Being Green in the Kitchen

Long await post about being green in the kitchen, this one is more than likely going to be a long one as I can think of so many way of being green in the kitchen.

Dishwasher

Now I know a lot of people worry that using a dishwasher is worse than hand washing but I have researched this in depth, and it turns out that no using a dishwasher on a ECO wash is cheaper and uses less electricity than hand washing.  But I would like to mention please remember to turn the plug off while not using it as this is use wasting energy that doesn't need to be wasted.

I found this article which works out how much energy and water you will use in a dishwasher vs hand washing

Water use, energy use, and carbon footprint
There are three big factors we'll consider: water use, energy use (for heating the water, largely), and the carbon footprint that results -- we'll save things like soap and dishwasher cooking for another post. And, of course, following energy-saving tips like running the "light" cycle and turning off the "heated drying" option will change the way the numbers work.

Built-in dishwasher efficiency
The average dishwasher uses 6 gallons of water per cycle; the average Energy Star-rated dishwasher uses 4 gallons per cycle, and their energy use ranges from 1.59 kWh per load down to 0.87 kWh per load. Using the Department of Energy's carbon dioxide emissions numbers of 1.34 pounds of CO2 per kWh, that's 1.16 to 2.13 pounds of carbon dioxide emitted per load, to go along with 4 gallons of water.

Energy Star assumes each load in a "standard" dishwasher (usually 24 inches in size) has "a capacity greater than or equal to eight place settings and six serving pieces," so we'll go with that when considering how many dishes need to be washed by hand.

Can hand washing be as efficient as dishwashing?
The short answer: maybe. First, let's look at water usage alone. The average faucet flows at 2 gallons per minute, so if you can successfully wash and rinse eight place settings -- plates, bowls, forks, knives, spoons, glasses, etc. -- and those six serving dishes that your dishwasher can handle without running the faucet for more than 2 total minutes, then, you might be better off hand-washing. Assuming you're washing 54 pieces of dishware (that's 48 pieces of dishware -- 6 pieces per setting -- and 6 serving dishes), you've got about 4.4 seconds of wide-open tap water per piece, or about 9.5 ounces of water to wash and rinse each dish.

Impacts of heating the water
Let's assume you use warm water for both washing and rinsing -- half hot water and half cold water. Heating 2 gallons of water with a gas hot water heater (from about 60 degrees as it enters your house to, say, 120 degrees, set by the thermostat on your hot water heater) takes about 960 BTUs, or about 0.9% of one therm (100,000 BTUs), assuming 100 percent efficiency.
Gas storage tank water heaters
Gas water-heaters are usually more like 65 percent efficient, so it really takes 1477 BTUs, or about 1.5 percent of a therm, to heat that water. One therm emits 11.7 pounds of CO2, according to the EPA (pdf), so heating the water with gas for each 2-gallon load emits about .17 pounds of carbon dioxide.

On-demand (or tankless) water heaters are closer to 80 percent efficient, which changes the numbers a bit; it works out to about 1200 BTUs, or about .14 pounds of carbon dioxide.
Electric storage tank water heaters
The story is a bit different when considering an electric water heater; while most electric water heaters use between 86 and 93 percent of their energy for heat (compared to between 60 and 65 percent for gas), electric heaters aren't as efficient at heating water. It still takes 960 BTUs to heat that much water; it just takes about .28 kWh (since, according to the EIA, 1 kWh equals 3412 BTUs) to heat 2 gallons of water at 100 percent efficiency, or about .30 kWh at 93 percent efficiency. Each kWh emits 1.715 pounds of CO2, on average (thank you, EPA), so heating water with electricity for each 2-gallon load emits about .51 pounds of CO2.
Built in dishwasher vs. hand-washing: And the winner is...
These numbers indicate that it's possible to be more efficient when hand-washing, but it's pretty tough. Can you successfully wash and rinse a soiled dinner plate in just over a cup of water? If you can keep the water use low, equal to an efficient machine, you'll require less energy, but doing an entire load of dishes in 4 gallons of water is roughly equivalent to doing them all in the same amount of water you use in 96 seconds of showering (using a showerhead that emits 2.5 gallons per minute).

