There are a great many ways that you can help in saving the environment. On average,
we would have to plant 30 trees per person per year to be able to counteract the amount of carbon we pump out into the atmosphere just from normal daily living. Since that is not exactly viable, there are a number of simple changes you can make to your lifestyle which can help the environment as well as saving you money. If you teach your children, friends and family to change their lifestyles, everyone will benefit and hopefully global warming and climate change will slow down:
- Try not to use the car too often. Either car-share, or do your shopping once a week and walk as often as you can.
- Buy local fruit and vegetables which are in season, rather than buy ones that have been imported.
- Don’t buy over-packaged products and take your own bags to the supermarket, rather than use their plastic, throw-away ones. Re-use, reduce and recycle as much as possible.
- Switch off lights when you leave a room and turn off anything electrical that is not in use. That includes any electrical item that you usually leave on stand-by.
- Use candle light more often. This can not only be romantic, but saves on electricity. Use energy-saving light bulbs wherever you can.
- Only put as much water in the kettle as you need.
- Defrost your fridge/freezer regularly as it will work more efficiently and use less electricity if it is not frozen up.
- Turn down the central heating a couple of degrees. You will probably not notice the difference, but it will make a significant saving in electricity used.
Solar Power
Have you thought how much electricity you would save if you installed solar power? Even if you just installed a hot water system, you would end up saving thousands of units of electricity and more importantly perhaps, you would save thousands of euros. There are various systems on the market and if you can sort out the paperwork, there are even grants available from the local authorities.
Many people living in the ‘campo’ only have solar power or generators and the systems are getting better all the time. You can run as little as lights and the television, to all your electrical needs by solar power and of course there are wind turbines to consider as well. There are numerous companies advertising these facilities and it is always a good idea to get a couple of quotes before you finally decide on which system to install.