow nozzle. Check this out before you try and fill up at the truck pump or you’ll just end up giving yourself and your car a diesel shower.
Wheeling and dealing
Keeping your tyres pumped up to the right pressure makes a difference to your fuel consumption. Having your tyres at the right pressure can save you a decent amount of cash over the course of a year on fuel as well as extending the life of your tyres! This is most definitely a win/win for you and Mother Earth.
Your car’s owner’s manual should have a table that tells you what pressure your front and back tyres should be. If you can’t find your manual, there’s really no excuse because Google has the instructions for everything ever.
Getting your car serviced regularly by a reputable mechanic will help keep things in peak condition and extend the life of your car and its parts. FYI You don’t have to take your car to the manufacturer for servicing to maintain your warranty. Most mechanics can perform a log book service for you and many of the independents are significantly cheaper than dealerships. Find someone you can trust (recommendations are always good) and take your car in on the recommended schedule.
Stay Nude
Every accessory you add to your car increases wind resistance. Every extra bit of wind resistance increases the amount of fuel your car uses to move you around. Take off unused or unnecessary accessories and save yourself some cash by saving fuel (and therefore preserving earth’s resources).
I am guilty of owning a very environmentally unfriendly car that is big and wind resistant already. Then I added roof racks. To make matters worse, once summer was over and I didn’t need to cart kayaks around for a while, I didn’t take them off because…well….life. I just kept forgetting. I reckon this has cost me about 50kms per tank of fuel and a very guilty conscience for being a bit of a hypocrite. I have taken them off now!
The same can be said for unneeded things in the car that add weight. Increased weight also means increased fuel consumption. Empty your boot or back seat and don’t cart around things you don’t need to.
The bottom line
Like I said earlier, these things may only make a dollar or two difference to you a week, but collectively, we can make a big difference for the planet! Plus think about what you could do with $52. That’s about the right amount of money to buy 15 trees. It just so happens that planting 15 trees a year is about the right amount to offset your car’s carbon footprint for that year. Winning!
5 ways to save time in the Laundry
It’s what we all want right? Less time spent on boring domestic chores and more time for fun. Since hiring a housekeeper is out of the budget, and sadly this stuff doesn’t do itself, laundry is the never-ending story of my life. I was recently listening to a couple of good friends moan about having piles of washing that needed folding and it dawned on me that I don’t really have that particular problem.
Courtesy of the way my brain works, I am constantly finding ways to refine processes and cut out unnecessary steps. Always looking for the short cut. Some call it lazy. In a work place, it’s called Continuous Improvement. I’m going with efficient. I forget that everyone’s brains work differently and what’s obvious to me may not be to everyone else. So I was surprised at my friends’ moaning and realised that if I shared my laundry process, it would help them. Then I realised I could probably help a few other people too.
So here it is. My laundry process. Prepare yourself for a trip through the part of my brain that clearly has too much spare time…
Get everyone to turn their clothes in the right way and put them in the washing basket.
The amount of time wasted turning kids and partners clothes in the right way to check for stains does my head in. If it’s not in the basket, it doesn’t get washed. If it’s not turned in the right way and it’s stained and doesn’t wash properly, bad luck to the owner. The hardest part about this one is standing your ground until everyone gets it through their heads. I struggle to walk past dirty clothes on the floor and I also struggle not turning them in the right way to see if they are stained. I can’t stand it when things don’t wash properly. I just keep reminding myself that it’s my job to teach the kids life skills and one day they will thank me for it (HA!).
Get people to spray their own stains.
I keep a bottle of my pre-wash stain remover spray in the bathroom. I get the kids to spray their clothes, if needed, as soon as they take them off each night (and turn them in the right way).They love it! They think it’s great fun. If only they knew! This also saves hours of sitting on the floor in the laundry sorting through clothes and spraying. Plus, I find, the sooner I get the spray on, the more effective the stain remover is. I generally don’t need to soak much at all!
Since I use a natural pre wash spray that doesn’t contain any petrochemicals, I can leave it on the clothes for as long as I want before I wash (usually around a week) and there’s no damage to the fabric. It also means I don’t have to worry about the kids breathing in anything they shouldn’t. Click here to see what I use.
Pair Up!
Don’t put single socks in the wash or on the line. I always make sure I am putting in pairs only. When I am pegging out the washing, I peg the pair together too. I do this for two reasons. One is so that I don’t go mad looking for missing socks. If I can’t find two to go into the wash, the one sock goes back to the owner to locate the missing one and resubmit to my laundry. The other reason is so that I can roll them up straight away once they’re dry and I don’t have to sort through the washing and pair them up later on.
Paired up socks on the washing line Fold as you take down.
A little bit of extra time while you are at the line saves hours of ironing and a pile of folding later. You are already touching the washing, you may as well fold it while you have it in your hands. Otherwise, you have to double handle it (touch it again later when you didn’t need to). If you fold neatly, you will find you have way less wrinkles (especially compared with scrunching into the basket) so ironing won’t take anywhere near as long!
Sort as you fold.
This is where we get into the truly dark and twisty part of my brain. I sort all my washing as I fold. Actually, I take down my washing in a very specific order, fold it and then put it into the relevant basket. I take it down in the reverse order of how it gets put away. Get it?
