How businesses can save energy and resources

How businesses can save energy

I have thought for a while there are many ways businesses could save energy and resources, some of which are quite simple but not yet in use so maybe UN-thought of so far.

Escalators travelators and lifts

Firstly this applies to travelators and escalators, you see these in shopping centres, high street stores as well as supermarkets. They are on constantly and never stop, so here they can save a big chunk of money by having sensors fitted to them. If you go to a till and put your shopping on the belt it stops at a point when a sensor is tripped next to the cashier. This system could be fitted to escalators and travelators so they only run when people want/do use them.

It would no doubt involve some more technology compared to the sensors on the belts at the checkouts because its more like an on switch sensor rather than an off switch sensor fitted to the belts at checkouts. There would need to be things in place so that they wouldn't stop while people are using them and also its probably best that they are allowed to continue to run for a short period of time after people get off them to be sure everyone has got off and allow people to get on, so they're not stopping and starting over and over for short periods of time.

Lifts

Lifts have shut off's as they are and then switch back on when the lift is called to move the elevator to the floor required, they have lighting in lifts that i believe is on constantly in most lifts, this could be switched off when the lift hasn't been used for a certain length of time.

That's it for now more to follow. +Energy Saving Trust

For the best roast potatoes this christmas

Best roast potatoes

For the best roast potatoes These are by far the best option with minimal effort. Peel and cut or just cut, put in the oven with vegetable/sunflower oil nothing else needed, not even meat juices so suitable for vegitarians also. Brilliant results every time.

These are available now and for the next few months, every year i wait for them to become available again as i love my roast potatoes and you cant beat these. I have tried many potatoes over the years for roasties including the top brands and these win every time for taste and satisfaction.

+Asda +Potatoes

Wood and building material reclaim centres

Wood reclaim centres

Instead of going to your local diy store for timber why not look for wood reclaim centres or building material reclaimed items you can often pick up what you want thats used or things that have not been used by builders (excess stock) it can save you a fair bit of money

+Building Materials

UK Energy Prices (what they dont tell you)

Mains gas the con (UK Energy Prices) & electric

There is a big con in gas prices for mains gas and many of you may be paying it thinking your on a good tariff. You pay a unit price and often that is split into 2 rates but many of you dont know about this. You get a high rate and a low rate e.g. 9p per unit high rate and 5p per unit low rate.

Often you need to use thousands of units before you start paying the low rate and often its the case you will never get onto the low rate at all. Unit usage before going onto low rate varies from  1000 to 2500 units, now i checked my unit usage for a year on my yearly statement (by the way i wasnt on one of these dual tariff's i was on a single rate and no standing charge) and i had used 948 units in a year. If i were on a dual tariff id have been ripped off big time.

Here's what you can do, find out your unit usage for a year on your bill/statement or if you havent got it then ring your supplier see if they can give you the figure. Next find out what the rates are, single tarrif or dual tariff and any standing charge. Now goto a price comparison site and enter the figures to get some results, note down the results of the best ones and dont use the site any further, go and check their websites e.g. british gas etc.

Now here's some things to take into account, first if your on a single rate tarrif it is usually slightly higher than the low rate on a dual tariff e.g. low rate 5p single rate 6p. This may be more as i suggest but if you work out the figures for the high rate you will find the single tariff is cheaper in the longrun. Now check for a standing charge, i think its best to not have one but there may be single tariff rates that are better but include a standing charge. Work out the figures as you may be better off with a standing charge and a lower single rate tarrif.

A lot of companies use dual tariff's and dont tell you unless you ask. Its worth checking what your tariff(s) are and if you can save money by switching. There are several comparison sites online such as uswitch that you can get the information you need. I know it takes a while to switch, 6 to 8 weeks which is annoying but it would be worth it especially if your being ripped off at the moment.

We all want to try and save energy but we need to keep warm too, the chances are if you find the right company and switch (or stay on your current one if its the best) the chances are you wont switch again for years or maybe even never if they stay good.

NEVER be swayed by things like earn clubcard points, cold calling you at the door and on the phone, if they seem convincing tell them you will think about it and do a bit of research. For me its often that these sort of things are a con and you end up paying more for your gas in order to get these bonuses.

If a company says they can save you say £100 a year and your on a Card meter (or not) think about it, £100 shared by 52 weeks is £1.90 a week which isnt a bad saving but it depends how you look at it, for me any less than that its not worth bothering with to switch companies. For example say you saved £52 a year thats £1 a week it hardly breaks the bank so its not worth it in my opinion.

Foot note electricity prices

Electricity is easier to work out usually it consists of a unit rate and with or without a standing charge, you can use the above info and apply it to electric prices.

