Green Piece - Energy saving gadgets
This week’s Green Piece sees three handy gadgets that will save you money on heating, electricity and batteries and will help the environment too.
First up is the wind-up remote control. It spells the end for those awkward sized batteries that nobody ever stocks and for that crucial moment when you go to use your remote and discover that the aforementioned batteries have run out.
According to WRAP, around 600 million UK household batteries (22,000 tonnes) – the equivalent weight of 110 Jumbo Jets – are sent to landfill unnecessarily every year, so this remote is definitely something to take seriously. It needs 30 ‘winds’ which will then last for seven days, which is pretty good going. It’s £24.95 but if you think about how many batteries you would go through, it’s not so bad.
The next product is something you can use in every room in your house to save you money on heating. It’s called a Radiator Booster and was once on Dragon’s Den. It sits on top of your radiators and takes all of the heat that gets released at the back of the radiator and uses clever fans to redirect it back into your room. It means that your house gets heated faster and that the heating can be switched off sooner.
At the moment, they’re £14.99 over at Nigel’s Eco Store and best of all, running costs are only about 30p a year.
Last is the waterproof torch that is charged up by shaking it. You shake it on down for 45 seconds and then you get five whole minutes of light…it does seem like a lot of work for five minutes but I guess it’s all part of the fun…and the energy saving, of course.
If you’re into science, the torch works with the help of a magnet. As you shake the torch, the magnet moves back and forth and generates an electric current. This current is then held in a holding cell so that you can still use the torch even if you haven’t wiggled it for a while. It’s a bargain at £5.99 and it has some good reviews too.
So there we have it, three great ways to help the environment and your wallets, especially useful now that energy costs are on the rise.
Tags: energy saving, Environment, Green, green piece, Living rooms, radiator booster, shake powered torch, wind up remote
Blog posted on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 1:31 pm under Environment, Green, gadgets. Leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.
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Adult Ühler Says:
June 29th, 2008 at 12:39 am
These are some pretty cool products. Even though the torch doesn’t have a great life, I think it would be useful if you are off camping and don’t have a supply of batteries.