Category: Wenvoe Forum

What 2023 Might Spring On Us

WENVOE FORUM

Considering tomorrow today

Wishing you the best of the Season’s Greetings

As the year turns and we wonder what 2023 might spring on us, we wish for you all a space and a place to celebrate the New Year with family and friends, ready to look forward. Here we are in 2023, but let’s consider 2035!

To meet the UK target of a carbon neutral electricity grid by 2035, the government expects there to be five times as much electricity generated through solar power, which might take up an additional 0.2% of agricultural land. Wenvoe will be playing its part with many residents already generating electricity from rooftop panels, so many others inquiring about installations that the supply chain is struggling and community buildings earmarked for development. We have some solar farms already in the area and more are in the planning process including within the geographic boundaries of Wenvoe. They change the landscape, the landscape is always changing however and many readers may remember the outcry about the “excess of bright yellow” when the growing of oil seed rape as a crop suddenly changed the colour of the countryside. Farmers and landowners have always had to diversify land use, the key to success lies in thinking of the future to maximise positive outcomes. Accepting that solar farms are here for a while at least, as part of our electricity supply, what else can they provide?

Awareness has grown of how intensive agriculture, industrial development and the ever increasing demand for housing from a growing population has resulted in the decline in wildlife both in terms of numbers of individuals and numbers of species. Small mammals such as the brown hare, birds like the iconic Barn Owl, reptiles and insect species are all in decline. Particular concern has arisen recently about the decline in numbers of pollinators that are so crucial, not least to growing our own food supply. Solar Farms have a lifetime of between 25 and 40 years, a long period of little disturbance giving the soil an opportunity to recover and offering established shelter for wildlife. Solar Farms are often clustered together around good access to the National Grid and with positive local action it might even be possible to link these habitats by constructing corridors between sites.

Solar Energy UK, a trade association for all parts of the solar energy industry has published new Natural Capital guidance for its members on best practice aiming to:- “… promote the design, construction and operation of high-quality solar farm projects which support ecology and deliver additional benefits..”

The guidance considers the life cycle of a solar farm from Site appraisal and design through to Decommissioning and gives practical examples of the ecological benefits that can be achieved. With sensitive consideration of the site and the surrounding area it is possible to:-

  • Improve the soil health of previously intensively farmed land which encourages insects and the birds and animals that feed on them and avoids/reduces the need for toxic chemicals such as pesticides
  • Create new areas of meadow wild flowers providing food and habitat for a wide range of fast disappearing species, small mammals, insects, bees, butterflies, birds
  • Strategically increase the numbers and species of pollinators
  • Maintain and develop appropriate hedgerows to provide habitat
  • Increase further botanical diversity with scope to introduce long lost species
  • Create footpaths that sensitively allow community access to the enhanced ecology providing educational opportunities and supporting good health well being

A change in the landscape is inevitable, let’s engage with the developers of Solar Farms and work with them to secure a better future for our local ecology.

NB Statistics quoted are drawn from www.theconversation.com and the Solar Energy UK Guidance is available at www.solarenergyuk.org/ resources

………………………..

New Forum members are always welcome to join e-mail us e-mail gwenfo.forum@gmail.com.

Contact to us on :-Facebook: Gwen Fo@https://www.facebook.com/

gwen.fo.1/

and Wenvoe Forum @ https://www.facebook.com/groups/635369267864402 or twitter

@ForumGwenfo. See our Blog site https://wenvoeforum.wordpress.com/

 

 

Solar Photovoltaic Panels

 

WENVOE FORUM

Considering tomorrow today

Solar Photovoltaic Panels

We wish you a Happy Christmas and may the New Year bring you good fortune. Let us all hope that 2023 is the turning point for addressing climate change; let us all take action and create change. This month Forum member Ken looks at Solar Panel installation.

 

Solar Photovoltaic Panels

If you ever considered Solar Panels to be an unreliable investment with a long payback, think again! The current price of energy means that you will have to pay a lot and you can choose whether you want to keep paying for all your electricity or use at least some of that money as an investment with a typical simple payback of around six years and free power thereafter. This paper identifies potential pitfalls so that you can take care.