So, as long as you don't often run your dishwasher when it's only half full of dirty dishes, or unless you are very miserly with your water use (or have an old, inefficient dishwasher), the automatic dishwasher is likely to be more efficient. That is to say, it's possible to use less water and energy by hand washing your dishes, but it's not easy. Of course, if you do it just right, it might just be a wash.

More information at treehugger.com

Cleaning Products

Now I have mentioned this before down in the being green in the bathroom but cleaning product are an large impact on the world, using more organic, more natural products is always best, the only issue that gets me if the price, I understand why that have to be more expensive because it is not just chemicals like the cheaper brands but I wish they would bring it down a little bit as not all of us have money to burn.

Pet related

This one is a tough due to the fact it has taken me forever to find cat litter than is not going to kill the environment, I have tried loads of cat litter for one I hate the clumping ones as they take forever to clean (which wastes water, cleaning product and not to mention it smells), I have gone for a one at the  moment which is little tubs of old wood shavings, the think I like about it the most is the fact when the cat goes to the bathroom the little tubs disappear a leave what I can only describe as sawdust (kind of like a hamster cage lining) but it does have a nice pine smell and lasts longer so you don't use as much saving money and saving time.  If you can go for an eco cat litter it is nicer for the cat and for your noses.

Cat food tins wash out, I know it is a huge pain but if you have one cat or three like myself you will end up going through at least one tin a day, with mine it is two tins a day (I swear Onion steals everyone else's food but I can't prove it!), I did try putting these through the dishwasher but everything smelled of cat food so now I have to hand wash them with bleach as well as washing up liquid, please use a different wash cloth as it is not nice otherwise.

Also check out Eco-Me Cat Kit Natural Tool Kit, you can make your own cat litter and flea spray, also cat treats, I might have to give this one ago.

Recycling

I am huge on recycling, lucky for me my council provide me little pink bags which I put out every week, what I have found is a lot of items can be recycled, in my household we have one bin for rubbish and one for recycling, my mother is even better and has a bin for vegetable ends, egg shells and other organic food matter which she puts in her compost down at the end of the garden.  I haven't got a huge garden more like the size of postage stamp but I could fit a small one in my mother informs me.

Having two bins really saves me the headache of having to keep the bag somewhere, since recycling (I even have my husband doing it who told me it was a waste of time) we hardly but out much black bin bag rubbish.

Growing your own Vegetables

See I tried this last year but only managed to grow a cucumber and some herbs, my mother on the other hand split half her garden into her vegetable and fruit patch and grew so much, loads of leeks (I love leeks), but this year I am going to grown my own carrots, potatoes and leeks plus the normal amount of herbs, I'll have to update you about this later in the year.  I think growing your own vegetables doesn't take a lot of work but it is so pleasing to see them grow even for me growing anything makes me happy and I suck at gardening in general, I get the husband to do it for me.  Even if you don't' have a garden just a small balcony you could grow new potatoes in big pots.

General Tips

• Don't over fill the kettle


• Don't waste food


• Bulk cook where you can


• Make your own lunches


• Re-use items where you can


• Turn the lights off when you leave a room


• Re-use packaging


• Use energy efficient


• Only wash full loads this goes for the washing machine, dishwasher and the tumble dyer

Next week I am covering female products and make-up :)  Sorry I haven't been around so much uni has me all tied up.

Alive

I am alive :) It is 4 weeks before the end of Spring term so all the assignments have been coming out, so I have been so busy with them oh and my driving lessons are going really well right now, fingers crossed I'll pass at the end of April. I had to cut the lessons down to one a week while all this crazy university work is going on but in my holiday I am going back up to three a week!

My week is a little bit crazy at the moment, here is my schedule:

Monday - up at 6am, lessons from 9am till 3pm then home again (must add it takes me a total of 4 hours to get to and from university).
Tuesday - up at 6am again, lessons from 9am till 4pm, home again
Wednesday - all day university work, from 8am till 9pm at night I am getting worn out
Thursday - up at 6am again, lessons 10am till 3pm
Friday - driving lesson and more university work
Saturday/Sunday - university work, housework and all that fun stuff

I am so tired from all the university work I have to do, and it is all I do 24/7 well apart from sleeping of course. Drama the other day husband fell down a flight of stairs at the train station landing on his tail hone, he was in so much pain he couldn't move all evening had to lie on the bed, I thought we would have to go to hospital but he seems to be okay now still can't walk very fast, has pain here and there but looks like he has just bruised it, I hope anyway.

