Eco Friendly House And Garden

There is a way to save electricity that doesn’t involve any nagging!

Instead of always ‘reminding’ the kids to turn off that light and to not leave the TV on standby; and your partner to stop using the washing machine half empty and to only boil as much water as they need – nip it in the bud!

There is now an easy way to stop extra electricity being used in your home that could reduce your usage by around 10% without anyone even knowing.

They would be helping to save energy and lower your energy costs whether they left the lights on or not!

photo credit: CresySusy<

How’s That?
The standard voltage in the UK is variable – meaning that you regularly get more into your home than you actually need.

The appliances in your home work on a wide range of voltages – and they all have a minimum amount to get them started.  However, they will all keep working as normal with extra voltage – and you won’t even know they are using more electricity than they need!  

So, if they work at a basic minimum – why let them run on more? More electricity costs more money and releases more carbon……

And it would seem that too much electricity running through appliances all the time can actually shorten their ‘lifespan’ to a certain degree – so you will need to replace them more often – which is especially true for lightbulbs.

So, What Can You Do?
Well, why not limit the voltage entering your home to a standard level?

What if you could fit a special meter onto your power supply to make sure that you never got more energy than you actually needed: I mean; would you pay for 30 litres of fuel for your car everyday if you only needed 25? I didn’t think so…..

Therefore, by restricting the voltage that reaches your appliances and lights to around 240v means that they will all still work perfectly – and you won’t be wasting any energy.

And the beautiful thing is that you don’t have to worry about switches, buttons or stand-by – it basically works behind the scenes.  Once fitted it requires no maintenance, upgrades or alterations.  It just keeps saving you energy!

That way – if you do actually manage to convince your kids to switch off their Playstation – you will be saving even more!

Wasted time is the great enemy of an eco friendly professional!

Not arriving at an appointment on time can cause a huge drain on resources, peoples time, money and generally increasing your chances of opting for a more expensive and less eco friendly alternative.

Time is an invented concept that we hope to stick to – but being late can ruin a good day.  Not only for you – but also for the planet.

We all know that being eco friendly needs careful planning – and last minute fixes nearly always mean spending a fortune on a waste of resources!

The Scenario:
Say you are planning to meet a like minded associate to discuss a new product for your eco friendly business to promote.  The appointment is 10am in your city business lounge – to create a good impression.

You plan to arrive 2 hours before the appointment so that you can buy some locally made organic/fair trade/vegetarian food and drink to bring to the lounge for the meeting and to print off some last minute sales figures before she arrives.

However, you take a bit longer getting ready in the morning for no particular reason – but you know that the buses are regular so you plan to catch the next one.  That next one is delayed, so you miss your link on the train and lose another 25 minutes waiting on the platform.

You get a little bit stressed while you are waiting – thinking of what order to do things in now as you have lost around 45 minutes of time.

On arriving close to your lounge – with just under an hour to spare – you now have a new plan – but you don’t have time to walk……

photo credit: ~Sincere Stock~

The figures are more important than the food, so you head to the office in a cab straight away – however there isn’t a free colour printer for another 20 minutes as you missed your slot – so you get a bit more stressed and decide to print them in black and white so you at least have something to hand.

Then you remember the food – but now it’s too late to get to the local store – so you call a small scale catering company that the receptionist recommended and order whatever they can make at such short notice and deliver it ready to eat.

With 10 minutes to go – the colour printer becomes free and you know that this will create a better company image so you print all your figures again in colour just in time to collect the food from reception and get to the lounge before your colleague.

When she arrives, you offer her a drink and some food.  She asks if its vegetarian, and you sheepishly admit that you don’t know – so she declines.  The office coffee isn’t fair trade either, so you get her a plastic cup of tap water in the mean time – and pay reception to run out and get a suitable drink.

She asks for your figures and you pass her your file without thinking as you are still whirring from the stress, and she reads your black and white print out, and likes what she sees – however, she then finds your colour printouts of exactly the same figures underneath……..

The Result?
A complete waste of resources – just piling up higher and higher throughout the morning.  And eco friendly anything (apart from public transport) went out the window!

Planning ahead is an essential part of being eco friendly and running a successful business.  We all know that problems arise that are unavoidable – but when you really analyse everything that has caused you delays in the past few months – or even days – I bet it all just comes down to bad planning.

Those reports that your assistant didn’t get to you on time – did you really give them enough time to do it in the first place?  Did you really give your partner all the information you could have before asking them to make that important decision? 

If you used that software upgrade instead of inputting data by hand – could you have got home to see your son/daughter/nephew/niece/partner/parent in that sports day/one-off performance/school or college assembly/conference/graduation/any other achievement or anniversary?

Think about it – and think ahead.

Are you up to the challenge – to live on a £1 a day? – she says….

Basically this book explains how the author decided to try to live on just a £1 a day for an entire year to save money for her sisters wedding.

And to prove it, she details every little penny she saves and how she does it.  From stealing food out of bins, to hand delivering Christmas cards, and from attending free events at the library for free drinks to hitch-hiking and wild camping!

The Book Itself:
Reading the book is very easy indeed as her writing style flows nicely – however, I did have some issues with the way she did things that really aren’t suitable for everyone.