The rise in prices for energy have resulted in havoc for the solar energy market with large numbers of suppliers being inundated with enquiries and orders. Some have simply stopped considering new enquiries because they already have enough work until spring. Many entrepreneurs have recognised the opportunities of this market and started or bought small businesses to quote for supply and fitting of solar panels and related equipment but I wonder how many of these will fail, as do most new small businesses, within the first few years. Customers risk price increases before installations are completed and the lack of assurance that the supplier will exist to provide any follow up.

For most new customers, the potential purchase of solar panels is comparable in size to that of their car but there the similarity of transactions ends. For cars, the market is awash with product information and comparisons and innumerable registered dealers backed by the car manufacturers. For Solar Panels every request for information seems to result in a sales person making their assessment of what you need and giving a quote which may include product brochures but little opportunity to compare and assess anything more than total cost and a payback calculation that is totally dependent on the assumptions made by the sales person.

The general assumption that your current annual consumption is a good basis to identify the number of solar panels is not good enough unless you really use the same amount of electricity every day. Check your electricity bills and note the amount used (in KWH) each month. Identify reasons for peaks and troughs and whether they should be included in forecasts of the future.

Typical usage will be highest in the winter and unfortunately that coincides with the period in which the solar panels produce the lowest amount of power. It is not worth quintupling the number of panels in order to cover January, but simply doubling the number needed to cover June will cover March to September and make a good contribution in the other months.

 

Free solar power is not the only benefit of installing solar panels and a battery. The battery can be charged with relatively very low cost electricity overnight and that has clear benefits in the darker 4 months. So choose your electricity provider on the basis of both day time and night time tariffs and what you can get for exporting your excess power.

Before you contract and pay a deposit, investigate whether the company is one you want to rely upon and whether any deposit would truly be covered by any guarantee scheme. It took me a long time to recover my deposit from a company that was not a member of the scheme stated in their contract.

The author has no financial interest in any related business and readers are welcome to address any questions on this subject directly to Ken @gwenfo.forum@gmail.com putting Ken Solar Panels in the title box.

 

To join our Facebook group, please ‘friend up’ with the Gwen Fo account @ https://www.facebook.com/gwen.fo.1 and then jon the Wenvoe Forum @ https://www.facebook.com/groups/635369267864402

Some further information and updates, blog site https://wenvoeforum.wordpress.com/. Any Wenvoe community member is welcome to join the Forum meetings, via Zoom, which are normally held 19.00 on the second Thursday of each month. E-mail gwenfo.forum@gmail.com if you wish to join.

 

Drop Some Of Your Carbon Footprint

WENVOE FORUM

Considering tomorrow today

Click and drop some of your carbon footprint

How many of us really think of the electronic data we store as part of our carbon footprint? Not many we suspect, until someone like us, points it out. We may be familiar with the idea that server farms, huge banks of computers, that are used for creating crypto currencies like Bitcoin; use lots of energy. But have you considered that all the data that Google, One Drive, Photobucket, Instagram, Facebook, etc etc etc “generously” save on our behalf, free of charge is using energy and therefore has a carbon footprint. If you generated the data it’s your carbon footprint!

Of course some of that carbon footprint replaces a much higher footprint represented by other non-electronic forms of data storage. For example, over its lifetime, the valuation report of 64 pages on a prospective house purchase surely generates, less greenhouse gas emissions as a digital version rather than printed out. However, here is where you might be able to do your bit to reduce global warming. If that report from 2015 is still stored in the cloud, it is still using energy and every day it sits there unused it is using energy. This is where you can help, delete it when you have finished with it.

According to Tom Jackson, Professor of Information and Knowledge Management, Loughborough University and Ian R. Hodgkinson Professor of Strategy, Loughborough University writing in The Conversation (theconversation.com) huge amounts of data is stored unnecessarily and energy is wasted contributing needlessly to greenhouse gas emissions. Jackson and Hodgkinson provided some staggering statistics.

More than half of the data collected and stored by firms is only used once

For a typical data based business, say insurance, of 100 employees they create 3 000 gigabytes of unwanted, but saved, data every working day.

Storing that data for one year has a carbon footprint equivalent to 6 flights from London to New York

Over a year, the never to be used again data that companies store has the carbon footprint of 3 million transatlantic flights.

Back in 2020 is was estimated that all digital data storage accounted for 4% of total greenhouse gas emissions and was growing rapidly

Unless action is taken, by 2025 and estimated 181 zettabytes (that’s 181 trillion gigabytes if it helps) of data will be stored; much of it unwanted and gobbling up energy unnecessarily.

