Walter's ecology blog

Cow's generate green-house gases

2008-09-27T00:44:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-30T00:15:00.000-07:00

My next steps in reducing my ecological footprint should be:

Solar installation
Wood pellets based heating add-on
Continuing insulation of some parts of the roof
Mechanical ventilation system

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

Learning to build a solar installation

2007-10-30T00:09:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-02T05:59:00.000-07:00

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

2007-04-02T14:53:00.000-07:00

.... 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

2007-03-03T11:23:00.000-08:00

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

2006-11-06T23:32:00.000-08:00

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

2006-10-03T10:58:00.000-07:00

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...

My current activities

2006-09-26T16:27:00.000-07:00

I'm currently insulating the tubes that are between my gaz based heating system and the water accumulator. I keep you posted on the result on the gaz consumption.

Collecting Organic waste: how does this work

2006-08-21T14:00:00.000-07:00

That's quite easy if you have someone taking care of weekly taking away the waste.

I have a small green can on my balcony, put the vegetables and other organic waste in it and throw that out in a bigger can that is taken away once a week. No special problem and a lot of kilograms of waste transformed into soil instead of burned in an incinerator.

What do I do currently as ecological things

2006-08-21T03:42:00.000-07:00

I try to do as much as possible in daily life but here are the major things. I would be interested in feedbacks on your favourite tricks.

Waste optimization

Separate glass
Separate organic waste
Separate PET/plastic when possible
Separate aluminum
Separate batteries
Use as much as possible accumulators and not batteries

Energy sparing

Eco light bubles. Cost 12x more, last 12x more and spare 70% of electricity
No car - use as much as possible public transportation
Completely turn off heating in the summer
Water reduction elements in sinks, shower, toilet
Shower and no bath

That's all for the moment, what I'm thinking about is:

Improve insulation of my apartment (roof insulation, ventilation instead of open windows)
Solar heating for warm water and/or electricity production

No car. Is this an option?

2006-08-20T23:03:00.000-07:00

18 months ago my wife had an accident with my car. She wasn't hurt but the car was destroyed. I decided to start the experiment of living without a car. Frankly up to now it proved to be cool. No stress for parking, for refuelling, for being stuck into traffic jams.

Ok now I will most probably soon have to buy one again because child n°2 is arriving in our lives. I'm thinking about buying a Toyota Aygo because it only burns 4.1L/100km in mixed mode (diesel version).

But think about it. Do you really need a car?

Save water and energy

2006-08-20T14:19:00.000-07:00

I started thinking lately, also because the energy prices are climbing, how to spare energy and fossil energy especially.

A friend of mine recommended me the following website. It's in Switzerland but I will try to find out about other countries.

The WWF is sponsoring a program for reduction of water consumption through specific gears to connect to your shower, sink or toilets. They are called Aqua-clic and can spare you up to 50% of your water (and what you use to heat it):

http://shop.wwf.ch/fr/category.cfm?uCat=135

I just installed the little stuff for the sink and the shower and ordered the reducers for the toilet. I will keep you posted on how much I spare.

My other blog: walter's finance blog

2006-08-20T14:08:00.000-07:00

Just a word about my other blog and why I think it related to this one: human beings got richer than ever in the last century and this due to market economy and finance. At the same time they pose now, due to uncontrolled resource usage, a threat like no other before to the planet.

As we say in French: let's not dump the baby with the bath water. Markets are not the problem and also not the solution but they helped people get more freedom than ever. Now they have to be responsible for themselves and the others.

walter's finance blog

Ecology for normal people

2006-08-20T13:42:00.000-07:00

My theory is that ecology is one of the most important things to defend in the world today but it is only possible if it is made possible for human beings and not only for perfect people.

That's why I start this blog. I would like to share what I do and hopefully get cool input from you on what you do for a better planet.