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10:10 Carbon Footprint Reduction

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.

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I've changed to electric green.

In the long and difficult struggle to fight global warming and pollution I’ve taken what must be the simplest step of all.



I quick phone call to Southern Electric meant I was paying for electricity from a renewable source: hydro-electric. I say “paying for” because I still think I actually get my power from the big menacing coal burning power station down the road, but at least my money is has its heart in the right place!



Also, I’m not entirelly sure that hydro-electricity is totally green anyway – I know of one hydro-electricity power station that is located in between two lakes, one high up in the hills and one much lower down. When the UK power grid needs extra power the flood gates open and water from the upper lake rushes down through turbines into the lower one. This is 100 % renewable… to a point… obviously the upper lake would haver to be replenshied faster than it was drained, this does not happen so what do you think they do? And this quite surprised me, when the power grid doesn’t need that extra power they take power away and use it to pump the water back up!



If you use SouthernElectric then you can have a look at the details here:

http://www.thepower2.co.uk/



Switch now! (It’s free and takes less than a few minutes). More and more electricity providers are doing this so check out you place now. (And if you find one for your area add a comment and tell everyone else.)