Clearly as individuals we are small fry in the data stakes, however, as often, it’s a case of everyone needing to do a little bit which adds up to a lot. Let’s imagine you take 10 photographs of the family around the Christmas tree intending to send one to relatives in Australia with a Christmas message. Lunch is ready and rather than deciding which, you save them all to Photobucket to sort out and send later. It is likely that the majority of them become unwanted data as you never delete them. If you consider how many mobile phones there are you can see how if everyone takes a little care about what is happening to their data a chunk of global warming could be avoided.

We urge you to just stop and think about what you deliberately save to the cloud to your own Drop box space or Google drive or whatever you use. Go back and delete photos and files that you don’t want or better still select the version for long term storage as you save them and get rid of the others. Be mindful that some applications will keep a copy of your data even after you have deleted it, but that discussion is for another time.

New Forum members are always welcome to join e-mail us on gwenfo.forum@gmail.com Contact to us on :-Facebook: Gwen Fo @ https://www.facebook.com/gwen.fo.1/ and Wenvoe Forum @ https://www.facebook. com/groups/635369267864402 or twitter @ForumGwenfo

A Round Up Of Activities

Considering tomorrow today

A round up of activities

We had a great time at the Wenvoe Village Show. Well done all those Wenvoe Hub volunteers for rekindling it after the restrictions of Covid over the past couple of years. This year’s at times, very hot and very dry weather has made it a surprisingly difficult one for gardeners, especially inexperienced ones but the show gave motivation for some to expose their hard won produce to keen eyes of judges. It is a lot of hard work to organise but a lovely opportunity to get together.

The Wenvoe Forum decided to join in and we had a stand set up outside in the car park and provided some information. We spoke to lots of people about the various things the Forum has been involved with recently and for those of you who weren’t there here is a round up.

Maybe it was the warm afternoon and the thought of a cold beer that set the agenda, a lot of people were interested in the Community Hop growing. A few Forum members and others in Wenvoe have been growing hop plants in their gardens, harvesting them and sending the cones to join the crop of the Community Hop growing group in Cardiff. They are made into a delightful green hop beer provocatively called Taff Temptress, brewed by Pipes of Cardiff. The Forum has an aim of recruiting enough local growers to brew Wenvoe’s own community beer. Judging by the interest at the show and the new growers recruited, we might not be so far away. If you want to join us e-mail gwenfo.forum@gmail.com.

Along with most of the world, we have been focussing on energy recently and have been asking residents to complete a survey for us. We are trying to assess what we can do to help people in this coming winter when energy prices are going to be so high. We do know the answer would probably be “cash” but in the long run we have to learn to do without fossil fuels and other carbon creating heating, lighting and cooking methods. The real answer is to use less energy altogether and now seems a perfect time to accelerate the process of learning how to do that. Our survey offers different ways in which we might be able to help for the community to prioritise what the forum develops. Please complete it by 31st October, you will find it on our blog site https://wenvoeforum.wordpress. com/ or we will leave some copies at the library and please pass it back to the library or e-mail it to us gwenfo.forum@gmail.com. To encourage you to complete and return a survey, each that includes a name, will be entered into a prize draw for a bottle of wine.

On our table at the show we had a recording of Manny Ebubedike’s thorough rundown of a host of energy saving tips small and large. The recording is a must listen and you will find it via our blog site. https://wenvoeforum.wordpress.com/

One way we can help was mentioned last month. Tackling some of the bigger alterations and installations that will help reduce energy use and keep those bills down is a daunting prospect, full of potential pitfalls. The community could actively help each other with some of these issues by sharing their own experiences. Those who have already travelled the path could shine a light for others. One of the activities we will be undertaking is creating a few case studies and making them available on our blog site. If you have experienced the purchase and installation of a solar panel scheme or of a heat pump or improving insulation, and you are willing to share the story whether good, bad or indifferent as an anonymised, written, case study, we would like to hear from you. A forum member will interview you and do all the hard work of writing it up. Nothing will be made public without your permission. Please e-mail gwenfo.forum@gmail.com, your e-mail address will go no further without your permission. You may be able to help someone get on the road to a more climate friendly future.

To help keep children interested while their parents or grandparents were talking to us at the stand, we held a free guess the name of the bear competition. So now this delightful little bear has a new home and is called Embo.

