Sustainable Girton News

Electricity. It has been brought to our attention that the National Consumer Council recently published a very informative report into electricity suppliers and in particular their "green" tariffs. The full report is available here but the conclusion is that best place to get your electricity from is either the RSPB tariff from Scottish and Southern, or Good Energy (http://www.good-energy.co.uk/). Switching is easy and can make a big difference.

Standby. After our recent article on the costs of leaving electrical goods on standby we were sent a good suggestion: for appliances such as a TV or internet connection that are only used for a couple of hours in the evening, you can use a plug-in timer to power them off at the wall at other times. This way you don't have to remember to turn it off when you've finished, or turn it on again when you want to use it as the timer will do this for you. As timers cost as little as five pounds, they could pay for themselves in saved electricity in just a few months.

Packaging. Are you annoyed at the amount of packaging that things you buy in the supermarket come in? Often the packaging is there not to protect the goods, but to entice you to buy them by making them more attractive. If you're not swayed by such things, you can of course avoid this by choosing to buy a less over-packaged alternative, but you also have the right to leave excess packaging at the supermarket when you buy the goods. By taking such direct action you'll bring this issue to the supermarket's attention, and save yourself the bother and expense of disposing of it yourself.

Cycling with children. Cambridge City have launched a new scheme to encourage parents and carers to travel into Cambridge with their children by bicycle. If you arrive at Park St car park by bike, they'll swap it for a free pushchair while you do your shopping, making it a much more realistic alternative to the car or bus.

If you'd like more information on any of these, then take a look at our website: http://www.sustainable-girton.org.uk/. Also, if you have ideas of your own for ways that Girton could be more sustainable, then please get in touch (email: info [at] sustainable-girton.org.uk) and we'd be happy to help you make a difference.

Can Your Family Win the Energy Challenge?

Sustainable Girton seeks volunteer families for an energy measuring experiment

We are looking for families who will take part in a three-monthly experiment to chart energy use and see how you can affect it, by making a weekly record of your usage and by noting what your various appliances consume. All households are welcome to participate, especially families with children; but you will need to have internet access. We will provide all the other equipment you need to monitor your energy consumption. We are hoping to find out a lot about how families use energy, but also to identify the energy champions of Girton! The challenge should provide fun for all the family.

To volunteer, all you need to do is send an email to energy [at] sustainable-girton.org.uk with "energy challenge" in the Subject line, and we will send you full details.

Please note we shall not use your email for anything except this competition, and we shall not pass any personal details to any other organisation. When we come to publish results we shall ask your permission before publishing anything about you.

Sustainable Girton is most grateful to the Norwich and Peterborough Building Society for a grant to purchase the necessary equipment for this experiment.

Girton Community Shredder

The shredder scheme will be running again from April through to Autumn and anyone resident in Girton can arrange for a visit by phoning Don on 562232 or John on 276757. The next shredding day is April 21st.

Shredding enables you to convert garden waste such as hard shrub and tree prunings, brambles etc. into material ideal for layering into a compost heap as an alternative to a garden fire or disposal in your green wheelie bin. Branches up to about 1 inch in diameter can be shredded and larger ones if they are split to a maximum of 1 inch. We will bring the machine to your garden and we will be happy for you to assist where practicable.

The scheme is run on a voluntary basis, free of charge to residents, and to cover the running costs of fuel, oil and maintenance work we are relying on donations from those who use the scheme or who wish to support the promotion of home composting as an alternative to landfill and garden fires.

The Operators, Girton Community Shredder.

The Sun Shines Brightly on Girton

A year ago, in the April edition of the Girton Parish News, we reported on the installation of a set of photovoltaic solar panels to generate electricity at a house in Girton. There has been much interest in how this has performed, and so we are pleased to be able to follow-up now that it has been running for over a year.

Since they were installed the panels have produced a lot of electricity: 4430kWh to be precise in the first twelve months alone. This has far exceeded (by around 50%) the household consumption since they were put up, and so of course have the energy and financial savings. The excess that has been generated above what was needed for the household has been sold back to the national grid to help power other houses too.

