A Green Future?
It is rather unfortunate that the participants of the climate conference recently held in Copenhagen could not reach an agreement on the very crucial issue of C02 emissions. Instead of looking to world leaders for advice and guidance there are certain things we can do ourselves in order to address the global warming issue, help the environment and save some money in the process:
1) Use less electricity. The average Polish family uses 1,700 kilowatt hours at a yearly cost of PLN 600. That translates into an emission of 1.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. In the West it is half that amount – not due to the fact that we use more electricity but rather that the Polish energy industry is dependent upon coal which is the most ‘emissive’ type of fuel. Electricity costs are due to maintain a rising trend which is all the more reason to try to use less.
2) Do the little things like not leaving the television set in stand-by mode; it is much better to turn it off completely. The same goes for leaving cell phone chargers in the wall socket for too long. It is also advisable to purchase a new refrigerator if the one we have is more than 10 years old. Modern ones are much more energy-saving than their older counterparts.
3) Replace old windows because most heat is lost here. An important factor is the heat permeability coefficient: the higher it is, the better the protection against heat loss.
4) Limit the amount of water you use. In the past, 70% of all our heat-related expenses were heating costs, the remaining 30% hot water costs. Nowadays, it is the other way around: water and sewage costs have gone up significantly. This is one of the reasons why we should invest in a perlator, a device that increases the amount of air in the water so that less water is used in a certain period of time.
5) Consider eco-friendly technologies and raw materials when building a new house so that it is not so dependent on heat energy. German and Swedish energy-saving standards are the ones we should adopt. Research clearly shows that in the long run they lead to considerable cost savings.
Gazeta Wyborcza