Danger And Uncertainty Or Creative Energy?

Considering tomorrow today

Danger and uncertainty or creative energy?

In a speech in Cape Town in June 1966, Robert F Kennedy said: ‘There is a Chinese curse which says ‘May he live in interesting times.’ Like it or not we live in interesting times. They are times of danger and uncertainty; but they are also more open to the creative energy of men than any other time in history.’

We are again living in interesting times:-

  • The consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is pushing up the cost of living throughout most of the Globe
  • The supply of energy, particularly to highly industrialised Europe, has been shown to be insecure and there is a real chance that this winter may bring power cuts and restrictions
  • The Covid pandemic has left “Governments” internationally with fewer resources to provide public services or support its most vulnerable population groups, and one suspects that SARS-CoV-2 isn’t done with us yet!
  • In the UK inflation is at its highest level since the 1970s and forecast to rise. Coupled with other factors we face an Economic scenario that has no precedent with no tried and tested roadmap to improvement
  • The “Climate” has thrown up some extreme weather events as if Gaia (Earth Goddess) is reminding us we must act to protect her.

 

Potentially depressing isn’t it? But please read on as we can together, hopefully take steps along the “creative energy” path to a climate friendly and more mutually prosperous future.

In recent decades in Britain natural gas has been at the heart of both energy generation and domestic heating. With growing awareness of the need to develop more renewable energy sources policy interventions appeared, e.g. the purchase of solar panels for provision of household electricity was made viable but as the policies began to achieve their effect, interventions were withdrawn and investment in solar at the domestic level had a much longer term payback. Currently however quite suddenly the sums have changed again and interest in alternative energy is once again picking up.

  • However several elements of the process create barriers to decision making:-
  • Technical detail of equipment is unfamiliar to many
  • Schemes are set up differently so it’s hard to compare
  • Some householders have not been made properly aware of the impact of such installations on resale of the house
  • The market is now growing quickly and there isn’t a big cohort of reputationally reliable providers
  • Some apocryphal horror stories abound and pitfalls can be hard to see.

 

The same could be said for the installation of heat pumps to replace gas central heating

The community could actively help each other with some of these issues particularly through sharing their own experiences. Without getting into the legal minefield of making commercial recommendations or technical specifications those who have already installed alternative energy systems could share stories of what went well and what disappointed them, what they would have done differently, and report on whether they actually got the amount of electricity they were promised etc. The information would be invaluable to those making difficult decisions. Even buddying up with someone else who is also considering an installation to talk things through could be helpful.

The Forum is exploring how it can facilitate this process. If you have experienced the purchase and installation of a solar panel scheme or a heat pump that you are willing to share in conversation or as an anonymised written case study, we would like to hear from you. Please e-mail gwenfo.forum@ gmail.com; your e-mail address will go no further without your permission. You may be able to help someone else get on the road to a more climate friendly future. We look forward to hearing about your experiences good or not so good.

……………………….………………

We will be at the Village Show on 10th September, please do come and see us. There will be a stand with information, competitions, art activities for children and an opportunity to tell us what you think about Wenvoe and its future.

To join our Facebook group, please ‘friend up’ with the Gwen Fo account @ https://www.facebook.com/gwen.fo.1 and then jon the Wenvoe Forum @ https://www.facebook.com/groups/635369267864402

Some further information and updates, blog site https://wenvoeforum.wordpress.com/

Any Wenvoe community member is welcome to join the Forum meetings, via Zoom, which are normally held 19.00 on the second Thursday of each month. E-mail gwenfo.forum@gmail.com if you wish to join.

 

Nuclear Power – Discussion Part 2.

Considering tomorrow today

Nuclear Power – Discussion Part 2.

Forum member Glenys Stone presents some ideas.

Are there any sustainable options?