To put it in terms of money, this amount of electricity is worth around £400-£500. For the homeowner this equates to a return on the investment of about the same as they would get from putting the money in a high-interest savings account. Of course, savings on your electricity bill aren't taxed as income from savings would be, and so this makes it even more attractive.

In terms of the environment, it has saved more than 2 tonnes of C02 when compared to the electricity that we buy from the grid, or about the same as driving more than 5000 miles in a typical car. Although there is an environmental cost to the manufacture and installation of the panels, this should be paid back within a few years, particularly if their current performance continues!

They are clearly a long term investment, but with a predicted lifetime of 50 years or more, and with almost no maintenance, the savings will soon start to add up.

If you'd like more information on how to do something similar, please get in touch: info [at] sustainable-girton.org.uk In a few months we should have another follow-up on the hot water solar panels installed in Girton later last year.

Junk Food at Girton Show?

No, Sustainable Girton did not flood the Show with junk food, but we did put on additional displays at the Glebe School entrance, highlighting Junk and Food.

A display on the theme of "Local Food: where to get it and how to grow it" was centred around the Sustainable Girton electric truck. Posters illustrated how, during World War 2, Girton was close to being self-sufficient in food. Now we are much less so, but we can still get local food through farmer's markets, local shops, and our own gardens and allotments. Help in growing vegetables is available through Girton's Garden and Allotment Societies, regular articles in Girton Parish News, and bodies such as Garden Organic. The Allotments Society had mouth-watering pictures of food grown at Girton Allotments, and would be happy to hear from anyone interested in taking on an allotment.

A mini vegetable garden measuring less than 1 square metre was displayed on the truck. Even a small space like this was shown to be productive, with lettuce, carrots, beetroot, beans, radishes, broccoli, cabbage, chilli peppers and herbs, all grown in the preceding six weeks. This great spurt in growth was thanks to the donation of some excellent home-made compost! Many people could fit a little patch like this into their own garden, either on its own or by dotting the vegetable plants amongst existing flower beds, so if you'd like to give it a go but need some advice, get in touch.

Free bean and parsley seeds were given out from the Garden Organic Heritage seed collection, along with growing calendars and other helpful information. There were also demonstrations of small-scale composting from kitchen waste, and plant-pot making out of newspapers.

At the doors of the School entrance was a tasteful display of rubbish which we had collected recently from the recreation ground. It included glass bottles, drinks cans, plastic bottles, paper and scrap metal (including half a bike) - all of which have now been recycled through the local recycling bank and Milton Recycling Centre. More rubbish collecting days are planned in the village - the next one will be on Saturday 11th August at 10am. Pincers will be provided, along with bags for collection and refreshments afterwards. Some of the visitors to the Girton Show were also keen to see this effort extending to other parts of the village, such as Washpit Lane. A good idea that will hopefully encourage more people to join us. Many others told of their own efforts to keep their patch tidy, which all helps to take waste out of the environment. However, this only serves to cope with the problem. What we really need is to reduce the production of waste in the first place. Here are some ways you could do this:

• Switch to milk deliveries using re-usable bottles.
• Grow your own vegetables (see above).
• Take your old carrier bags to the shops
• Eat less ... go on, deny yourself; you know you're worth it!

There were many enquiries and much animated discussion at both displays. More information from both displays can be found on the Sustainable Girton website at www.sustainable-girton.org.uk

There is now an extended article based on the posters on the food display here.

June was not a washout!

You might have thought the weather in June was pretty grey and wet for this time of year, but the photovoltaic solar panels in Girton say otherwise! Despite the clouds they still managed to pump out 500 kWh of electricity and although this is a little down on the previous year it goes to show how well they work even when the sun isn't shining all day.

Energy for Free!