I hope this helps some of you save a bit of money and im pleased to write this article above to explain a few things about energy prices. Be aware some information may or may not be correct, this article is a generalisation, and its something you probably wont find to read elsewhere online as its too detailed.You will usually just find unit prices standing charges and savings but this is the things they dont  show you.

Thanks for reading +UK Energy Saving +uSwitch

why keep buying tin openers?

Why do people keep buying tin openers

This has always puzzled me why people keep buying manual tin openers, they're hard work and often break so you need to buy a new one. They cost anything from £1 upo maybe £7? why not buy an electric one? ive had a Kenwood one for years now and its brilliant and it cost around £15

Here is the one i have:

You can get them in shiny chrome or white is a bit cheaper. Not only is it a can opener but its a bottle opener as you can see on the front. On the rear it has a knife sharpener too which i regularly use. So why spend a couple of quid every few months or longer and have the hard work of opening tins when you can make it easier. you will save money in the long run not having to buy a new tin opener.

be aware cheaper electric tin openers in my opinion are not as good and wont last so don't skimp on this get a good quality one and it will last you years. I have had mine at least 4 years maybe a bit more and its still going strong. +Kenwood UK +Tin Opener

I'm A Celebrity

I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here

Anyone watch it? i woke up in the middle of the night and thought of an idea, maybe stupid or could be genius! Why not do a show called im NOT a celebrity get me out of here? involve uk residents in the show just like the celebrities. +Jennifer Baker

Survey site do surveys for vouchers

Toluna survey website

I have been a member of +Toluna  for several years now and i do surveys sent to me via email and polls on the website to accumulate points. There's no limit to what you can do and you can do as much or as little as you want. You accumulate points to get vouchers or you can use them for prize draw entries also. click here to visit Toluna.

There are no gains from referring people but the surveys and online polls are very good, I have tried many survey sites over the years and this is one of very few i still use. The reason i still use it is the survey's are regular as are the polls for points. You can also start your own topics and poll's to get you some points but read the FAQ's.

If you do decide to join on the home page put your cursor over explore menu and choose sponsored content. Here you can earn small amounts of points to top up your points total and the more you do the quicker you get enough for a voucher. If you did 5-10 mins a day for a month you would get enough for a £15 voucher, They do love to shop vouchers which are high street vouchers.

The time to get vouchers is 4-6 weeks which is a bit of a downside but if your only spending a few minutes a day on this site its worth it. You can choose to just build up your points for higher value vouchers, you decide when to cash your points so you could build them up as much as you want.

Survey points can take some time to credit to your account but this is the same with all survey sites, with Toluna this is reasonable. Some survey's screen you out early others can get you samples of products to test. There is also a test area in the rewards menu that you can apply to test products.

Top quality Duvet Goose Down

Goose down duvet

I purchased a goose down duvet from littlewoods.com about a year ago now and i thought its about time to recommend it. A year has passed with no problems whatsoever, the title is Hotel Collection Goose Down Duvet and can be viewed here I thought it best to give you the title, just in case they stop stocking them so you could look elsewhere. You may want to look elsewhere due to the price, as you know buying from a catalogue prices are more expensive than elsewhere usually.

Here are the details taken from the description:

'Experience five-star comfort every night of the week with this luxurious duvet from Hotel Collection.

Combining crisp cotton cambric with deep, fluffy goose down, it provides all the warmth without the weight, allowing your body to breathe during the night.

Available in three tog ratings, plus an all-season's version - with this you get one lightweight duvet for the summer and a weightier one for spring and autumn.

These can be joined together to make a 13.5 tog duvet that will see you warmly through the winter months.

Key info:
Hotel Collection goose down duvet
100% cotton cambric
Indulgent goose down
Light and breathable
Co-ordinating products available separately

 Cover: Cotton. Filling: 90% goose down, 10% goose feather. Professional cleaning recommended.'

Littlewoods.com 2012

Now what appealed to me most was that it contained 90% goose down and 10% goose feather. As many of you know lots of quilts with feathers tend to poke through, which is annoying and uncomfortable. The quilt i ordered was £103 (expensive yes but should last a lifetime) and 10.5 tog. There has never been any feathers poking through at all so big plus point for me. 