She also listed endless ways in which she saved money – but not all were very good for the environment – such as ordering free samples of everything she could to use for herself and to give away as presents – as these small products use a huge amount of packaging in relation to the product within.

However, she did use an awful lot of great techniques that can’t do you any harm, like eating less, wasting less and buying reduced price food every day from your local stores.  She also raised a fair amount of money by simply finding it on the floor!  And many of her eco friendly tips can be put into practice immediately!

Attending all the free events did have the role of extra socialising and supporting local businesses and events – but was perhaps somewhat selfish in the fact that she would never join their club/gym/mailing list – she just wanted a warm room and free drinks (probably in disposable plastic cups).

The Author helps to explain how to get things for free – but this started to lean towards the ‘money saving at someone else’s expense’ rather than ‘homesteading and being frugal’! 

She also didn’t take into account any of her normal running costs like rent, bills and running the washing machine (although she was happy to discuss that washing clothes more often extended their lifespan – although how she thought that it washed for free I’m not sure!).  So, her money saving stopped at not spending it rather than saving it from other ‘leaky’ areas – like energy loss.

I totally agree that we can do a certain amount of things for less money – and we can certainly cut down on the amount of things that we buy and therefore waste – but maybe setting such a tight budget was unreasonable in an eco friendly sense. 

Result: 3/5
Although this book was a great read – and I did enjoy her tales and adventures – it is not really that eco friendly: hence the average score. For a general read it would get 4/5, but we are not here for just that – we are here to get eco friendly help and advice and I found myself arguing a bit with her over some of her thinking!

She still uses resources that use up a lot of energy throughout her ‘budget’ year – she just doesn’t pay for them! And in fact a lot of the things she gets for free are ‘trail size’ so are infact less eco friendly in the scheme of things. She also lives a life that is very dependant on others.

She didn’t think about growing her own food or making her own clothes, she just turned up at free local events and ate their food! She used the ‘free’ computers in the library (so the library pays), read endless books while sitting in book shops (ie brand new not paid for books that she put back on the shelf after reading) and still used her washing machine with impunity (well, she’s not ‘spending’ the money in cash – it comes out of her bank account invisibly)!

Trying to find ways to be eco friendly can indeed save you money – but money-saving actions are not necessarily eco friendly – and this book proves it!

ISBN: 978-1-906593-12-4

There is now a water-saving, carbon-reducing, fuel-efficient, cost-effective and longer-lasting way to keep your windows clean!

Using advanced IT software and a specially designed solution, an established window-cleaning firm in London can now offer you just that. Whether you are a home-owner, tenant, tower block owner - or looking for commercial window cleaning in London - you can make use of their services.

It was quoted that a well known local car firm is now saving over £3000 each year on window cleaning by using this new technology to clean up their showroom!

Who Are They?
They are called NCPM247 and have been trading in the city since 1985. They are aiming to become the most eco friendly and technologically advanced window cleaning company in London.

They have become very aware of the restrictions on water use, the congestion in London, rising fuel costs, environmental issues and carbon emissions and also the ‘working at height’ government regulations and sought to find a way to work within these guidelines and still offer an excellent service. And, with an eye to the future.

They have also taken on board modern IT technology to improve their existing company. By taking advantage of the current rise in the use of and accessibility to satellite imaging software including Google Street View, they are able to offer instant (and exact) customer quotes.

Rather than arranging to drive to the customers property to give an accurate quote, they can offer a full quote while on the ‘phone during the first call, therefore booking the first appointment straight away. No extra journey needed – and no time out of your day to show them around!

What Makes Their Cleaning Different?
Firstly, they offer the ‘quote on the phone’ service as above to save time and money from the very start.

Secondly, they drive through London in their fleet of environmentally friendly cars!

Thirdly, they use their unique hydrophobic cleaning materials to keep your windows cleaner for longer. This ‘secret ingredient’ coats your windows in a protective – and eco friendly – layer that actually repels water from it’s surface.

Therefore, when it rains, the rain itself is forced away from the glass and washes off any dust and dirt from the window! It creates virtually ‘self-cleaning’ glass.

As a result of this, your windows will stay cleaner for longer – usually about 3 months longer – but can be as long as a year! Thinks of the savings in money with only 4 visits a year – and those reduced visits saving on fuel, time and carbon emissions! Things you won’t find with other greater or central London window cleaners
Check out their website for more information and to get a quote yourself!

Fourthly, the way the windows are cleaned actually uses only a tiny fraction of the water that would normally be used for window cleaning. Treatment of all windows (inside and out) with NCPM247 takes only about 1 litre of pure water for an average 4-Bed house. With standard cleaning techniques this rises to about 25 litres! Virtually unacceptable these days.

Add to this that the same house only needs about 4 visits a year to stay clean – that is only 4 litres of water a year. The same house would need cleaning at least every month with an ordinary window-cleaner – that’s a staggering 300 litres of water!  Not to mention all that driving!

There are many more things that are not eco friendly based that make this company stand out, including fully insured cleaners, security-checked staff, use of protective footwear when cleaning interior windows, abseiling staff for taller buildings, 9 meter cleaning poles to save use of noisy machinery and so much more.

Whether you care about the environment, the cost, or just a great first impression of your business from the street – it’s all in one here. You can’t go wrong!

Window Cleaners, London