On 16 /17 April we carried out a lightbulb ‘Pepsi’ challenge at Bluewater Shopping Centre to see if the public could tell the difference between traditional and Energy Saving Recommended lightbulbs.

For the experiment two identical booths were specially built each with a lounge – one lit with a traditional light bulb and one lit with an energy saving one. 

Members of the public were then asked to enter each of the booths for ten seconds and tell us whether they could tell which one contained the energy saving lightbulb, and which one they preferred.

Out of 761 shoppers, 53 per cent either got it wrong or could not spot the difference, despite 70 per cent of shoppers being confident that they would be able to spot the energy efficient lightbulb before they did the test.  The shoppers were not told whether they had guessed right, but 64 per cent of people claimed to prefer the light produced by the energy efficient light bulb.

I think the results are extremely encouraging and go to show just how much the quality of light from energy efficient lightbulbs has improved since they were first introduced.  Not only that, but there are now a far wider range of energy efficient bulbs available, including dimmers. The days of bulky, ugly looking energy efficient bulbs, which gave poor light quality are long gone.   Clearly, the public have had their own ‘lightbulb’ moment too, with sales of energy efficient lightbulbs jumping from 10 million in 2006 to 21 million in 2007.

The environmental and financial benefits of energy efficient lighting are significant too. If you changed all of your remaining bulbs to Energy Saving Recommended ones then over the course of their lifetime they will save you over £600 and 2.7 tonnes of CO2.

Whilst at Bluewater Shopping Centre, we made a short video about the lightbulb challenge, which you can view below:

Well late last week it finally arrived.  The first concept car with a plug less plug-in battery.  I won’t begin to try and explain the technology (you will be delighted to discover), but basically the difference between this and normal hybrids is that you can actually take the car, so to speak, via the battery pack to the mains, rather than having to park right next to the socket - which, as you can imagine, is a tad difficult if you live in a tenement block. 

This new vehicle is based on the immensely popular Skoda Fabia.  It not only differentiates itself from the standard model by having a different label, but by returning 64 miles per gallon as measured on accepted drive cycles!  The ultimate aim of the project is to see whether the battery packs can be transferred from the car into a range of other devices, which could include such things as SUV variants, electric jet skies or quad bikes. 

So this project jointly funded by Mira and Energy Saving Trust through the Low Carbon Research and Development programme could represent a major step forward in the hybrid vision of the future delivering lower tail pipe emissions, better fuel efficiency but at an equivalent diesel cost, now wouldn’t that be a first!

    VS   

"Can the UK come back and take the lead over Germany in the fight against climate change?"

Well, it is not only football where we seem to get beaten in extra time by the Germans, I have just been wading my way through a comprehensive pack of measures launched over the last couple of years, enabling ordinary German citizens along with businesses and communities to modernise their housing, particularly delivering on energy efficiency and reducing CO₂ emissions from buildings. 

Just to give you some sort of sense of scale, in 2007, about 80,000 low interest loans totalling €5 billion (yes €5 billion) were granted under the Reducing CO₂ emissions from Buildings programme in Germany.  This went towards establishing energy efficiency in over 200,000 existing or newly built homes.  In addition €600 million went towards modernising 600 schools and 1,200 day care centres for children with significant increases in the energy efficiency of both new and existing buildings.

The good news for the German economy does not just stop there however. It is also estimated by the Bremmer Energy Institute that these “investments” helped to secure existing jobs and will create around 220,000 new jobs every year in German small and medium size construction companies.   In total from 2006 to 2009 the Federal Government will make about €4 billion available to reduce CO₂ emissions from buildings, which it has already announced will continue until 2011.  I could go on.

These financing packages are not only generous, they are also sensibly constructed, capped at a level that gives a decent incentive for consumers and developers alike to carry out the necessary investment in family houses, apartments and public buildings.  Not only that, if the measures that are carried out they deliver a 30 per cent reduction against existing housing standards the owner receives a grant of up to 20 per cent of those investment costs, so there is a double incentive to do the right thing.  If you get the message we are already 3-0 down and it’s not even half time yet!  The way in which these schemes are incentivised and structured makes them even more compelling proposition, with some schemes offering repayment free start up years and then repayment periods running from 5 to 30 years with a fixed interest rate for the first five or ten years.  Well - the games up, I think it is about time that we started getting serious in the UK in regards to what is necessary to deliver a decent housing standard for the lamentable housing that still exists in all four countries that make up the Union.

The good news, however, is that we have not yet reached full time and if we are quick about it, and I can’t say I am entirely confident, there is still an opportunity for a late equaliser or dream of dreams a winner in extra time.  If we don’t then Euro 2008 won’t be the only competition we fail to qualify for!