The parts of the country expected to be worst hit are southeast England, East Anglia and the East Midlands and it is expected that hosepipe bans and other water restrictions will be put in place in early spring.

Water shortages are expected to become an increasing problem throughout the UK due to climate change and an increase in population that is leaving our reservoir at near capacity each year. If the UK suffers more dry years such as 2011, the problems of water shortages means that restriction on the use of hose pipes, sprinklers and other water devices will become a common event, so water saving is going to be something everybody is going to have to start taking more seriously.

210 litre capacity water Butt manufactured from 70% recycled materials.

Water Butt

One of the best water saving products anyone with a garden should consider buying is a water butt. These capture rainfall and provide a large store of water that can be used around the garden without having to resort to using taps or hosepipes. A large enough water butt with over 200 litres of capacity will mean you garden needn’t go dry even when there is a water shortage.

Around the Home

One of the best methods of saving water around the home is have a water meter installed. For most families, a water meter will not only encourage less water wastage, but can also save money in most cases.

Other devices can also reduce water consumption, saving both water and money. Tap and shower converters that change standard water flow into sprays are just as effective for washing and showering but can reduce water use by up to 70%. They are also easy to fit without the need of a plumber.

Spraymagic reduces water consumption by up to 70%

Non-natural materials are everywhere around most people’s homes. Everything from the carpet we walk on, the fillings in our duvets to the chemicals used in soaps and other bathroom products. When we walk around the house, we inhale carpet fibres, which can aggravate our respiratory systems, and even when we sleep, we breathe in fibres from duvets, pillows and other bed linen.

Making our homes more natural is perhaps the best way to reduce the risk of allergies and alleviate symptoms of respiratory conditions such as asthma.

Reducing Fibres

Hardwood floors are one of the best ways of reducing fibres around the home. Not only do natural wooden floors not produce fibres, but also they are easier to clean, reducing dust, which can also be an irritant.

Pure wool duvet

Getting rid of manmade fibres in the towels and bed linen we use around the home is also a good way of reducing the risk of allergies. Natural, pure wool duvets maybe a little more expensive than polyester or other manmade products but they don’t produce the irritating fibres that are inhaled when you sleep. Furthermore, 100% wool duvets are warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer than other types of duvet so they aid a good night’s sleep.

Pillows filled with manmade fibres can also cause irritation when you sleep, perhaps even more so than a duvet because of their proximity to your head. A pure wool pillow will not only prevent this, but is far more comfortable than other types of pillows.

Chemical Free Products

Bamboo towels

The bathroom is another place where we encounter irritants that can cause allergies, and not just in the soaps and sprays we all use, but the towels that we dry ourselves with. Cotton towels or even bamboo towels are natural and less likely to cause problems.

As for soaps and other bathroom products, natural alternatives to these are also available, Natural soap sets and chemical free bathroom products are kinder to the skin and just as effective at leaving bodies moisturised and smelling fragrant.

Nest box

This week is National Nest Box week. Held each year during the same week as Valentine’s Day, National Nest Box Week aims to raise awareness of our native bird populations and to encourage more people to put up nest boxes in their gardens.

Because many of the natural areas where birds nest have disappeared, many bird species are on the decline due to lack of places to breed. As more and more parkland and woods disappear, and more and more old barns are converted into homes, many bird species are left with nowhere to make a home. One of the species most hit by the decline in places to nest, and the bird that this year’s National Nest Box Week is centred around is the swift.

Each spring, nearly a quarter of a million swifts return to our shores from their winter migration and many will struggle to find somewhere to nest. The result is that fewer and fewer swifts will breed and their numbers will decline.

Swift and swallow bowl

To overcome this problem and help protect one Britain’s most majestic birds, people are being encouraged to put up swift bowls to give these seasonal visitors somewhere to nest and raise a family.

Swift and swallow bowls are discreet and if placed high up under the awnings of a home are out of the way enough that they will appeal to these normally shy birds. But swifts are not the only species of bird that can be helped by people putting up nest boxes. Similar looking to the  swift, but an unrelated species, the house martin likes a similar place to nest. Slightly larger than swifts, house martin bowls are available that can also provide a much needed home to these beautiful birds.