The UK has some unique problems caused by inconsistency in the climate, little space to build and a NIMBY mentality in some of the population. It is difficult to grasp our detrimental effect on the planet without personally seeing the physical effects. While we will for a time reflect on the very high temperatures in July by September it will likely have been forgotten. This human failing is proven as we are only now, slowly taking notice of what scientists have been saying for years. Wildfires, drought, rising sea levels, crop failures, famine – and the consequent economic hardships – are increasing. Who can afford to install solar power or heat pumps? Is all property suitable? Will private landlords accept regulation requiring their property to be converted, with no personal benefit from the financial outlay? Higher rents make poor families poorer. Can local councils afford such expenditure without government grants? Europe now has economic concerns due to fuel shortages, blamed on a war that started in early 2022, but energy firms were going ‘bust’ before Christmas 2021. Huge profits are paid in dividends to those that don’t need the money while the poorest are asked to pay more for fuel and increasingly living in ‘fuel poverty’. We are exhorted to economise, implying that the profligacy of our consumption is causing our dire financial state and destroying of the planet. However, when making comparisons with our childhood are we extravagant? Economising was second nature; use as little as possible, waste nothing, replace only when beyond repair. We were frugal to finance upward mobility. Did the urge to give our children more opportunities and a better standard of living than we experienced, lead to us being thriftier.

TATA Steel in partnership with local universities, are developing an intriguing system to repurpose and reuse their waste whilst creating a saleable by-product used in the manufacturing of, amongst many other things, filters. This has financial and environmental benefits; and possibly more widespread industrial use if the investment is forthcoming. Imagine all factories recycling their waste while making money?

There is a cheaper, safer, and more efficient form of nuclear power – Fusion, but it could be 30 years before we have a viable system. This begs the question-“WHY?”. Covid vaccines were successfully and speedily developed when the ambition, resources and talent were made available.

The “developed world” is, throwing vast sums of money at the energy problem while the “undeveloped world” with no existing power grids, has the opportunity, but no finance, to start from scratch. Unfortunately, the COP 26 climate conference in Glasgow was unable to devise an urgent and unified approach. If rich countries financed the ability of poor nations to harness power from their natural, reliable resources, could we buy-back power, improving standards of living and offsetting our carbon footprint? Could offshore wind and wave farms in our territorial waters, or hydroelectric power (such as the 28 sites in Scotland and the Huka Falls in New Zealand) be more reliable and suitably NIMBY-proof solutions?

All governments’ decisions are made from a political and economic perspective. More jobs and lower living costs, sell well on hustings. But do we have influence? Could adjusting our personal actions have a ‘domino effect’ bringing about changes at local, national and ultimately global levels? Undoubtedly, actions by individuals and communities will have a personal and local benefit. So, can community projects make a difference to the country’s future, overall, domestic electricity consumption?

I try to have as little reliance on electricity as possible. I minimize my global footprint, reducing my direct and indirect use of fossil fuels by “Buying British” wherever possible and from companies that have Eco, Environmental or Climate-friendly symbols on their labels. I vote with my feet when considering purchases; is it planet-friendly or even necessary? I exercise my right to vote, then send emails or letters to whoever wins, making them aware of my opinions, regardless of my politics. They represent us all and must listen.

Lastly, and obviously, can we morally just do nothing? There is a proverb regarding hundreds of stranded starfish on a beach, they are all dying, it’s horrible. What can you do? You START by putting ONE back into the sea, and then, you put back another, and another, and another…

The above article and the previous part 1 of the discussion are on our Blog site https://wenvoeforum.wordpress.com/ If you have any comments on the articles please contact us via the blog site or e-mail.

………………………..

In the Forum we often say “Doing nothing is not an option”. If you have ideas about activities, projects, education opportunities that could turn Wenvoe into a Climate Conscious Community then please come and join us. We usually meet on the second Thursday of the month at 19.00 via Zoom – e-mail Gwenfo.forum@gmail.com for the link. All are welcome.

We are also on Face Book Contact us by befriending Gwen Fo @ https://www.facebook.com/gwen.fo.1/ and joining Wenvoe Forum @ https://www.facebook.com/groups/635369267864402

 

Nuclear Power – Discuss

What Can We Do?

Nuclear Power – Discuss.

Part 1 – Forum member Glenys Stone sets out a problem

Energy prices are through the roof. ‘In the short- and long–term, which if any of the available power sources is most practicable, safest and least harmful for the planet’? Is a cheap, sustainable solution even possible?

I am of the generation for whom this sort of “discussion piece” was routinely set by teachers. The idea being that, limited by a set number of words, the subject was addressed from both sides of the argument. No conclusions drawn, just “Food for Thought”. The style was set by which subject was involved, either one of the Sciences or one of the Arts. This one could be addressed from many perspectives, but will probably be one of emotion, so, is this a Scientific or Emotional problem? Column inches are also a major consideration so I will try to limit this enormous subject to just two parts.