I have washed the quilt a few times in the washing machine with no issues, however professional cleaning is recommended. You can tumble dry the quilt but you need to be VERY CAREFUL! and i will explain why. The quilt material itself will dry quickly however the down and feathers will dry slowly in a tumble drier so if you just put it in there and wait for it to dry you could end up with a FIRE! Luckily i knew this problem could occur before i decided to wash it so i was already prepared. My advice though is ideally you shouldnt use a tumble drier but if you have no option then this is what you could do:

Tumble the Quilt for 20 mins max, allow it to fully cool down to a cold temperature before you put the tumble drier on again. By this i mean the tumble drier must cool right down as well as the quilt. DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK! I wont take any responsibility for any problems you have washing and drying your quilt, i am merely providing people with tips which may or may not work. Its a long process but it worked for me, bear in mind washing machines and tumble driers vary.

I find this quilt warmer than the cheap hollow fibre quilts, it is quite thin though but i am comparing it to hollow fibre and also quilts with mostly feather in them. I think because its mostly down which is  the fluffy part it seems and looks thinner in comparison but dont let this put you off. The cotton material of the quilt has a good thickness to it so it should help it last.

This quilt is expensive but it will last years and it was worth paying the extra because it will no doubt outlast at least 2 hollow fibre quilts without a doubt, maybe even more.

+Littlewoods 

Random: Do not operate heavy machinery whilst taking this medicine

Do not operate heavy machinery whilst taking this medicine

You see this on lots of medicines, now this would mean things like power tools and machines in factories etc but what about your car? its not exactly machinery as such, but it is heavy and it has an engine/motor

Im sure theres plenty more such as a computer, it is a machine it is heavy also can you operate it?

What really defines heavy machinery? its not like it says how heavy, its not like it defines what heavy machinery is. People would say its obvious or its common sense but think outside of the box be creative with what it actually says.

+Medicine Community +Anti Biotics

Repairing internal house moulded/flat panel doors

Repairing Internal Doors

First we must establish the type of doors you have, this post is for moulded or panel hollow doors some pictured below

moulded hollow panel door

Flat panel hollow door

Now both the above type doors are hollow, and the way they are made is with a wood frame made out of solid wood then they have thin panels glued onto the frames to make your door. Its quite a simple cheap design and its effective.

Now if  your not sure if your doors are like these ones look below at the picture

What your seeing here is a flat panel door at the bottom, this is usually what happens the panels come away from the frame of the door. just to clarify we are not talking about the door frame thats fixed to the wall we are talking about the door's wood frame that its made up of. You may need to take some paint off the side of the door to see the panel  edges if your panels haven't come away like the one pictured.

Repairing the doors

Ok so in this picture we could easily repair this door and fix the panel's back on to the door's frame by simply using some wood glue or pva (same thing really) and glue the panels back on. To hold it in place you can use some tape so it stays in place then remove it when the glue has dried and your done.

In another scenario you may have a hole in the panel(s) and your thinking right i need a new door now but no you can still repair the door without it costing you much money at all and all you need to do is get down to your local diy store B&Q, homebase etc or maybe a timber yard.

In a diy store they sell whats called hardboard. The thickness is 3mm which is how thick the panels are, one side is smooth (can be bought in plain hardboard or white) and the other side resembles a # and it is rough. Unfortunately (looking at the first picture of the moulded door) i dont think you can get moulded door panels only flat hardboard.

Obviously you need to measure the door and take into account you need 1 panel per side, so make sure you get some the size you need or bigger. Now this job can be done with the doors hanging up but would be easier to do it with the door flat on a table or something.

You need to cut the hardboard to fit the door's frame, do so while the door is still intact cut the panel a bit bigger than the existing one so you have a bit spare to work with. once cut a little bigger than the door remove the existing panel. Be aware though some doors can be uneven at the top, bottom and sides so make sure you measure length and width in more than 1 place.

With the panel removed place your cut panel onto the door's frame where you took off the old panel, now this next bit can be done in many different ways depending on what tools you have etc but i will give you some examples.

Either tack the panel to the door and cut it using a saw and finish off the edges with a file, then once you have it all done glue the panel on and remove the tacks and fill/paint over the holes left. If your doing it this way i suggest you use nails with a flat head so you can prize them back out when you need to. The other method is to either tack and glue or just glue down the panel and once done, cut the panel to fit and finish off with a knife and/or file.

Once your done here you can paint the panel if it was plain hardboard or if you got the white type you can just leave it.

Some tips to help you

When you glue down the panel you can either use clamps to hold it together until it dries or tacks or both. If you haven't got either you can use just plain selotape to hold the panel to the door's frame. Be careful what tape you use as you could end up leaving tape residue behind and having a mess to clean up after.

The moulded door's as pictured can be repaired but you will need to change them to a flat panel, you are looking at spending under £10 to repair a door where as if you buy a new one you could pay anything from £25 upwards.

