22nd June 2022
What does sustainability look like in daily life? I thought I would share our (me and my husband) experiences. We buy our electricity from a green supplier – Ecotricity – as well as producing our own from solar panels. We are currently investigating installing batteries so that we can make greater use of what we generate.
Living sustainability with electricity is about not using it unless needed.
- no dishwasher and no tumble dryer – clothes dry on the line outside or a clothes horse inside when wet – and no freezer
- Hand turned burr coffee grinder
- Hand whisk
- Broom and dust pan for most floor cleaning and vacuum bedroom carpets
- Hand sewing machine
- When we buy appliances – fridge, washing machine, cooker – we look for those with AA ratings. For a television we also opted for small rather than large screen.
- Ditto small rather than large fridge
- Our regular wash cycle is the 20 minute express programme with 10 minute extra soaking time.
- Only washing clothes when needed – a shirt will last 4 or 5 days, trousers and jumpers even longer.
- I use an iPad rather than a laptop and an iPhone and where possible charge them when our solar panels are producing energy. Ditto for recharging bike lights.
- Only filling the kettle as needed and only heating to the temperature needed – 94C for coffee.
- Plan baking bread and cakes to fill the oven. Use these days for an oven baked dinner
- Planning meals to minimise number of hot plates needed. Turning hot plates off before cooking finishes to use the residual heat.
- Using the microwave to cook porridge, vegetables and fruit
- Turning off lights when not in use and using low energy bulbs
- No electric garden tools
Our metered electricity consumption for the last 12 months was 1542 KWh
The Green Tau 
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