Cow's generate green-house gases

Did you know that a cow's digestive system generates per year the same amount of green-house gas like a car running 20'000 km?

Wow, that's weird.

This means that eating less meat allows to reduce green-house effect and global warming.... in addition of health benefits I mean. :)

BTW, remember, to "build" a cow you need grass, to "build" grass you need space and so there is also a deforestation effect jumping in here.

Planning for the future

My next steps in reducing my ecological footprint should be:

1. Solar installation
2. Wood pellets based heating add-on
3. Continuing insulation of some parts of the roof
4. Mechanical ventilation system

Ok, this is the plan, I keep you updated on reality! :)

Learning to build a solar installation

On Saturday I went to the ecological association called Sebasol in order to learn how to build a solar installation in order to heat water or help heating the house.

It was very interesting and in addition showed that the challenge is completely possible for everyone who does not have two left hands.

As a reminder, in Switzerland a Solar system can cover 80% of the energy required to heat water and 40% of the heating energy. This is a non-neglectable reduction of CO2 and a financial economy.

Ecology in the Laundry

I'm just prototyping a new enhancement on my ecological footprint, namely replacing my standard washing powder by so-called soap nuts. See here a small summary of what this is.

I bought mine here but will try to find a provider closer to where I live.

Will keep you posted on how efficient this is in terms of cleanness of the

My son Tom is born

.... just for those who are interested he was 48 cm and 3.2kg. Everything is fine with him and his happy parents...

... and yes I bought an Aygo.... cool car, so small and practical... and an unforeseen financial benefit: 50% reduction on car taxes because it's considered as a energy class A car.... and the baby seat even does fit into it. :)

More precise update

Hi to all,

After some weeks of measurement, the latest operations, i.e. insulating the roof, brought a gain of ~30%. Not that bad. :)

Update on my gaz spendings

It is interesting to update here what I gained from my previous operations, namely tuning the burner, insulating the doors against air traversal, insulating the roof against air traversal.

Last year I spent an average of 220m3 of gaz per month. This year (from August to now) this average is down to 47m3 and the best is that my current spending is 160m3 per month even if it's very cold these days here.

And all that for peanuts investments.

Now comes the next step which is to insulate the small unheated room which is under the roof from the main rooms. This will be a bit more work but I keep you posted on the results.

Silly waste of energy

Since 3 years that I'm leaving in this apartment I was convinced that the regulation system of my heating system would prevent waste of energy during summer time when heating is not required. How wrong I was! See bellow...

Average consumption of gas last year per month (flat over the year, no winter/summer difference) : 209.24 m3 per month

Average consumption of gas since I turned off the heating system : 138 m3 per month

Average consumption of gas since I turned off the water circulation in the radiators: 40 m3 per month.

Hell! I'm pissed-off by myself for having wasted that much energy (and money)!

So think about it if you have a similar heating system...