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One of the first tasks we have undertaken in an attempt to limit our ecological footprint is to reduce the amount of energy used in the lights throughout the house. A quick audit of all the lights revealed that we had a total of 3080 wattage in light globes (see the table below for details). The next step was to head to the local hardware and see what we could replace them with (Considerations when deciding which CFLs to use). $212 dollars later and a lot of light bulb replacing have now reduced the total light wattage by approximately two thirds to 958 watts (and we can still do a little better yet). Two issues arose from this exercise which are yet to be resolved. They are that; - We have been unable to find a suitable replacement for the 50 watt MR16 halogen reflector lamps in the kitchen (being that they are used in the kitchen we still require reasonably bright lighting)
- The light shade covers in the Lounge and Dinning rooms are very thin and no globe wider than approx 36mm will fit them (the thinnest CFL we have located to date is about 40mm wide)
I have posed the above questions to some lighting manufacturers and in summary have received answers along the lines of the following (The full question and answer is posted in the forum); - Basically technology is not quite there yet with MR16 halogen replacements (at least for the brighter light requirements). See question and full response in forum
- The thin light shade covers we have are rare (normally they are not so thin). So we can either change the light shades or wait and see what happens with further technological developments. See question and full response in forum
As a side issue to replacing my CFL’s, I did some investigation into the mercury debate and how environmentally friendly they are. See what we found about about CFL's and Environmental Issues. |
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To try and gauge what our current ecological footprint is we have chosen to try two different footprint calculators. Both calculators surprisingly had similar results despite asking very different sorts of questions. The results from the ecological footprint calculators indicated that if every one lived as we do then 3-4 earths would be required to support the earths current population!!!!! The first calculator we tried was the Ecological Footprint Quiz which estimated how much productive land and water is required to support what we currently use and discard. After answering 15 easy questions (see the questions, our answers and results) the results indicated that we are currently slightly below the average for our country (Australia), which was good. However the bad news is that if everyone lived like us then we would require 3.9 planets to sustain this level of living. |
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Where do we start when considering how to reduce our environmental footprint? After much discussion and some research we have decided to start simple and then build to the more complex / expensive tasks. The first few items we are focusing on are; - Seal the fireplaces in the lounge (it is only used ones or twice a year);
- Add shade to some of the windows that get a lot of direct summer sunlight;
- Switch off the computer/computer monitors when we are away from the computer (we tend to leave it running all day);
- Install Compact fluorescent lights; and
- Train ourselves to turn off lights when we leave a room.
Stay tuned to see how we go in this first stage. In the next few weeks we will provide an overview of our house in its unmodified form and from there begin to document the successes, failures and associated costs of transforming our home. |
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Project: Reducing our Footprint 
