This means that this blog will now be inactive, however it will be kept for archive purposes

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UPDATED January 2009; I now have one full months worth of meter readings for the laundry and I have made extrapolation calculations below, so it looks like no humble pie for myself.

Previously

1. the Sunlight lorry traveled 180 miles (290 257.5Km)  round trip in lorry which produced 272kgs of CO2 per trip with 260 trips per year giving a total CO2 output of 70 metric tonnes of fossil fuel derived Co2 per annum.

*Assumption for diesel fuel 2.68 kg’s of CO2 per litre diesel consumed and a lorry consumes roughly 0.35 litres per kilometre traveled.

The new laundry consumes

15m3 fresh water per month 300m3 or 23kg’s fossil fuel derived Co2 per year (though this should vastly decrease by 70%  when the gray water system is installed)
The laundry equipment consumes 1500 m3 of gas per month or 39 metric tonnes fossil fuel derived Co2 per year (though this should decrease by 50% when the wood burning boilers are installed)
The laundry uses roughly 96Kwhrs of electricity per day for 365days per year or 15 metric tonnes fossil fuel derived Co2 per year.

Therefore roughly laundry fossil fuel derived Co2 produced as now 54 metric tonnes of Co2 per annum. Saving roughly 16 metric tonnes of co2 per year (1.75 households).
When wood burning boilers installed fossil fuel produced as now 35 metric tonnes of Co2 per annum. Saving roughly 35 metric tonnes Co2 per year (3.5 households).

Additional plus points

• 3 full time jobs for the local economy.
• Better quality linen can be used.
• Financially the project breaks even after 18months, allowing for reserves to be accumulated to replace equipment as required after 3 years.
• Managed to recover 2 extra bedrooms from old linen stores as we had to store more linen in the previous scenario.

UPDATED January 2009; one problem with this burner is that the rooms above are now too hot! Can you believe it! Yes, the radiators now have to be turned off in the rooms above.

Our main aims are Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Free Cycle and lastly Carbon Offset.
Our KG Co2 for the last 4 years is below;

2005     1,005,000KG                            
2006     909,000 KG                               -10 % reasons; various actions
2007     809,000 KG                               -12% reasons; master switches
2008     767,439 KG                               – 5% Reasons; various reasons LED lights some but mostly change in behaviour        

In the 12 months to end of October this year we have reduced KG’C02 produced by 42,000 KG’s.

We have been really pleased with this achievement as it equates to a 5% reduction in year on year, this is after already introducing in previous years low energy lighting, efficient boilers (that can run at 450c) and master switches for guest bedrooms.

During recent months we have been identifying are consuming the most energy, this has been tied down to areas where the lighting is on for 8 hours or more per day. Our solution has been to look towards LED lighting solutions. We have replaced a large number of 12v 50Watt halogen lights with 48 LED and 60LED lights, these lights use 1.5 and 2.5 watts for the equivalent light output and last on average 20000 hours, though they do cost around £3.5 to £5.00 per bulb. These bulbs pay for themselves with running costs in 4 months; the only main problem encountered is that choosing a light with a direct warmth and light output replacement takes a lot of research, but research that is worth it.

We have also noted that when the Halogen lights are replaced less heat is produced meaning that the air conditioning does not need to be on anywhere near as much.

The above graph on first view does not show much difference but overall the biggest single gain is the room power master switches fitted in June 2007, along with the behavioural changes from the hotel team.

I have 20 50 watt GU10 bulbs in my kitchen on for around 6 hours a day which costs £220 per annum; I have changed these for 20 48LED 2.5 watt bulbs at a total cost of £120 these and they would cost £10.95 per year to run; pay back is 7 months!

No brainier; the bulbs on a bench test seem to use between 2.5W to 3W depending on which bulb, is this the future of lighting; changing them is a doodle as LED’s run cold though you need to let the fitting which had the halogen bulb in cool down first or they will not light up immediately!

UPDATED November 2008; I was in B&Q today and they have also started selling LED lights not as bright as the ones from China but it is a start.
]]> http://crownspahotel.wordpress.com/2011/04/13/led-lighting-gu10-and-bc22-the-future/feed/ 0 crownspahotel 60 LED GU10 http://crownspahotel.wordpress.com/2011/04/13/effergy-meters-now-called-owl-meters/ http://crownspahotel.wordpress.com/2011/04/13/effergy-meters-now-called-owl-meters/#comments Wed, 13 Apr 2011 11:38:39 +0000 crownspahotel http://crownspahotel.wordpress.com/2011/04/13/effergy-meters-now-called-owl-meters/ Continue reading »]]> I Bought 5 more effergy meters today for the lead management team £36 each. Basically it is a meter that measures the amount of electricity consumed in either Kw hr’s, Co2, Max Power usage etc… The best bit is the power alarm, basically the alarm goes off at 5KW’s.

UPDATED September 2008; the team have really benefited from these meters, my own electric bill recently landed on the door step and it has reduced from £185 for August quarter 2007 to £89 August 2008 quarter end. The alarm works the best as we learnt early on the you either had the choice of the dishwasher or tumble dryer on at the same time as boiling the kettle. We regularly run at less than 500 watts now I have fitted the LED lights in the house. The really interesting thing is that the management team wail not give me back the meters either; as they have had similar results to myself.

