It seems hybrid power and biofuels aren’t the only options for those looking to travel green. The DIYmoped seen here is the work of the intrepid Don Dunklees in Minnesota, who uses it for his daily five-mile commute.
We were a little worried that the scooter’s wing-like solar array might collect the odd passer-by, but apparently the PV cells fold away when the it’s on the go. Once Don’s at work, the panels fold out again and soak up enough sun to charge the battery for the journey home.
If you’re up for a bit of DIY and you like the idea of a moped without the angry wasp noises, you can download instructions here. Don says that the scooter is still going strong in its third year.
That had never seemed right to me, and I wanted to see whether a new replacement would really be that much better, or whether makers’ energy-saving claims are all just hot air.
Before I could find out, the old item had to be carried down the three flights of stairs from my flat, and a newer, unintentionally bigger version manhandled back up. This required the street-level removal of all of the replacement’s packaging, the signing of a damage disclaimer, and an almost superhuman effort not to upbraid the delivery man for his insistence that it wasn’t going to fit until it already had.
If the first thing I learned from my new fridge-freezer was that it is chief among the things you don’t want to carry into a third-floor flat, the second was that modern examples are very, very good. After a quick wipe down, I hooked it up to the energy meter and set about loading it up with all the things I’d missed so much in my fridgeless month. Chiefly beer.
Fridge over troubled water
After the first day – much of which would have been spent working hard to get everything down to temperature – it had used 1.45kWh, which seemed a promising start. And despite extra demands from freezing bucket-loads of ice cubes, and left-over chilli and pasta sauces, at the end of the first week the meter was showing just 6.34kWh – less than half the electricity my old fridge would have used in the same time.
In the second week it only got through 5.05kWh, while in week three consumption was down to just 4.89kWh – less than a third that of my old fridge.
I’m impressed, frankly. New Fridge is bigger, colder and better than the old one, and yet it uses just a third of the power: It’s likely to save me more than ?
I’d just got back from the launch of the Low Carbon Households project, which is being run by Lewes District Council. Fellow Living contibutor Jeremy and I will be monitoring our home electricity use for a year, as will more than 30 other households in the district.
An eco-eye out
We’ve all been equipped with an eco-eye mini, a neat little device that reveals what’s going on behind the scenes.
The idea of monitoring energy use may not push everyone’s button, but when you get one of these bad boys clamped onto your supply you can’t help but get involved with it.
It’s very simple. You plug the sensor into the mains or insert a couple of batteries (they came supplied with proper ones, Duracell AAs – when does that ever happen?). Then you lock it on to one of the wires going into your fusebox – no cutting or rewiring required.
Next you put batteries in the separate monitor screen, and set the time and the cost per unit of electricity (according to your last bill). And that’s it. You’re recording real-time use of power in kilowatt-hours, and can see how much your current use would cost over a week, month or year – as well as the likely CO2 emissions.
Within seconds, you’re wondering why the level is so low, or so high, and why it’s changing all the time. It’s a bit of a jolt.
We’d been told at the meeting by Climate South East’s Matthew Bird that the kettle would be a shocker, and he was right. Making a cup of tea sent our low, mid-evening reading shooting up five-fold. You quickly realise why the National Grid struggles to cope with the surge in demand during half-time in cup finals.
And…?
So, this is all very well. But will it actually change the way we behave?
Well, the early signs are: yes. Our kettle doesn’t have a water gauge, so it’s easy to overfill. I did exactly that this morning, and felt so unable to waste the hot water that I made a full cafetiere (which could be reheated later, for rather less power, in the microwave) and a Thermos flask of tea for my train journey later in the day.
I’ve eased off the monitor-watching a bit this evening, but it’s sat there, watching, waiting, and ready to reveal the true energy impact the next time we hoover, or dry the kids’ hair or leave the TV on standby.
And as they say, knowledge is power.
Anyone else out there got an eco-eye mini or similar smart meter plugged in to their home? Let us know your experiences of whether it’s helping you to save energy.
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