Eco - Product "Wireless Plug Switch"

I have been using this product for a rather long time and I think it is a very good one.

In case some of you don't understand the name of the product, the Wireless Plug Switch automatically turns off a plug at the wall using a remote control. This means that you dont have to go to the plug but you just flick a switch on the remote. I use this in my office so when I leave to go to the toilet or go shopping etc. I press a button and my monitor, light and printer turns off.

You can buy a set of 5 at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Remote-Control-Mains-Socket-Sockets/dp/B0012IKNY2/

Also, sorry for the big delay of posts; the internet wasn't working anymore where I went for holiday.

-mikbob

Notice: Post Updates

Now that I have reached my 50 unique visitors mark I will now post every 2 weeks instead of once a month.

-mikbob

Eco-Idea 'LED Bulbs'

Today I’ve put a normal bulb and a LED bulb and put them to the test to see how much watt hours and money you could save by switching to them. These tests were never actually carried out in full scale. I understand that I do not have amount of CO2 HERE. This is because it is different for everyone.

A normal bulb with 50W would produce the same light as a LED 6W bulb. So let’s imagine that we have an office with five of these 50W bulbs. This would need 250W and 250Wh. The usual price for 1000Wh is 12p. So for 1 hour this would cost 3p.
A LED Bulb only needs 6W to produce the same light. If you have that same office with these bulbs it would need 30W and 30Wh. You save 220Wh! So for one hour it would only cost 0.36p! So you save 2.6p per hour.

Imagine that the lights were on 4 hours a day. In one day the normal bulbs would use 1000Wh and LED bulbs would only use 120Wh. That means you save 880Wh. In one day the normal bulbs would cost around 12p but the LED bulbs would cost 1.5p. That means that you would save 10.5p in just one day.

Now I’m going to go big scale. If you were to keep it on 4 hours a day for one year this is what you would get. The normal bulbs would use 365000Wh and the LED bulbs would use 43800Wh. That means you would save a whopping 321200Wh. In terms of money the normal bulbs would cost £43.80 when the LED bulbs would only cost you £5.47. That saves £38.33!

Now if you were looking at the whole lifespan (40,000h or 4.5y) of the bulb it would last 27.3 years if it was used 4 hours a day. This would mean in their whole lifespan the normal bulbs would use 10,000,000Wh and the LED bulbs would use 1,200,000 saving 8,800,000Wh. In money the normal bulbs would cost £1195.74 and the LED bulbs would cost £149.33. This saves £1046.41!

-mikbob

Eco-Idea 'Earth Hour'

Earth Hour is run by the WWF and is aiming to help climate change and encouraging people to do one thing that would make a difference.

How do they do it?
The aim is to make everyone turn off their lights for one hour. This may sound little but when you have got 200,000,000 people doing it it makes a lot of difference.

When is it?
It is on Saturday 31 March 2012 and 8:30 local time. Every year it is on a different date so be sure to check earthhour.org
for the latest dates.

I hope you all participate and tell your friends and family too. If you want more information or regular updates go to earthhour.org.
Also, Eco-Blog will be going black on Earth Hour to help save energy.

-mikbob

Special Edition "Fairtrade"

This is a special edition and is not exactly a post about being 'eco'

Fairtrade is a non-profit organisation aiming to help farmers in poor countries get more money for their food. Take a banana, for example. Usually a farmer would get £0.02/$0.03/€0.02/¥2 when a supermarket would earn £0.06/$0.10/€0.06/¥8.

How do they get the farmers more money?
For those of you thinking that they try to persuade the supermarkets, you're wrong. Instead they take a more hassle-free approach. They buy food from the farmers at a higher price but then they sell it at a higher price.(they still sell it in the supermarkets though.)

Why would people but it if it is more expensive?
People (probably you now) either know what difference it is making or they see the big logo on the packet and read what a difference it makes. If you are not encouraged to buy fairtrade think of it as giving money to a charity who helps farmers. For those of you that want to know the fairtrade logo here it is:







If you need more information visit http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/ and if you want to donate go to http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/get_involved/donate/donate.aspx

-mikbob

Some Changes

Hi Ecoblog fans!

Here are some of the newest features of Eco-Blog:
1. New Disqus commenting system.
2. Like/Dislike Feature
3. New layout (access at bit.ly/eco-blog-2 or mikbob-ecoblog.blogspot.com/view/sidebar#!)

If you find any problems with the features please comment it or contact us.

-mikbob

Eco-Idea: Eat Seasonably

Eating seasonably is all about eating things that are currently growing in your country at the moment.