UPDATED August 2009 Over the last year I have bought around £350 of these excellent devices for the crew.

THE GREEN TOURISM BUSINESS SCHEME
The Green Tourism Business Scheme, has been running since 1997 and with over 1400 members across the whole of the UK, it is the largest and most established scheme of its type in the World. In Scotland the GTBS was developed in partnership with Visit Scotland and it is recognized by UK national and regional government as a crucial part of its drive towards sustainability. Our aim is to build on this strong position and ensure that the UK remains at the forefront of sustainable tourism in the future.

Levels of Success?

There are three levels of award Bronze, Silver and Gold; needless to say we are aiming for Gold.

UPDATED August 2009, just got gold!

1. We need to implement a recurring staff training, reminding and enforcing policy for environmental awareness on a roll out plan. DONE March 2008, we have improved on what we already had.

2. We will be switching off the 25 computers at night which used to consume 80 watts or produce 5 tonnes of CO2 per year, we have now fitted a central master switch for each set of computers. DONE March 2008, I bought some town extension unist and this has worked well. UPDATED September 2008, I am now putting these on other low draw electrical items.

3. Install high frequency lighting retrofits for the fluorescent lighting; in fact we are getting rid of then for LED lights! UPDATED September 2008, I have done this where possible, but also looking for a longer term LED solution.

4. Have a good look at what is left on powered up for 11 hours plus a day, it turns out most of the lighting is left on so we will be changing to LED and turning them off. UPDATED June 2008 Just started fitting them!

4. Fit variable speed controls for the pool pumps, this we have done as just a week after the report the 1st pump failed then 3 weeks later the back up pump failed. Such is fate. DONE March 2009, just fitted the first ones as the old ones failed.

Apparently Charcoal has enormous historic significance.

• Until it was discovered how to make coke, it was the only fuel suitable for smelting metals from their ores.
• It’s long been used in medicine as a way of soaking up toxins.
• Because it absorbs water, was used by the ancient Chinese as a hygrometer.
• It’s role in agriculture helped solve the riddle of El Dorado.

Charcoal can be made from any organic material. Just heat it up in a restricted supply of oxygen and just about everything will be driven off except the material’s basic carbon skeleton. What you’re left with is almost pure carbon arranged in an open lattice work with an enormous surface area.

Because carbon atoms like to stick together, it’s really good at absorbing organic compounds (which by definition contain carbon). So, it’s a really good filter and is used in numerous applications from water treatment to the NBC suits worn by our troops in Iraq.

Tropical rain forest soils are very thin and the high rainfall tends to flush out any nutrients. The lost city of El Dorado, in the Amazonian rainforest, was a huge puzzle for archaeologists who, once they’d accepted that a major civilization had existed (with the one time residents killed off by diseases unwittingly introduced by European explorers) remained puzzled by how large populations could be supported on such poor soils. The clue lay in the so called dark earth “terra praeta”.

This soil was dark because it contained large quantities of charcoal. Simple experiments, by the archaeologist Bruno Glazer, showed that this dramatically improved the soil’s fertility.

It turns out that 8000 years ago charcoal was also being used as a soil improver in East Anglia.

In the present day we are faced with the challenge of climate change. Leave a bit of wood on the ground and it will slowly decay releasing all it’s carbon as carbon dioxide or methane. Turn the piece of wood into charcoal and the carbon that remains is fixed forever. The only way you can release it as carbon dioxide is to set fire to it. So, charcoal could play an important role in sequestering carbon from the atmosphere.

For example, an essential part of woodland management is to thin the trees so that those that remain don’t grow too leggy. Some of these thinning’s are used, e.g. to make chipboard, but about half the world’s timber harvest ends up as waste. If this waste were converted to charcoal and used as a soil improver it would reduce dependency on fertilizers, improve water retention and provide a permanent carbon sink.
There are a number of current technological developments that are aimed at making charcoal production cleaner as well as more efficient. Kilns now exist that have very low emissions of pollutants and recover the energy from the gases that are given off. Further development, and widespread adoption, of these technologies could play an important role in

• Improving soil fertility and quality without artificial fertilizers
• Sequestering carbon out of the atmosphere, permanently
• Cleaning up pollution from organic compounds (e.g. oil spills)
• Providing rural employment as part of sustainable woodland management.

Surprisingly perhaps, these simple facts about charcoal are not well known; either among the general population or among decision makers in Government and elsewhere.

David proposes the establishment of a Charcoal Foundation that would help bring charcoal’s virtues to wider public attention, would bring together existing research and would help practitioners find markets for their products.
]]> http://crownspahotel.wordpress.com/2011/04/13/is-charcoal-the-answer/feed/ 0 crownspahotel charcoal http://crownspahotel.wordpress.com/2011/04/13/untitled-8/ http://crownspahotel.wordpress.com/2011/04/13/untitled-8/#comments Wed, 13 Apr 2011 10:56:22 +0000 crownspahotel Continue reading »]]> I forgot to mention the figures for electricity and gas.

Gas is sold in M3; the Kg’s Co2 per M3 is 2.2kg.

Electricity is sold in KW hr’s; the Co2 per KW hr is 0.43 KG.

UPDATED October 2008 some Green Organisations are suggesting using 0.57KG to reflect the change in the materials used to produce electricity in the UK.