Green Project Ideas Birmingham
Green Project Ideas
Even if you are not planning to fit solar panels to your roof to supply all your electricity or install a reed-bed water filtration system in your garden, there are still lots of ways you can make your DIY greener. Simply buying sustainable wood or greener paints can make a difference.
Green Projects
There are many DIY projects you can perform around your home which will make a difference to the environment. If everyone carried out these simple and relatively inexpensive tasks, we would reduce our energy consumption and wastage by a huge amount.
- Installing loft insulation properly is one of the best ways to reduce the heat lost from your home. Retaining heat means less energy needs to be used. Better for your pocket and the environment.
- Insulate your hot water tank. Buying a good quality "jacket" for your hot water tank can reduce bills considerably.
- Fix that dripping tap! A tap dripping just once a second adds up to about 13 litres of wasted water EVERY DAY! If that is a hot water tap, you might also be wasting energy heating water that is going to waste. A new washer cost pennies and can be fitted in minutes.
- If you are buying new taps, look for those with aerators or spray fittings. This can reduce water usage by as much as 50 per cent by mixing in air with the water.
Green Materials
Greener materials (either greener in their manufacture or the materials used) are widely available and need not cost more than non-green materials.
Reclaimed Timber - An amazing 2.5 million tonnes of timber is ripped out of old buildings each year in the UK. Up to 10 per cent of that timber is perfectly reusable (being good quality hardwood). Check the yellow pages for local timber salvage companies. Even if you don't want old wood showing, there are plenty of places it can be used where it will be hidden.
Certified Wood - If reclaimed timber isn't possible, try to buy wood that is certified to come from sustainable forests and which hasn't been produced illegally. At least a quarter of all wood sold in the UK is thought to be illegally produced.
VOC's in Paint - VOC's (or Volatile Organic Compounds) are present in almost all paint products, including finishes and preservatives. Many paints have a VOC label on the tin, allowing you to choose the product with the lowest VOC content, and therefore with the lowest environmental impact.
One Tin or Two? - Work out carefully how much paint you need to buy for the job in hand. A huge amount of paint is wasted because too much is bought and the extra ends up sitting in the garage for the next 10 years. Paint Calulator http://www.tiscali.co.uk/property/calculators/paint.html
Indoor Paint - When buying paint for indoors, try to buy that which displays a European Ecolabel. The Ecolabel indicates that the paint contains no Mercury, Lead or other Heavy Metals. These paints are also manufactured with reduced solvent emissions and waste products.