It has been just over a year since our hot water solar panels were installed on our roof in Thornton Close. We opted for a 3 square meter set of evacuated-tube-based panels. Inside they have little black fins surrounding a pipe containing fluid. The sun heats the fins and fluid pumped through the pipework transfers this heat to the hot water cylinder in our airing cupboard.

At least that's the theory. It's not all been plain sailing though. We'd initially hoped to have them installed in the spring, but a delay in the government grant (worth ?400) to meet part of the cost, and trying to coordinate two plumbers and a faulty hot water cylinder (if doing it again we would surely get one company to do the whole job) meant it was nearing the end of July before they were first turned on.

The wait was worth it, however, and we have been most impressed with their performance. It only takes an hour or two of bright weather for the cylinder to get hot enough for our needs. We are able to heat the water in our cylinder using the gas boiler in the normal way, but for eight or nine months of the year we've found this to be completely unnecessary, despite some of the unseasonably grey weather we've had this year. On a sunny summer's day the panels will heat the water in the cylinder to 70 or 80 degrees C (76 degrees C -- and rising -- as I write this) and owing to the excellent insulation on the hot water cylinder (and its large capacity) this would be enough to supply us with hot water for two or three days, even if there was no further sunshine.

In winter we do on some days need to top up the temperature of the cylinder using our boiler, but even then the solar panels might already have done half the work. We even found them working when there was snow on the ground!

So, to the question that will interest most people: how much money do they save? It's hard to give a thorough answer to this as everyone's hot water usage will vary, and indeed ours has probably changed since we had them installed with the arrival of a baby (together with nappies to be washed). However, the recent Sustainable Girton Energy Challenge (a survey of household energy use in Girton - more on this next month) showed what difference the panels can make. Those families taking part that had solar panels had gas bills that were just a fraction of those that didn't have them. Even if we assume that not all of this difference was due to the solar panels, they're still probably responsible for a saving of around 30 pounds a month, or maybe £300 a year once adjusted for their reduced performance in winter. This is an annual return of about 8% on the cost of installation, so they're certainly holding their own, and while it will be many years before they make back the initial outlay, these figures suggest they're performing better than the same amount of money left in the bank. In environmental terms, the gas saved equates to a reduction in emissions of nearly three tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.

We were already pretty careful with our hot water usage, so I suspect that our savings are a bit less than that, but in the same way a larger family using more hot water might save more.

So, if you're interested in solar panels, what should you do next?

Firstly try to work out if they'd be any use to you: how much hot water do you use? If you're a single-person household, use an electric shower and have a cold-fill dishwasher and washing machine, chances are you don't use a lot of water from your cylinder and they may not be the best use of your money - photovoltaic panels (making electricity) might be better.

Secondly, do you have somewhere to put them? They work best on a south-facing (or at least between south-east and south-west) roof which isn't shaded by trees or other buildings.

Finally, if you fit the bill, there's a scheme run by our local councils to help people arrange the installation of such things: Cambridge Energy For Good (0845 8382815). They will be able to put you in touch with local installers as well as advise on available grants and other issues. The Energy Saving Trust (0800 512 012) is also a good source of help.

If you'd like more information or help deciding if solar panels are for you, feel free to contact Sustainable Girton: info [at] sustainable-girton.org.uk.

Energy Challenge!

Earlier this year a number of people around Girton took part in the Sustain able Girton Energy Challenge. The Norwich and Peterborough Building Society awarded a grant for the necessary equipment and the idea came from David Mackay. The intention was to raise awareness of energy consumption by asking the participants to measure electricity and gas consumption to see how effective a series of challenges were at reducing this.

Nine households volunteered, representing a broad range from families with small children to retired couples, although no single-person households took part.

As well as reading their normal meters, the participants used plug-in power meters supplied by us (thanks to the NPBS grant) to measure precisely the energy use of any electrical appliance in their house. The meters demonstrated how different settings or varying usage of the appliances affected energy consumption.

Here's a selection of just a few of the findings. You can find more in the full report on the Sustainable Girton website.