I abhor nuclear energy.

The radiation leaks caused by the Tsunami in Japan and at Three Mile Island in the USA (and the subsequent cover-up) were to me, a wake-up call. Then there’s the concern shown by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), (during the recent Russian occupation) over the continuing need for micro-managing the huge amount of radioactive contamination in the area surrounding the damaged Chernobyl Plant in Ukraine. The nuclear fallout from this explosion spread, literally, all over the globe, notably for us on our Brecon Beacons and the resident sheep. Welsh lamb dinners were off the menu for many years. There are several hugely informative documentaries on this subject. One was aired very recently on Channel Five. Then last but by no means least, Germany! They closed their nuclear power plants in the wake of Chernobyl and solved (or so they thought) the problem of the obsolete fuel rods by storing them in their disused salt mines. They then proceeded to store (at a price) nuclear waste from other countries. Unfortunately, the damp salty atmosphere is corrosive and is now destroying the nuclear containers well before their original life expectancy. No-one seems to have a solution to this urgent problem, which is a potential environmental disaster for Germany and, if not contained, for the rest of the world, costing millions to resolve.

I am not reassured by small amounts of fallout being neutralised in a comparatively short time. Some areas already are and will be “no go” places for humans and domestic animals for tens of thousands of years. Most of my apprehension is about the storage of spent nuclear fuel rods. No one has currently come up with an effective way to dispose of, or even store, this nuclear waste. I have heard comments such as “Well someone, at some point in the future will find a way”. But is this a morally defensible position? I’m afraid that, to me, this cannot be the case.

So, my concern over this form of power is not only for our immediate safety but for the sake of our children’s, children’s, children ad infinitum: – What mentality assumes that storing anything as dangerous as spent nuclear fuel rods – for a future generation to deal with – no matter how far into the future, is an acceptable thing to do? But the aims of the Anti-Nuclear movement would appear to have been largely swallowed-up and forgotten, in the very real concerns about the planet’s immediate welfare.

The UK Government British Energy Security Plan includes increasing the proportion of our energy generated by nuclear power to 25%, touted as the cheapest immediate option (kicking the can down the road again?). This includes some Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) that can be quickly built, have a relatively short lifespan, estimated to be around 10 years. At which point they will need replacing as they will no longer be guaranteed as safe or capable of delivering enough power for our needs. Therefore, this cannot possibly be considered a future-proof solution! This little nugget of information was dropped unsuspectingly during an early BBC Wales news report about Wylfa on Anglesey, I notice that no one has mentioned it since the UK government’s sudden and wholesale embracing of the nuclear option. But if this solution is not future proof from a physical safety perspective, how can it be future proof economically?

…………………………………………

Should nuclear energy be part of the picture in Britain? Is it just too hazardous or can we “not manage without it”? Please leave a comment on the Forum’s Blogsite – https://wenvoeforum.wordpress. com/

Next month the discussion continues.

New Forum members are always welcome to join. Contact us on :-Facebook: Gwen Fo @ https://www.facebook.com/gwen.fo.1/ and Wenvoe Forum @ https://www.facebook. com/groups/635369267864402. twitter @ForumGwenfo e-mail us on gwenfo.forum@gmail.com

 

Considering Today and Tomorrow

What Can We Do?

Considering Today and Tomorrow and this time Yesterday too.

With curious crowns adorning the letter box and our revered red phone box, the Jubilee celebrations gain prominence. Inevitably those of a certain age look back and several Forum members can reflect on the early years of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. We are normally a forward thinking group, keen to do our bit for the environment, so is there anything we can learn from those memories about securing a more climate friendly future? Most of our memories are of a time that was considerably less comfortable and sometimes just as bad for the environment but hidden amongst the memories are some useful tips.

Dominant in my memory of the 1950s is the call of the rag and bone man. His voice rang out sonorously and effortlessly in a 4 note repetitious call, but what he called I could never work out. What he did was take away unwanted and broken items, scrap metal, wood, stones and bricks and sometimes lost items than had ‘fallen off’ something or somewhere. It was a serious recycling service. Single bricks of use to no one gradually became a neat pile in his yard that was enough to build a garden wall. The scrap metal went to be melted down and lengths of wood are always handy. When I moved to Wenvoe, a few years ago, there was that call again, amplified now by electronic means, still totally incomprehensible but nevertheless quite clearly the all-purpose recycling centre.

