Saving The Planet (or maybe just money?)

We have long promoted the benefits of working to benefit the planet - we have worked for many years with the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers, undertaking practical conservation tasks, up to our armpits in mud building a footpath, or even breaking the ice on a pond in the winter to do some pond clearance in the middle of a snow-storm.

For the saner amongst us out there, you really should look to save energy. Leaving appliances on standby is one of the major culprits with many televisions using over 10% of their normal power just to keep you from having to cross the room to press the on/off switch. With the advent of digital TV, this is made worse, as many set top boxes use almost as much power on standby as when being used !!

We have found an excellent little gadget - the "Bye Bye Standby" which comes as a set of plugs which can be operated remotely using wireless technology - you can either turn them off individually or as part of a group. Ideal for switching off the sky box downstairs on a night after watching a film on the upstairs TV !! This is not too pricey and we have even found that the cheapest place to purchase Bye Bye Standby is Tesco Direct. With a starter kit consisting of one remote control and 3 remote plugs, this was simple to install and should save some money in the first six months.

Now all we need is someone to offer us a solar heating system - now that would be excellent, particularly as we have a south facing roof. However, it is hard to justify over £4,000 for such a system, even if it might help save the planet.