Other news we had a power cut yesterday, no power for two hours and I was in the middle of doing an assignment and the computer went "bing" and everything went out, the thing that annoyed me the most was there was no information on the helpline it kept just telling me that knew about the problems, pfft!

I'm off to do some more assignment or sleep or watch Big Bang Theory (just finish How I met your mother all 5 seasons, so good!!), a green kitchen post tomorrow since I had to clean my kitchen for two hours today.

Getting Green in the bathroom

So after having all this work done on my bathroom, I thought I could go through ways of being green in the bathroom, I'll slowly move to other rooms in the house ;) when I chance of course.

The bathroom normally uses a lot of energy also a lot of money due to the fact you can normally have your washing machine in there, all hair related items (hair dryers), toilet and of course the bath/shower, anything that uses gas or electricity. (NOTE,  Normally plugs outside of the bathroom also you might have a separate cleaning area for the washing machine and laundry).

Cleaning Products

First I would start with cleaning products better for the environment, sometimes more expensive but they do reduce potential allergens, and toxic cleaning products have been linked to childhood wheezing and asthma. In the UK our main green cleaning products is ecover, which smells good, my parents have been using it for years, I have started to recently. What I find about the products sometimes you might have to scrub a little bit harder but other than that no difference.

Home-made solutions to cleaning products:

Scrubbing sinks, tubs, and counter tops with a paste of baking soda and water effectively removes dirt rings and some stains; if that doesn't work, try a paste of washing soda and water, and be sure to wear gloves.

For cleaning windows, fill your own spray bottle with water and either one-quarter cup white vinegar or one tablespoon lemon juice to cut grease.

Polish furniture with a mixture of one teaspoon olive oil and one-half cup white vinegar, or look for solvent-free products that use mineral or plant oils.

Washing Machines

Now we all know that washing machines use a lot of water and even more so if you have a baby or a young family, now I have tried a few different types to save money.
First one was this soapnuts, now it says this about them:

Soapnuts (Sapindus Mukorossi) are grown in India and Nepal, harvested in a sustainable way in October from 15m high trees. The soapnuts are sticky and golden in colour when removed changing to reddish brown when dried. Soapnut shells contain saponin (a natural detergent) and when they come in contact with water they make mild suds. Soapnuts are a natural, organic, environmentally friendly alternative to soap, detergent and shampoo.

Which I thought would be an amazing idea, and I was keen on them, I tried them so many times but they did not work for me which was really disappointing.  I personally think it was because my husband (who I adore) is a little overly sweaty.
At the moment I am trying ECOZONE - ECOBALLS which are two balls contains these natural pellets, they are hypoallergenic and only cost 7p a wash.  So far with these I have had clean smelling washing.

Some other home-made solutions to washing machine cleaning related:

To remove stains from clothing, try soaking fabrics in water mixed with borax, lemon juice, hydrogen peroxide, washing soda, or white vinegar. Or, look for "non-chlorine bleach" made from sodium percarbonate or sodium perborate, available from Bio Pac, Ecover, Naturally Yours, Shaklee, or Seventh Generation.

Fabric can be softened by adding one-quarter cup of baking soda to the wash cycle; this recently worked on several pairs of catalogue-bought cargo pants made of a cardboard-stiff cotton that literally scraped a teenager's skin. A quarter cup of white vinegar will also soften fabric, as well as eliminate cling.

Toilet

It was not until I had an issue with my toilet that I realised how much it costs me to run my toilet about £500 in six months just from the toilet alone, it was leaking day and night.

Now I would recommend to everyone that you get what is called a hippo bag they are normally free from your water company, you place them in your toilet inside the cistern under the ballcock and fill up with water while you are flushing, this saves about 3 litres of water when flushing.

Bathing/Showering

As they always say to save money and water have a shower, we had one fitted recently and it is amazing how much less water you use, I am hoping that the bill will show how much it is saving plus it takes less time and the water stays hot the whole way through washing.

Ideas around this one is to have a low-flow shower head and if you have a shower curtain use a vinyl one instead.

Paint

Now see I didn't think of this one so much it wasn't until I was researching that I came across this one, according to it you should use paint with a low volatile organic compounds (VOC) label as it is not so toxic.  I guess I will have to try this one out when I get around to re-painting the bathroom.

