Earth Notes: Saving The Planet @Home
Site updated 2026-09-28 11:33 GMT.Want to do your bit at home to improve your quality of life, save money, cut down on waste and carbon pollution, and get the planet back how it used to be?
Did you know that the majority of your neighbours are undertaking energy saving actions every day
? That is also one of the most powerful messages to encourage people to save.
On Earth Notes
Featured: PhD Research on UK Wet Heating Retrofit (frugal research tech)
A continuing summary of Damon's research into optimising UK domestic wet heating system retrofit. #PhD #heating #research
A summary, with periodic updates, of my research and reading (and maybe some notes from time to time) and relevant publications for a PhD at the University of Surrey Centre for Environment and Sustainability (CES). Having spent a decade thinking about home heating I want to continue to fight climate change by ensuring domestic space-heating retrofits. In particular, making upgrades of existing wet-heating systems with radiators from gas to heat-pump work as well as possible!
On Website Technicals (2026-09) (blog site tech)
Pint, Poster, Paper: Slice-and-Dice Heating Decarb (2026) (frugal research tech)
On GB/UK Solar PV FiTs and Plug-in Solar (2026) (frugal microgen tech)
On Website Technicals (site tech)
On Setting Up a Raspberry Pi Off-grid PV-Powered Server (2014) (frugal tech)
Expanding and Optimising Off-grid PV for Mid-winter (2016) (microgen tech)
On Website Technicals (2026-09) (blog site tech)
16WW Electricity Profiles (tech)
16WW Microgeneration Merit Order (microgen tech)
Random: On Website Technicals (2025-09) (blog site tech)
Tech updates: note 100, Opus vs MP3, Codeberg, Purrmetrix, AntennaPod, SVG load profiles, rude, Amazon, AMP ghost.
Net electricity utility energy kgCO2e over the last 12 full calendar months: -64
LIVE GB Grid Carbon Intensity (mobile), live grid-tie PV generation and off-grid PV electrical system stats, heat battery top-up control.
Main FEEDS site, podcast, data.
SECTIONS dataset, frugal, microgeneration, podcast, research, review.
OFFLINE Download to your computer before a long journey with poor connectivity. Unpack and read offline. (Also see Zenodo.)
Things That We've Done
We've crunched our carbon footprint. We've become a SuperHome. We've pondered other changes that we might make. But most of all there's been quite a lot of fun learning. Maybe it is my wannabe engineering mindset, but I have made a hobby out of conservation and data watching. I have had fun out of 'tuning' life a little. The rest of my family largely lets me get on with it.
See a full list of articles under search at the top of the page, and here's some actions to start with that we took...
- made my home study/office carbon-neutral including reducing energy consumption from my Internet-facing servers at home from over 600W to about 2W
- switched our electricity supply to a "100% green" tariff with Ecotricity so that what we do consume is as green as possible
- cut our electricity consumption and added grid-tied solar PV microgeneration to the point where we are net exporters to the grid
- weatherproofed/weatherised our home amongst our other conservation measures such as using (OpenTRV) thermostatic radiator values and aerogel insulation and upgrading to energy-efficient appliances
- built a little off-grid solar system that provides lighting and mobile phone charging and power for my Internet servers consolidated onto a single Raspberry Pi that postpones work until the sun shines
- toyed with wind power (turbines) and found that wind does not really work for most of us urbanites
- built a compost heap or three and we grow a tiny amount of veg in our postage-stamp garden...
Things That You Can Do
Effective changes that can be made at home are based on lowering energy/resource demand...
- Install some combination of heat pump, solar PV and batteries.
- Saving electricity (and gas) in all sorts of ways, as below...
- Lighting: low-energy light bulbs (eg LED preferably at 100 lumens per Watt (100lm/W) efficiency or better). If rewiring, then look at 12V light circuits connecting to PV/battery systems.
- High-efficiency white goods (eg fridges) and other electrical goods at home and at work. Look at energy consumption in use, eg per wash or while on, and in 'standby' mode if you won't be turning them off at the wall. Choose an energy supplier that provides 'green' energy and supports renewables.
- For cooking: investigate CO2 savings with induction cookers and microwave ovens.
- Clothes washing: alternate ideas with drying (eg on a line), and low-temperature (cold/30°C/40°C) washing and do full loads. Also, simple changes in habits and textiles (wool is brilliant compared to cotton for whole-life costing as well as washing/drying/ironing). Re-use fashions!
- Low water-use toilets, showers.
- Insulation and thermal capacity (over-cladding buildings).
- Close curtains at dusk to retain heat (and on hot sunny days to keep the sun/heat out).
- Turn down your heating thermostat 1°C for up to 10% saving. 18°C to 21°C is about right during the day (and hypothermia is only really a risk when temperatures at home are as low as 5°C, but spending more than two hours at 12°C raises blood pressure), and nearer 14°C at night when sleeping. Only heat rooms that you are using. Use a timer (or something smarter) to avoid heating when no one is home! Wearing the right clothing helps keep you comfortable at lower temperatures.
- Don't have your hot water thermostat set higher than 60°C/140°F, and 'instant' water heaters avoid losses from a tank for new systems.
- Don't leave gadgets and appliances on standby/charging, turn them off (maybe with a smart power-strip or trailing adapter) or unplug them. You might trim as much as 30% off your electricity bill.
- Check your mains electricity use at home with tools such as the Kill-a-Watt meter, or just read your supply meter daily or weekly. Gas too.
- Minimise the electricity you use at times of peak grid load (eg 4pm to 9pm in the autumn/winter in the UK) since more carbon-intensive and expensive fuels may be burnt in 'peaking' plants, and the grid is under most strain too.
- On the flip-side, make good use of energy when it's abundant such as saving up computing work until the sun is shining for low-carbon results.
- Reduce, re-use, recycle (including electricals).
- See some thoughtful tips at MoneySavingExpert.com.
News
- : Commission inaugurates Europe's largest industrial carbon capture and storage facility in the Netherlands:
... to capture and liquefy up to 800,000 tons of CO2 annually...
- : Europe adds 8.8 GW wind capacity in first half, WindEurope says: (EU and 13 other countries including the UK, Turkey and Ukraine).
- Archived news...