Without reading the financial pages of the Sunday newspapers, I have now discovered the best investment of all. No, I have not taken guidance on how to buy stocks and shares in the businesses to be floated on the stock exchange but advice on how to buy more energy efficient light bulbs.
As some of you might not know, around 30% of your domestic electricity bill is spent on lighting the home. The use of energy saving light bulbs can therefore help to reduce the typical domestic electricity bill by producing the same amount of light as a standard light bulb but using up to 67% less energy that traditional light bulbs. They also last 8 to 10 times longer and usually do not need to be replaced for seven years.
At an average cost of around £3.00 each, they are more expensive to buy than a conventional light bulb. However, it is estimated that a single energy efficient light bulb will save around £6 per year per bulb on your electricity bills, and so they pay for themselves in half a year, but will then make a return on investment of over 1300 per cent over their lifetime!
Apart from the fact that it will save you money in the long run, considering ways to save money through greater energy efficiency in the home will also have a major impact on the most important issue facing all of us today, namely climate change.
Frankly, without considering the importance of energy efficiency in dealing with climate change, the whole argument over building energy generation projects becomes superfluous. The current political view seems to be one of concentrating on the need to deal with the constant demand from consumers and industry for greater amounts of energy without considering, for one minute, that greater efforts in promoting the more efficient use of energy within homes and businesses across the UK may be far more useful in ensuring that carbon emissions are reduced, and bad habits over the increasing wasteful use of power are eliminated.
And let’s be honest about it, how many of us have taken five minutes to consider what simple changes we can make in cutting emissions? How many of us have light-saving bulbs within our homes? How many of us set the temperature on our heaters too high? How many of us have lagged our lofts properly? How many of us do not bother in switching off our televisions, leaving them on standby for hours on end?
How many businesses in Wales have contacted organisations such as the Carbon Trust or Arena Network that can help save money through increasing energy efficiency, thus increasing the profitability of the company? How many organisations in the public sector can say that they have introduced every simple energy efficient process which could save millions of pounds for the taxpayer?
These are simple things all of us – individually, in business and in the public sector - can do without having to have solar panels on our roofs, a windfarm in the next field or a new power station down the road. And best of all, it is a win-win situation. In considering the energy efficiency of your home, you will be saving both money and the environment.
Perhaps, cynics amongst you might say that the large providers of energy – some of whom build both nuclear and wind power generators with equal impunity – do not encourage greater energy efficiency as it would certainly result in you spending less on buying electricity and heating from them and would affecting their profitability and market position.
I would certainly prefer this to walking blindly into plans to build new power stations without addressing the whole issue of improving energy efficiency across the UK, an act that will, in the case of many conventional stations, cause damage to the climate, and in the case of wind farms, cause damage to the landscapes on which areas such as Wales are dependent for vital tourism income.
All of us should be serious about the future of this planet, so take the time to consider what you individually can do to make a difference in saving energy (whilst also saving yourself some money). After all, 25 million UK households and 4 million UK businesses making a small individual contribution to cutting the use of electricity could, and should, collectively make a massive overall impact on combating climate change.
As some of you might not know, around 30% of your domestic electricity bill is spent on lighting the home. The use of energy saving light bulbs can therefore help to reduce the typical domestic electricity bill by producing the same amount of light as a standard light bulb but using up to 67% less energy that traditional light bulbs. They also last 8 to 10 times longer and usually do not need to be replaced for seven years.
At an average cost of around £3.00 each, they are more expensive to buy than a conventional light bulb. However, it is estimated that a single energy efficient light bulb will save around £6 per year per bulb on your electricity bills, and so they pay for themselves in half a year, but will then make a return on investment of over 1300 per cent over their lifetime!
Apart from the fact that it will save you money in the long run, considering ways to save money through greater energy efficiency in the home will also have a major impact on the most important issue facing all of us today, namely climate change.
Frankly, without considering the importance of energy efficiency in dealing with climate change, the whole argument over building energy generation projects becomes superfluous. The current political view seems to be one of concentrating on the need to deal with the constant demand from consumers and industry for greater amounts of energy without considering, for one minute, that greater efforts in promoting the more efficient use of energy within homes and businesses across the UK may be far more useful in ensuring that carbon emissions are reduced, and bad habits over the increasing wasteful use of power are eliminated.
And let’s be honest about it, how many of us have taken five minutes to consider what simple changes we can make in cutting emissions? How many of us have light-saving bulbs within our homes? How many of us set the temperature on our heaters too high? How many of us have lagged our lofts properly? How many of us do not bother in switching off our televisions, leaving them on standby for hours on end?
How many businesses in Wales have contacted organisations such as the Carbon Trust or Arena Network that can help save money through increasing energy efficiency, thus increasing the profitability of the company? How many organisations in the public sector can say that they have introduced every simple energy efficient process which could save millions of pounds for the taxpayer?
These are simple things all of us – individually, in business and in the public sector - can do without having to have solar panels on our roofs, a windfarm in the next field or a new power station down the road. And best of all, it is a win-win situation. In considering the energy efficiency of your home, you will be saving both money and the environment.
Perhaps, cynics amongst you might say that the large providers of energy – some of whom build both nuclear and wind power generators with equal impunity – do not encourage greater energy efficiency as it would certainly result in you spending less on buying electricity and heating from them and would affecting their profitability and market position.
I would certainly prefer this to walking blindly into plans to build new power stations without addressing the whole issue of improving energy efficiency across the UK, an act that will, in the case of many conventional stations, cause damage to the climate, and in the case of wind farms, cause damage to the landscapes on which areas such as Wales are dependent for vital tourism income.
All of us should be serious about the future of this planet, so take the time to consider what you individually can do to make a difference in saving energy (whilst also saving yourself some money). After all, 25 million UK households and 4 million UK businesses making a small individual contribution to cutting the use of electricity could, and should, collectively make a massive overall impact on combating climate change.
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