The gas usage of all participants, when converted to kWh, was around an order of magnitude higher than electricity usage over the same period. This was despite the study being held in late spring/early summer when central heating use would be minimal. As gas use is so much higher there it is likely that there is more scope for cutting emissions through saving gas than electricity.

The range of energy consumption across the participants also varied significantly. This was true both when measured "per-household" or "per-person". This really surprised many people, especially those at the high end as they hadn't expected this would be the case.

A number of families went away from home for periods during the study, eith er on short holidays or for breaks of up to a month. This provided the opportunity to see how much of their energy was used by things that are on all the time (like freezers), or things that they use actively and only when at home. In almost all cases, energy use hardly dropped while they were away. There are some ideas about why this might be, and the implications, in the full report.

Many of the participants found innovative ways to combat wasteful energy use. In one house, post-it notes appeared on many of the appliances with details of how much each used on different settings, and served as a reminder whenever they went to use them. In another, cutting hot water use became rather competitive, and with the associated good natured peer-pressure they were a ble to nearly halve their gas usage.

Most people enjoyed taking part and the majority were amazed at where all this energy went. When asked afterwards what they felt was effective, and what advice they would give others, they had lots of ideas. Here are just a few of their suggestions:

It wasn't all easy though. Some discovered that finding ways to cut their energy use could be hard. More details on this, and all the other things covered, in the full report. Reports can also be obtained from Jane Mansley (call 277027).

In Hot Water

Last month's article on hot water solar panels sparked a lot of interest. Some were concerned at the high temperature of the hot water produced. Fear not! As part of the installation a thermostatic valve was fitted to the hot water cylinder to mix in cold water as necessary to make sure the temperature at the taps wasn't too hot.

Energy Wizards at Girton Glebe

Cambridge Carbon Footprint recently ran an "Energy Wizards" poster competition, and Girton Glebe School walked away with a £1000 prize for the winning school, to spend on environmental initiatives. Sustainable Girton is delighted and congratulates everyone involved. We look forward to learning what the prize is to be spent on.

Rather Different Re-Cycling

Sustainable Girton was delighted to receive this report from one of the organisers of the Glebe School Jumble Sale.

One of the Girton Glebe Parent Teacher Association's biggest fundraising events of the year is our annual Giant Jumble Sale. This year's sale was held on the 6th of October and many members of the local community have asked how much money we made and surprisingly many have asked what we did with the leftover jumble. The event raised over £800.00 on the day selling toys, shoes, bric-a-brac, books, clothing, baby items and accessories. All of the leftover bric-a-brac and books went to Emmaus and the toys and some clothing went to local charity shops. All of the leftover boxes were used to box books and all of the plastic carrier bags and bin liners were taken for reuse. Approximately 80 bags of leftover clothing went to Bag 2 school, a business that sells the clothing to wholesalers in Europe and Africa. We expect we will make a further £150-£200 from them. The PTA chose this company (rather than local charities, such as Oxfam) simply because we have not had enough helpers to take over 80 bags to different charities around Cambridge and Bag 2 School have always kept their appointments. Another bonus is that they pay us within 28 days by cheque. Bag 2 school is a business that will come and collect good quality linens, soft toys, shoes, belts, handbags, ladies, men's and children's clothing and they pay the PTA £200/tonne. A google search on the web found only 10 jumble sales listed that had been followed by collections and over 100 schools that had only the collection. One reason for the discrepancy in numbers is all of the hard work involved in sorting out the items. Altogether the PTA had 30 helpers volunteering for 1 to 3 hours each. I feel this illuminates one of the main barriers to reducing, reusing and recycling. Jumble sales provide an outlet for local reuse, but people are lazy. Firstly people need to bring the jumble to you rather than throwing it away, then you need people to sort it, sell it, buy it, and take it to charity shops for further re-use and/or recycling.

The two organisers of the jumble sale are looking for ways to expand the sale to make it more appealing to a wider audience. Perhaps a car boot sale and building materials exchange mart? We could also collect the jumble using the electric float from Sustainable Girton, or use it to take the leftovers to charities.