No one else does either. Ha ha. For argument’s sake, lets say I only have the kids’ stuff on the line. I have a pile for each child. First I take down the pyjamas, then the pants, then skirts and shorts, long sleeved tops, t-shirts, and finally jocks and socks. When I get into their bedrooms, jocks and socks go in the top drawer, t-shirts in the next, shorts, skirts and long sleeved tops in the next, pants and then pyjamas. Anything that needs to be hung up goes on top of the basket but my kids rarely wear dresses so they don’t often go through the wash.
Since my kids are small, their washing fits into 2 piles in the one basket. When there’s gown ups’ washing as well, I start taking that down and folding it first, then kids’ clothes on top. Once the kids’ clothes are put away, the grown ups’ clothes are in the bottom of the basket and ready to be taken to be put away at the other end of the house.
Folded Laundry ready to be put away. So there you have it, a wander into the corners of my mind dedicated to making my life just a little bit easier. I hope it helps you too! It does take a bit of a commitment to do this for 2 weeks and change your current habits. Getting “helpers” (kids and partners) to follow this process is a whole other set of training. But if you can do it yourself, you will find that it saves you time and your sanity.
Eco Hot Water for reducing your electricity bill and greening your home or business
We have 2 enourmous hot water tanks at home. We have a long house with 2 bathrooms so there’s a separate hot water service for each bathroom. Both hot water tanks are 305L and they are both electric, set to heat up during off-peak hours (overnight) every night.
Solar
I looked into replacing them with solar hot water services. We have more than ample roof space that is perfectly positioned to capture the maximum amount of sun. Unfortunately, the cost was prohibitive. On top of everything else needing our cash, we just couldn’t afford the investment into solar right now.
Gas
We only really use the second bathroom on weekends (when we have 2 to 4 extra kids) so our next option was an instant hot water service. This only heats the hot water as you are using it, rather than every night regardless of consumption. By all accounts, not really any cheaper if you are using the hot water all the time, but if it’s occasional use, it can make a big difference.
The only other appliance in this house on gas is the heating. It turns out that the gas is only plumbed from the street to one side of the house. To run the gas line around, over or through the house so that it could supply gas to the instant hot water unit was going to cost an additional $5k. This ruled out option 2.
Turn it off
For the last few years, we have gone with option 3, which was to turn off the hot water service to the second bathroom. This has meant no hot water in the laundry either but that’s not really a deal breaker. The washing machine heats its own water and if I needed any for soaking, I ran up the hallway to the other bathroom with a bucket. Annoying but a first world problem.
This saved us between $200 and $300 PER QUARTER on our electricity bill! I was gobsmacked.
Heat Pump
One night Mark heard an ad on TV for a business called Chromagen and told me about it. I looked into it and they supply a hot water service called a heat pump. This unit takes the air from around it and somehow uses it to reduce the amount of electricity it needs to heat the water inside it by up to 75%. On top of that, the government was offering a rebate for switching, so the switch would cost nothing.
Naturally I was skeptical. However, having the second service meant we had the luxury of being able to experiment. I had concerns that the heat pump tank wouldn’t be big enough to cope with the demand but it heats up several times during the day so the smaller tank can still cope with the higher demand.
In the end, we just decided to give it a go. We had the second service replaced just before winter. I have been waiting and waiting to get my first electricity bill that covered a full quarter with the heat pump installed as I was still highly skeptical about the advertised savings.
Last week we got the bill. It was roughly $50 more than usual. So I had hot water in my laundry and the second bathroom for an additional $50 per quarter, instead of the usual $200 to $300! This was through a cold winter quarter, when you would expect it to be at its most expensive.
Needless to say that I have now arranged for the main hot water service to also be replaced. The government rebate has reduced, so this time there’s a $100 charge, but that’s all.
Google tells me that a common issue with the heat pump services (and this is not specific to the brand that Chromagen supplied but it seems to be general feedback across a range of brands) is that the heat pump needs replacing after roughly 8 years. In that time, with 2 services switched over, I will have saved, conservatively, just shy of $10k on electricity, plus interest.
Happy dance!!
I can’t see the replacement pumps costing $10k. Hopefully by then, I will be in a position to install solar hot water anyway!
The heat pump is great to replace external electric hot water services and is suitable for domestic or small business use. I highly recommend giving it a look if you are looking to improve your eco footprint and reduce your energy bill.
Zeolites and Phosphates
By now, most people have heard that phosphates are not good for our waterways or the planet. But what do you know about Zeolites? Most people seem not to have heard of them at all.
Without getting into the science (because I am not a scientist) zeolites are what many laundry product manufacturers have replaced phosphates with.
Tri Nature products do NOT contain zeolites because their chemist, Brian McLean, uncovered scientific evidence that suggests zeolites are worse for the environment than phosphates.
Further, The Phosphate Report, by Bryn Jones (once a director of Greenpeace who led the worldwide campaign to eliminate phosphates), is based on environmental studies which compared the before and after situations in the waterways. This report found that there was little difference in terms of the damage done by phsophates or zeolites.
Zeolites were found to have caused a foaming of the waterways and mutated aquatic life. Given that phosphates can be removed from the water, unlike zeolites, it actually made them preferable for certain countries. So much so, that Switzerland revoked the no phosphates law and reintroduced them (with conditions).
Either way, neither phosphates nor zeolites are ideal for our waterways. It is disappointing that many commercial brands, including brands that claim to be eco friendly, have simply substituted zeolites for phosphates without doing their reseach .
I recommend checking if your favourite brand is up to scratch.