Why eat seasonably?
Because it tastes better and saves lots of CO2

How does it save CO2?
It saves CO2 by not having to import them from different countries. Take a banana, for example. It would take 151.2576 tonnes of CO2 to transport a whole plane load of bananas. So for each banana it would take a surprising 37kg of CO2!(supposing that each plane holds 4,000 bananas)

Also look out for the Eat Seasonably sticker on The fruit and Veg now in the shops.

In England:












Video on Eating Seasonally:



I hope you Eat Seasonally!

Eco - News: Easy Find

You can now acess the ecoblog by using bit.ly/mikbob
I hope that you find it easier using this link.

-mikbob

Endangered Species And how to help them.

These are the current highly endangered species. Clicking on them will lead you to their WWF Sites

African Elephant
African Rhinos
Asian Elephant
Amur Leopard
Rhino
Bonodo
Great Apes
Giant Panda

-mikbob

Good News and Bad news

Today I have some bad and good news. It will be shown below.
Bad News:
Over the holiday I will not be able to go online so you probably won't get any posts.
Good News:
Over the period of the holidays(and after) starting on the 23rd of july you will be able to Share my posts over Email, Blogger, Facebook, Twitter and Buzz. Also you will be able to see if i am online(BETA).

Have a good holiday!

-mikbob

Eco News "Oil Leak" :(

here is the latest news on the oil leak in the gulf of mexico

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_8700000/newsid_8705200/8705224.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_8700000/newsid_8705200/8705224.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_8660000/newsid_8664800/8664894.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_8660000/newsid_8661400/8661445.stm
Or look at the video's on sidebar

Please Pay for it

--> Click Here <--

-mikbob

Eco Hurray "Clean Energy"

In March the government declared that it will be beginning a green home loans system. This is exiting news as it finally makes green technology inexpensive for the common, and should therefore unleash a rapid and much needed retrofitting of energy-efficient technology, such as photovoltaic cells, solar hot water and ground source heat pumps to UK housing, delivering fast, efficient CO2 emissions reductions.

-mikbob

Eco Idea "Solar Power"

What if you could get free energy?
What if you could use electricity without destroying the enviroment?

Now you can do that. A solar panel converts sun rays into electricity so if you get one you could use that energy to power your house. It saves a lot of energy and money.

Money Saved Per Year:
£4,000

CO2 Saved Per Year:
5 tonnes

Notice: Design Change

After a bit of work I have managed to change the looks of the eco-blog.
THIS IS STILL THE SAME ECO-BLOG!!!

-mikbob

Editor Choice No.1 (Comment)

I have seen a comment that is good and I want to share it with all of you.

"...I am aware that soon appear on the market a new product of cellulose, which replaced the expanded polyethylene trays used as packaging for poultry and vegetables seen in supermarkets.
This product is completely biodegradable and organic matter, and help reduce the huge amount of plastic..."

extracted from a commen given by "zapelaitz".

-mikbob

New! Language Selection (BETA)

I have made a list of languages that you can view this blog in. I have used Google translate to translate the blog. Gadgets don't work in different languages and the wording might not be correct. And I will put more languages. In a diffrent language hyperlinks will send you to english version.

Español:
Click Here


Français:
Click Here

-18 APRIL EDIT-
Dont use these links. Go up to the top of the page and use those.
No utilice estos enlaces. Ir hasta la parte superior de la página y usar esos.
Ne pas utiliser ces liens. Aller au haut de la page et utilisez-les.
Geen gebruik maken van deze links. Ga naar de bovenkant van de pagina en deze gebruiken.
不要使用这些链接。上升到页面的顶部和使用它们。
これらのリンクを使用しないでください。ページの先頭に移動し、それらを使用しています。

Eco-Idea "Power Cut?"

Why not turn off your electricity at home? If you turn all appliances exept fridge/freezer you will save loads. If you have children they even might have fun in the dark at night or you can enjoy a wonderful meal with the light of a candle. Or you may do it on earth hour?

Money saved per 12 hours:
£6

Co2 saved per 12 hours:
12kg

-mikbob

Special Edition "Save the world"

This is a java thing I made using scratch.
Press the green flag to start it. Every time you start it it does something diffrent.



webpage:
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/bagbag12/1027768

embed (remove 88):
<88applet id='ProjectApplet' style='display:block' code='ScratchApplet' codebase='http://scratch.mit.edu/static/misc' archive='ScratchApplet.jar' height='387' width='482'>

Please put it on your site or send/put on site the link.

-mikbob

Special Edition "Earth Song"

Here is a song to do with saving the earth by Michael Jackson.

Warning: This song makes some people cry

Eco-Hurray (This does not mean you have to stop helping)

Anyone who does not know about Club Penguin it's a chat room and each year they give over 10 million dollars to different causes and the children decide the percentage of the money that goes to each cause. One of the causes this year is "The Enviroment"

-mikbob