Memories of washing day seem to loom large. All the week’s washing was done on one day, either by hand or in a tub washing machine.

“My Mum wrung out washing by hand and had a grip that would beat most navvies. Clothes drying was weather assisted on a double washing line with a fixed low line and a high line that pulled up to the top of the posts and into the wind. When she had her first ‘washing machine’ it had an electric mangle which she always complained never got enough water out.” GS2

“During most of the Winter, the washing line had frozen clothes on them. In honesty, I don’t know how my mum managed to dry clothes every week in those days.” DP

These days we use tumble dryers which gobble up electricity and money and fewer people have that high washing line in the garden to make use of the sun and wind which come for free. Clothes dried in a breeze are easier to iron too, making an extra saving on electricity, something to note for today. I think I’ll contact Monty Don and ask Gardeners’ World to feature how to fit a washing line into modern gardens. It may do as much good for the environment as their campaign for peat free compost.

“I can remember my mother’s snort of derision during an early East Enders episode. The characters were bemoaning their poverty. She said ‘Well, if they stopped buying kitchen rolls that would save a pretty penny. What’s wrong with an old rag for those jobs? (We used to have rag bag of them) Rinse them out, dry them off and you can use them again!’ I have to say that when a leading manufacturer of kitchen rolls advertised their product as ‘rinse-able and strong as bull’ I recalled her with a wry smile.” GS1

Ice on the inside of windows, layers and layers of clothes, getting dressed and undressed under the bedclothes … there were lots more memories and maybe more lessons for another day

 

 

Wenvoe Forum Zoom Event

What Can We Do?

Wenvoe Forum Zoom Event

“ while the sun is shining ”

7pm. Thursday 12th May 2022

Saving energy and money! Simple, practical ideas and questions answered on the best way to manage your household energy needs. Make changes before next winter arrives.

To book your place and or send in a question e-mail

Gwenfo.forum@gmail.com with SUNSHINE in the title bar.

You will receive a zoom link before the event..

 

 

Wise Advice From JFK

What Can We Do?

“ … while the sun is shining!”

“The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining”

[State of the Union Address January 11 1962] – John F. Kennedy

Wise advice from JFK who used this saying to introduce a programme of spending that he intended would rebuild the US economy. The suggestion behind it is that it is prudent to prepare and repair while there is no pressing need. In the same vein, despite the lovely recent spring sunshine, we should all be looking forward to the cold weather of next winter and considering now what we can do to keep our homes warm and comfortable, our food hot and nourishing and our bills manageable. The Wenvoe Forum can offer some help with that preparation.

On Thursday 12th May we will be hosting our second Community Zoom meeting. Local resident Emmanuel Ebubedike (Manny) who works as a consultant in the energy industry has kindly agreed to share his expertise with us all. Manny will give us his suggestions for things we can do to make our lives and our homes more energy efficient, and we can ask questions about our own ideas.

In principle, we need to reduce our unthinking use of energy. When we do use it, we need to make sure we are using it efficiently and if we can use energy that is generated sustainably, so much the better. There is a plethora of energy saving ideas in the media but many of them require investing time and money before they yield results. It can be confusing and difficult for any one individual to work out what is best for them in their circumstances. Most people won’t be able to do everything they can or want to do, so, how do we choose what is best?

After the presentation there will be a Q&A and discussion. Some of the practical changes may be individual actions, other may be community based. Please send your questions or ideas, in advance if you can, and we’ll try to find answers together, either on the night or through follow up research. We are holding this meeting in May, while the days are longer and the sun sometimes shines to give time to try to put them into practice before grey and cold November rides up.

It is just over a year since the first meeting of the Forum raised, as part of addressing the climate crisis, that we try to encourage the community to be energy aware. Little did we know then how much more important that sentiment would become. Join us while the sun shines to prepare for winter, which if we do it well, will support our precious environment too.

To book your place or send a question please e-mail gwenfo.forum@gmail.com with UNSHINE in the e-mail title. We look forward to seeing you.

Emmanuel Ebubedike, is a Chartered Engineer (C Eng MMMIM CEMI) with over 15 years experience in initiating and implementing energy conservation projects

 

 

 

1 2 3