Furniture and Product Designer at Nottingham Trent Unviersity
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Could this be the future of energy sustainability ?
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136.79 kWh in the last 7 days with 3 people in the house
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Picture from my note book, finding out energy consumption in the household
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Energy waste is definitely a problem, what solution can i provide?
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Power aware cord, this makes the user aware of the energy they are consuming. does this help people save energy? is this a great solution, can it be expanded upon?
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British Gas said that 46% of the electricity used by businesses is consumed out of office hours.
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By 2025, buildings are predicted to be the largest consumer of energy, more than transportation and the industrial sector combined. As much as 50% of the energy and water that flow into buildings today is wasted. In large urban areas like New York City, approximately 80% of the carbon footprint comes from buildings. The opportunities for savings are very real and go right to the bottom line by reducing energy and water usage as much as 40%.
Dave Bartlett is Vice President, Smarter Buildings at IBM, http://breakingenergy.com/2011/07/26/the-top-ten-ways-we-waste-energy-and-water-in-buildings/
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Top ten ways we waste energy and water in buildings
The first step is becoming aware of the ways we use natural resources.
With that, here is my ‘top ten’ list of the simple ways we waste energy and water in buildings:
1) Running space heaters under desks while air conditioning is on because buildings are over cooled.
2) Propping doors or windows open in retail stores or office buildings to mitigate over-cooling or to draw in shoppers.
3) Running heating and cooling systems at the same time due to improperly maintained equipment. (Yes, it happens more than you might expect).
4) Sprinklers that are not correctly aimed and are watering streets, sidewalks, and driveways.
5) Sprinklers that turn on during rainstorms or are activated at the warmest, sunniest times of day. By watering during the day, as much as 20-25% of the water is lost to evaporation from heat and wind, according to California Drought Preparedness.
6) Using a water hose and nozzle to ‘sweep’ sidewalks and driveways instead of using a broom.
7) Keeping lights on all day even when sunlight could be used to illuminate a space properly. Lighting is responsible for one-fourth of all electricity consumption worldwide.
8) Utilizing all of the lighting in a space when task-specific lighting would easily do the trick.
9) Leaving lighting, heating or cooling systems on during the night at levels that would be appropriate for daytime occupancy.
10) Keeping computers, printers and other computer equipment on all night or weekend when it is not being used. A typical US home has about 40 “vampire energy” products continuously drawing power. These devices, which include mobile phone chargers, set top boxes, computers and game consoles can account for approximately 10% of a home energy bill each month, according to a study on standby power by IBM, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the International Energy Agency and eXtension.
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Energy Diary; By Dominic Utton, 18 Sep 2015
The results can be surprising – and enlightening. I kept a diary of my household’s energy use over one day – and things didn’t turn out quite as I expected... 7AM Everyone in the house wakes up. My wife Heidi and I have two children, Eithne, 8, and Albert, 6. I unplug my phone charger (which has been on all night), and turn on the kitchen radio, which will remain on all day. The kids tend to hit the ground running, but Heidi and I need caffeine before we can function. I fill the kettle for Heidi’s tea and fire up my new coffee maker and milk frother (a birthday present). The children come downstairs, the toaster is put on for their breakfast and an hour and a half of semi-controlled chaos ensues. 9AM The first washing machine load of the day is put in. Having two active children means there’s a seemingly never-ending pile of dirty clothes. Heidi works as a gardener a few days a week and after boiling the kettle again to fill her thermos, she’s off too leaving me alone in the house for the day. Working from home means resisting the urge to simply watch TV all day – something I’m much better at now I have a mortgage and two children to support. So after refilling the kettle for another cup of tea I dutifully trudge upstairs and switch on the computer which, although I have a laptop, I tend to leave plugged in permanently. As I later find out, this makes my laptop one of the big energy users in the house: using the battery would save a substantial amount of energy (and money). 1PM Lunch. More toast and another kettle refill. The washing is hung out to dry and another load put on. We don’t have a tumble dryer and a sunny day means the opportunity to get two washes in. It’s funny, with the washing machine, we think of the water it uses, rather than the electricity. But as I later discover, of all the appliances in the house, the washing machine is the biggest energy guzzler. 5PM Heidi and the children are back from school and work, which means more tea, and the house is once again alive with noise and activity. The TV is put on for the first time today and the TiVo box switched on from standby. We try to limit the amount the kids watch to a couple of hours in the evening, not so much to save energy but because too much TV makes them too wired. Albert heads for the iPad (also permanently plugged in) and there follows the usual argument about downloading Minecraft: not sure how much longer he’ll believe our white lie that it doesn’t work on our machine. 6PM Time to cook dinner for the children, so the electric oven is switched on. And, inevitably, so is the kettle. Again. 7PM Bedtime for the little ones: the iPad and TV are switched off and the TiVo box put back on standby. Heidi plugs in her phone charger for a couple of hours and the oven is turned on again for our dinner. I’ve finished work for the day, but I leave the computer on anyway – just in case there’s an email I need to attend to, or sudden inspiration strikes for an article I’m working on. 9PM After our dinner, the dishwasher is loaded and set going. Heidi unplugs her phone and puts the kettle on again as we settle down to download a film on to our TiVo box. After some discussion between the relative merits of The Theory of Everything (her choice) and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (my choice), we go with the former. It’s OK but not enough dragons for my taste. Having been on since 7am, the kitchen radio is finally switched off. 11:30PM One last cup of tea before bed. MIDNIGHT Bedtime. The TV’s off, the dishwasher’s finished and after 15 hours, I finally switch off my computer. Inspiration didn’t strike and the last thing I do before bed is plug in my phone to charge through the night. Of course, there are some appliances that are never switched off: the fridge, the wireless hub. Like just about every household, we have a wireless hub, which sits in the corner, blue lights winking all day and night. Generally, I’ve never thought of our energy use to be excessive at all, but the results of my typical day’s energy use were eye-opening, to say the least
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How well do you know your energy consumption?
According to the Smart Energy Outlook March 2015 survey conducted by Populus, only half of us understand our energy bills. They’re simply something we pay every quarter, usually with a sinking heart.
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These are only 8 ways that we waste electricity daily, interesting to see how much energy is actually wasted. This gets me thinking on how we can prevent this and is there a solution for it?
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Within my part time job at Tescos I see so many customers come in for wood to burn on their wood burners and fires, this got me thinking...is it sustainable to do this? Is there another way to make energy last longer?
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Gives great insight into Eco design and also different research methods such as trend designs and market research.
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