Home Truth

As promised, the voice of reason will prevail here as opposed to the wacky suggestions in my previous posting - which by the way was far more entertaining than this will be, so I suggest you definitely read that one first!

In 50 WAYS TO BE MORE FRUGAL, there is an obvious link in some of the tips between saving energy and saving money. Not exactly rocket science, I know, but here goes anyway:-

TIP 17: Cut your speed from 70mph to 60mph for a petrol saving of about 15%.

TIP 25: Change a 100W light bulb to a 60W one which costs 40% less to operate. (Although surely changing to a low energy 12w light bulb would be even better?)
TIP 44: Turn TVs and computers off. Equipment on standby may be using one third of the power of being on, but nobody is benefiting except the power companies.

TIP 50: Buy British grown foods in season. It’s economical and helps the country.

Not the most innovative and imaginative of the tips, I’ll grant you that. But saving energy does indeed save money - just look at the success of the Electrisave (now called the Owl) to see that people are interested in how to do both.

Our plumber is trying to sell us a new boiler on the grounds that it will pay for itself in fuel savings. In my lifetime? I don’t think so. I am interested in a more energy efficient boiler for environmental reasons though. Seemingly, that is not such an attractive selling point to most people as saving money is. Perhaps the environmental lobby need to appeal to the selfishness of the nation by couching their energy saving ideas in flamboyant money saving claims.

It could take lessons from our frugality experts. In comparison to the more weird and wacky suggestions in the list, these four seem remarkably sane and ‘doable‘. Energy saving suddenly appears a whole lot more attractive.

Filed under: sustainability, simpler lifestyle, environment on October 11th, 2007