A wide range of other birds species suffer due to places to nest, and a simple nest box can provide a decent home for all sorts of birds, and by putting up a nest box in a it not only gives them a helping hand come breeding season, but also by attracting birds you get to see the colour and majesty of some of Britain’s many beautiful wild bird species in your garden.

For those people that have installed radiator panels this winter, the prolonged cold weather is not going to cost them anywhere as much as those people that haven’t, as radiator panels are one of the most effective ways of reducing heating costs and saving energy.

Radiator panels are easy to fit

How they work

While radiators are pretty efficient at heating our homes, they do have one major flaw. The rear of a radiator pumps out just as much heat as the face. This heat is often soaked up by the wall behind the radiator and doesn’t contribute to heating the home. On the face of it, radiator panels look like very simple devices. However, the material that the reflective panels are constructed from is pretty clever stuff; not only does it reflect heat, but also it has due to their unique shape help guide the heat back where it’s needed.

Fitted behind the radiator, radiator panels with their unique shape and reflective surface bounce all back into the room, enabling you to turn the thermostat down and still keep the room just as warm.

Radiator panels are uniquely shaped

Inexpensive and easy to fit

The most remarkable thing about radiator panels is just how cheap they are. For just a few pounds, you can install radiator panels behind every radiator in the home. Furthermore, they are incredibly easy to fit. There is no need to call a plumber or remove the radiators as the adhesive back of the panels allows them to stick to the wall behind the radiator. And during the summer, radiator panels can be removed and stored away, ready for use the next winter.

Savings

Radiator panels can make a huge difference in your household bills. Heating is one of the largest costs, and radiator panels can reduce the amount of energy your home heating system needs by up to 25%. This can mean they pay for themselves in just a matter of weeks and as they can be reused, the savings can continue year after year, saving you money and helping the environment.

Solar power use can vary from solar heating and solar panels installed on roofs that can reduce the cost of home heating and power, to smaller gadgets that can chip away at electricity use and make a cumulative difference to the amount of power we consume.

Solar Gadgets

Using solar powered gadgets can also help reduce electricity consumption. All sorts of appliances and gadgets can be powered by sunlight, which has an accumulative effect on the amount of electricity you use from the mains. Solar lighting is ideal for gardens and porches as it recharges during the day and provides lighting when needed, while solar powered chargers allow you to recharge mobile phones, laptops and other gadgets without having to plug them into the mains.

Solar panel

Solar Panels

Solar panels and heating systems are not cheap. The cost of purchase and installation can come to several thousand pounds/ However, the long-term benefits make them a worthwhile investment and worth considering.

Solar panels use photoelectric cells to convert solar energy into electricity. This can be used to power the home, wit unused electricity sent back to the national grid, which reduces you electricity bills. Of course, because solar panels are reliant on sunlight, it’s doubtful the sun will provide enough power to fulfil your energy needs all year round, but they can make a huge difference in your household bills. Even small, solar panels designed for appliances can make a difference to your quarterly bills.

Solar Heating

Solar heating is a far simpler form of capturing solar energy. Solar powered heating system also uses panels but these are designed to heat water, reducing the need to rely on the electric of gas-powered boiler. Again, the sun probably won’t provide enough power to heat water hot enough to suit all your needs, but even small increases in temperature reduces the amount of energy used by the boiler.

Both solar panels and heating systems are great investments for homes, not just because they reduce heating and power costs, but also because they add value to a property, just as double glazing and other features do. Furthermore, with government grants available to help pay the cost of installation, solar panels may not be as expensive as you first think.

Reduce

Reducing the amount of waste we produce in the first place, will benefit the environment even more than recycling, and there are plenty of ways we can do this. Firstly, most of us buy far too much stuff. If you look around the home, there is bound to be all sorts of things that you have never or hardly used or are still in their original boxes. All too often we buy on impulse but really we should stop and think and ask ourselves, ‘do I really need this.’ Sometimes there are alternatives to buying brand new items. Hiring, borrowing or buying second hand, are all far more eco friendlier than buying something new.