The things you need are below some obviously optional

Hardboard 3mm thick
Tape Measure
Pencil/pen
A saw
Knife
Wood file
Screwdriver(s)
Hammer
Tacks/nails
Pva glue
Clamps
Selotape

I think that covers all bases, remember some of these things are optional and some can be substituted with other things. I hope this helps some people out to get an easy cheap repair for very little money

+Do It Yourself Projects

How to find out how to do diy jobs

How to do DIY jobs

If you want to tackle a DIY job and you dont know how theres 2 things you can do which cost nothing. The first is www.youtube.com  where people post up video's of how to do things. You may not always find what you want here but its worth looking. The other is common sense really but some people dont think about using a search engine like google you can actually type things in for exactly what you want or use key words.

Here are some examples you could use for finding out how to wallpaper

how to wallpaper
putting up wall paper
wall paper hanging tips

Try full sentences and just keywords, sometimes you get too many results or too little so try lots of different words and sentences before you give up. It usually all works out in the end. the other option is to use forums or groups or even facebook to ask people about doing jobs, there is a huge range of people who use forums and work in lots of different trades. You dont need to goto a specific place e.g. you may want to build a wall but you could post up a question on say a car forum as there may be someone on there that is a builder.

The key is if you dont ask you dont get, and if you dont search you wont find

Thanks for reading +YouTube +Google +Facebook+

Painting with gloss

Painting with gloss

If your painting with white gloss paint e.g. skirting boards, door frames etc then put a coat of white matt emulsion on first then you will only need 1 coat of gloss paint

+dulux paints +B&Q +Homebase

Tip for today

So here's a random tip, why not use some car polish on the tiles in your bath/shower, this way water runs off the tiles very easily. Be careful what car polish you use though it should either be white or a cream colour polish, the reason why is the last thing you want is a colour polish sticking to your grout.

+Bathstore +car Polish +GW Car Polishing Services

Christmas shopping

Christmas Shopping

Well its soon upon us again Christmas! everyone's out shopping, car parks packed isles in shops all busy and everyone's buying anything and everything. Here are some Christmas tips you may want to use regarding shopping, some of you may already know this stuff but its good advice all the same.

First off getting a good deal...

When your shopping especially for gifts you tend to know where to buy something or know which shops you want to visit to buy your gifts. What you should do is think about the prices and not just pick up something and thats the be all and end all.

Prepare before you go out go online, search shops and even auction sites! Curry's Argos, Amazon, Ebay, The Perfume Shop, Superdrug, Boots, Tesco Asda, Sainsbury's and the list goes on. Many sites these days allow you to reserve and collect, which saves a heap of time especially if you find what you want.

Stock can be checked online and reserved so its a case of reserve, in the shop goto the till get your goods and out again. Now i know some people like to look around the shops but if you get the main gifts out of the way then you got more time to walk around the shops if thats what you want.

Are you getting the best price.....

Some things you buy are not always the best price, sometimes there is a significant difference in prices anything upto 50% difference. Consider shopping online, some goods (sometimes alternatives to what you want) are cheaper to buy online and get delivered to your door without you leaving the house. Think of transport cost to and from the shops and then all that time you take shopping and then you may be paying more than you should be. 


I find Ebay and even the big retailers can sell things at a much cheaper price than in the shops, this is usually down to bulk buying and lower overheads. Even small things can be cheaper online than in store, below are some random things found cheaper online.

3m HDMI lead in a store £9.99 - £14.99, Ebay store cheapest £2.99 including delivery.

Mobile phone battery in store £15 - £30 Ebay £1.25

Everbuild Forever White Grout Reviver Arctic White - 200ml B&Q £6.99 Ebay £3.60

This is just a few examples there are 100's more.

Buy Early.....

Remember if you buy online you need to buy early! some people buy things from Hong Kong and other far away places these days because there is an increasing number of people advertising goods very cheaply direct from manufacturers or sales agents. This doesnt apply so much to bigger stores but leave some extra time just in case things dont arrive. 


Grocery shopping....

Why not do the bulk of your grocery shopping online? i know a lot of them charge for delivery (except iceland and maybe some others) but rates range from approx £2.50 to £6. There are some things you like to choose yourself for example you might want to pick your own turkey or joint of meat. Doing grocery shopping online saves you money, time and stress!


Thats all for now any feedback appreciated. +Christmas Holiday Season +shopping online

Intro

I decided it was time i start my own blog, a few people have said to me for years, you should start a website but a website is way too much work so i decided to start a blog instead and here it is.

its called a bit ov everything (ov = of couldnt get the link i wanted). this is just the start, i know its not much but the ball is now rolling. +Blogger