Dan @ EnviroGadget.com's Articles
4 Useful Eco-Friendly Gadgets for the Home
This article is a guest post by Dan Harrison, who writes about eco-friendly gadgets and energy efficient computers for a living.
I love technology and gadgets, but its easy to forget the planet when you have a home full of gizmos. So here’s a collection of my favourite eco gadgets that save energy and therefore save you money too!
If you love your toast, you probably have toast pretty much every day. Well, even if you don’t, I do! The Morphy Richards Eco Toaster uses 35% less energy compared to other toasts thanks to a specially designed lid that closes automatically when you put your toast in. By stopping the heat being lost through the top of the toaster, you consequently need less energy to cook the toast. A simple idea, but very effective for reducing energy consumption.
If you enjoy watching movies and TV programmes, you probably have anything between 2 and 5 remote controls? Perhaps a DVD player, TV, Satellite, PVR, Cable, Surround Sound unit, etc? Having lots of remote controls can get annoying, particularly as you need batteries for all of them. The Wind Up Universal Remote Control allows you to control up to 6 different devices with a single remote control. What’s even better, is that the remote control doesn’t need batteries, since you just charge it up by turning the dial. No more having to scrounge some batteries from other gadgets when your TV programme is about to start!
A central heating system is pretty effective for heating a home, but there are a number of inefficiencies. One of those inefficiencies are radiators, which sink a large about of heat into the wall at the back of the radiator. The radiator booster is designed to vent hot air from behind the radiator back into the room. By increasing the air circulation your rooms will heat up more quickly. This means you don’t need your heating to be switched on for as long. The best bit is that the running cost of the radiator booster is only 30 pence a year (less than $1), meaning you’ll be saving money very quickly.
Using central heating is all well and good, but if the room is losing heat, you’ll be wasting energy anyway. The Thermal Leak Detector from Black & Decker is essentially a remote thermometer that helps you find cold spots in a room. The detector shines a beam of light on to the part of the wall you’re checking. The colour of the light changes from red to blue when a cold spot is detected, with the temperature being shown on the LCD display on the detector. By finding the cold spots, you can then patch them up and save more energy.
Are there any eco-gadgets that you love?
