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More Rain Is Coming: Could Your Garden Capture 1,000 Litres Instead of Sending It Down the Drain?

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  More Rain Is Coming: Could Your Garden Capture 1,000 Litres Instead of Sending It Down the Drain? “The water you pay for next summer may be falling on your roof for free this autumn.” Most of us have become accustomed to thinking about rain as something to get rid of. It lands on the roof, runs into the gutter, disappears down a drain and, within a few minutes, we have forgotten all about it. Then six months later we can find ourselves standing in the garden with a hosepipe, using carefully treated mains drinking water to keep tomatoes, hanging baskets and vegetables alive. There is something slightly illogical about that. Perhaps we should start treating rainwater as a resource rather than a nuisance. And once you actually calculate how much water lands on an ordinary house, the numbers can be remarkably large. Start With One Very Simple Calculation Rainwater calculations are wonderfully straightforward. 1 mm of rain falling on 1 square metre = 1 litre of water. So: Potential wa...
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Repair It Before Winter: Ten Household Jobs That Become Expensive If You Ignore Them

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  Repair It Before Winter: Ten Household Jobs That Become Expensive If You Ignore Them A £5 Repair in September Can Become a £500 Problem in January There is a peculiar thing about household maintenance: the jobs we most regret ignoring are often the ones that originally looked too small to bother with. A tap drips. A gutter occasionally spills over. A door lets in a thin line of cold air. A little paint begins peeling from a wooden window frame. A thermostat behaves strangely, but only sometimes. None of these feels particularly urgent on a pleasant September afternoon. Then winter arrives. Rain finds its way behind the paint. Frost gets into cracks. The heating begins running every day. Gutters are overwhelmed by autumn leaves. Damp spreads. Pipes become vulnerable. A loose roof tile meets a December storm. Suddenly the five-minute repair has turned into something involving ladders, plumbers, builders and considerably more money. That is why early autumn is one of the best times ...
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Is Your House Secretly Using Electricity While You're Asleep?

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  Is Your House Secretly Using Electricity While You're Asleep? Your house doesn't go to sleep when you do—but perhaps more of it should. At three o'clock in the morning, most of us are using very little. We are not watching television. We are not cooking dinner. We are not working on the computer. The lights are mostly off. The kettle is cold and, hopefully, nobody is using the washing machine. Yet the electricity meter is still moving. Some of that electricity use is absolutely necessary. The fridge and freezer need to remain cold. A heating system may need to operate. Broadband may be supporting security cameras or other essential equipment. A home battery, inverter, alarm system or ventilation system may need to remain powered. But some electricity consumption is there simply because we have never thought about it. So here is a slightly different Going Green challenge: Find Out What Your House Is Doing at 3am Don't begin by buying anything. Don't order another c...
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Before You Turn the Heating Back On: Give Your Home an Autumn Energy MOT

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  Before You Turn the Heating Back On: Give Your Home an Autumn Energy MOT The cheapest unit of winter energy is the one your house doesn't need. September is a curious month. One day the windows are open and the afternoon still feels like summer. A few days later, you walk downstairs first thing in the morning and notice that unmistakable chill in the house. And then comes the temptation. Turn the heating on. There is nothing wrong with using heating when we need it. Going green should not mean sitting in a cold house wearing three jumpers and feeling miserable. But before we start paying to put heat into our homes again, perhaps we should spend an hour finding out how much of that heat is likely to stay there. That is the purpose of an Autumn Energy MOT . Not a major renovation. Not a £20,000 technology project. Not a lecture about replacing everything you own. Just a systematic walk around the house asking: Is my home ready to use energy efficiently this winter? Start Before the...
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