Also another idea is the normal one replace light bulbs with energy savings ones.

Links of interest:

• http://www.ecozone.com/


• http://www.twinkleontheweb.co.uk/


• http://www.hippo-the-watersaver.co.uk/

Whoa long post, okay next week I'll move onto the kitchen area.

Bathroom 80% done?

So the bathroom is nearly done, so about 80% done right now, we have bathroom chocolate brown floor tiles, they look so pretty, but it will be 100% once my washing machine area isn't done yet!


Husband took of the wooden bath side because he wants to protect it was the shower water so we have to paint it Saturday.

Cats are not impressed by these tiles, I think they find it cold on their paws.  Oh that is Arthur btw :)

They are great tiles though :)

Oh and I did get a quote for my kitchen and it was this much:

Seriously!!! How much, this is just crazy, most of it is people coming and fitting it, £700 for just unpacking the boxes and building the units, I think we are going to look else where but this is my favourite bit the designs! I love so I will show a private kitchen fitter and another diy store.

How pretty is it?? I want it!! I love it, it would change my life :P Ha ha my husband was like we will get your kitchen before the summer :) we are just looking for a cheaper price, hopefully for about 3grand, fingers crossed.  Do you like it?

I got a nice present from my mother-in-law, a slow cooker, I have wanted one for ages, so I am so pleased with it.  I am finding this blog hard to write since two of my cats have decided I MUST cuddle them right this second.

I got excited news from my driving teacher thinks I should go for my test at  the end of April which way earlier than I thought, so I am so excited!  The issues with uni are being sorted out at the moment I have to go for my meeting next Friday, I know who else is involved and I know the story behind it now so I am pretty sure that I am not going to get into huge trouble but now typing that I will get into HUGE trouble.

I have been watching TTC vblogs on youtube and I would like to do this when we start in about 8 months time, counting down and all that, we are super excited, we refer to our non-baby as Daisy as that is what we would call a little girl if we have one or Jessie for a boy.  My husband would really like a girl, we were discussing if we would want to know the sex and at first we didn't want to know but now I think it would be a good idea if we did but the husband still doesn't want to know but I am sure he will change his mind when the situation appears :P

Oh but I have been checking my cycles and ovulation, I am testing on the 19th of this month just so I know how to go about it when we do start trying in 8 months, I want to be a pro at this when we get down to the "baby dance".

Other than that I have been working really hard on my uni work, so that is pretty much an update for me this week :)

Hop, Skip and it is February?

My bathroom is still being upgraded so to speak, the floor tiles are going down on Monday, as the moment the carpet has been ripped off and the horrible sticky back plastic floor in the mini hallway has gone, the tiles have been cut but we have had issues with the washing machine, my step-dad and me could not find a way to move it through the door as some idiot before us had painted the pipes and we can't get it off but lucky for me my step-dad came around again today and managed to get them loose.  All I have to do is move a few more bits and we can get it out of the bathroom so it can be tiles, hurrah!  Might be finished at the end of next week :) So excited!!!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="180" caption="View as you look into the bathroom"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="162" caption="The mini hallway floor"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="162" caption="No bath side"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="180" caption="Pipes free of paint!"][/caption]

Also I have no bathroom or airing cupboard doors, oh joys!  Other exciting news, the kitchen fitter man came about an hour and half ago now and took the measurements for the kitchen, so I should see how much it is costing and have a picture will I will show you, I am so excited!!!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="240" caption="End of January Goals Update"][/caption]

So these are my goals a month after starting, main one is money, and it going well so far, I have already paid for 30 hours of driving lessons so now it is car fund as in the car itself and the test, very exciting!! I would like to be up to a grand by now in the savings, it should be my the end of the week or so once I have cleared some cheques.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="240" caption="Present"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="240" caption="Shiny PSP!!! WOOOHOOO!"][/caption]

My husband got me this surprise present the other day as random gift :) It was a PSP, I have wanted one for so long as the husband has one and I wanted to watch TV Shows on the way back from you :) I love it, needs a bigger memory card.

Other than that I have had this horrible cold, first I went deaf then I had this horrible cough and runny nose, now I keep going to faint and dizzy... urgh I want it to end.  And I have started my project on php for uni it is a to-do list and I am rather enjoying it ha ha! OOoooh and I have brought back my flickr account, yay!