Back at the end of 2009 I signed a pledge to reduce my carbon footprint by 10%, called 10:10, here’s my results.
Well, it was close… depending on how you calculate it… although in another sense I totally failed.
Electricity
First of all it’s worth saying I’ve always tried to have a low Carbon Footprint so I was starting from a fairly low base – well I’d like to think so, must of my electrical hardware has a high energy rating and they are switched off when not in use. However, one area I thought I’d be able to make some progress on was lighting. Low-energy bulbs should be an easy way to cut back so I replaced all but two bulbs in my house with these.
My new laptop has come. It’s a Dell Inspiron 15z and I splashed out for the Cherry Red version (which looks much more red than the photo gives credit). This is a quick blog about it, expect a more detailed one after more experiments over in my tech blog.
The “15” refers to the size of the screen, actualy 15.4 inch widescreen. It’s got a nice reflective surface on it, and looks to be very clear. The “z” part refers to the lightweight, small, and long battery life version of the inspiron. However, it still has 4 GB of Ram, 320 GB of hard drive and a fairly nice graphics card (512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD4330). The main battery life saving is via the processors, two intel 1.3 GHz processors, about half the power of standard processors, but still very capable for all but the most intensive of jobs.
It’s not an incredibly light laptop like some much more expensive laptops are (this one was about £650), but I’d still call it an extremely portable laptop (if not quite ultra portable). Battery life seems to be around predicted values on dells website. I’ve been using this laptop for about 4 hours already, with wi-fi and dells power saving settings on, and I’ve still got over 2 hours left of power. With the wifi off, and screen at it’s lowest (it’s half way at mo) I’ve seen predicted times of over 7.5 hours.
All in all I’m very pleased with it. As a bonus I’m hoping to count some of my 10:10 commitments to my new laptop!
The time for debate on climate change has passed, it’s real – now it’s time to do something about it. 2010 could go down in history as the year when we decide to combat this threat, that’s if the people at 10:10 UK get their way.
10:10 UK was set up late last year as a way for people (and businesses, schools, organisations) to state they’ll make a 10% cut in the carbon emissions in 2010. Anyone can join through a simple form. There’s no tracking of your savings so you’ll just have to be trusted (You’re only be cheating yourself… and the 7 billion others on Earth…)!
As of writing, there are 53’044 individuals signed up, which is a great number, but a really small percentage of the UK’s population – I’ve already signed up and hopefully encouraged others to join but they really need to reach more people.
Some of the things I’ve done or plan to do are:
Replace all my lights with energy saving ones.
Track my electricity usage minute by minute.
Look into the feasibility of insulating, double glazing and making other improvements to my four hundred year old rented house.
Drive my car less, use public transport and cycle more.
I’ll be following up on this from time to time through out the year.