Secondly, shopping more wisely will also help reduce our waste. Try and avoid products with excess packaging or products with a short longevity. Instead of buying disposable products such as razors, batteries or printer cartridges, try to purchase items that are refillable or reusable.

Finally, buying in bulk will also help reduce our household waste. Items sold in multiples will use less packaging than single use items. Also, anything in a container, try to buy the larger size as possible as one single large bottle or carton will result in less waste than multiple containers.

Reuse

Reusing products is also another way of cutting back on what we throw away. Many of the things that find their way into the rubbish or recycling bins have other uses. Reusing is all about thinking of alternative ways of using things. Jars, for instance, make handy containers for all sorts of items, while organic waste can be composted. Even obscure items such as old CDs can be put to use, such as using them as bird scarers as many gardeners do.

If you can’t reuse something or its just gathering dust in your home, rather than throw it away, think about giving it away to a charity shop or selling it on. Buying and selling old items is a far better way of taking care of the planet than buying new and recycling.

The difficulty with buying green is that it is very easy for companies to claim eco friendly credentials whilst their products may not actually be that eco friendly at all.

A laptop, for instance, that can save energy 10 percent more energy than similar models may be sold as a green option. However, as laptops are full of toxic materials and require vast amounts of energy to produce, can it really be said that and energy saving laptop is green?

And the problem spans nearly every type of products that we buy. Terms such as energy saving, made from recycled materials, made from sustainable materials etc can often be misleading. If only a small part of a product is made from recycled material, for instance, the manufacturer can lawfully claim that it is made from recycled materials, even though the vast majority of the product is not recycled.

Establishing Green Credentials

There are organisations such as the Energy Saving Trust that award certification to manufacturers that satisfy their criteria. Often this can be a good indication of a product’s green credentials as the certification process is fairly rigid. However, there are other ways of assessing for yourself is something truly warrants the label eco friendly, by asking several questions of the product.

Is it energy saving?

When something claims to be energy saving, you need to ask if there are alternative solutions that use less energy. A tumble drier for instance may use less energy than similar models, but compared to using a clothes airer it can’t really be seen as an eco friendly product.

Is it recycled?

If something claims to made from recycled materials, you need to ask what percentage of the product comes from recycled materials. Do the manufactures use the term 100%, or is the labelling very vague>

Is it sustainable?

How is it sustainable? Does it have some certification from organisations such as the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) or is it just a vague claim?

Composter

Composting

All good eco-friendly gardeners should compost. Compost is not only a great way of getting rid of garden waste and kitchen scraps, but also is a great way of feeding the garden without resorting to chemical fertilizers.

Composting is easy to do too. The only thing you really need is a good composter, which will keep the garden tidy and make sure your compost doesn’t attract vermin. Once the composter is loaded with waste matter, nature does the rest by breaking it down and turning it into rich plant food.

Push lawn mower

Energy Saving

Using power tools around the garden is also not a great way of running an eco friendly garden. It’s much better to use mechanical methods. A modern, push lawn mower isn’t hard work and it can also help keep you fit as well as giving your lawn a far better finish than a hover mower.

Many households now have lighting in their back garden which allows people to enjoy the fresh air long into the evening during the warmer months. However, by installing solar powered lights you can get the same benefit without using any mains electricity. Solar lights recharge during the day and store enough energy to keep you garden illuminated well into the night. Furthermore, because they don’t need plugging into the mains, you don’t need an electrician to install them.

Water saving

Sprinklers and hosepipes use large amounts of water, so finding alternative methods of keeping the grass and plants watered is far more eco friendly. Watering cans make sure  you are not using too much water and if you install a water butt top catch the rain, you will not have to use the tap at all.

Recycling is one of the most beneficial things we can do to help the environment. Not only does recycling relieve the pressures on the UK’s landfill sites, but also by recycling, we help save energy as products made from recycled waste use less energy in their production.

Recycling can be a bit of chore, however, as we have to separate all our waste into a number of different bins, and this can vary from region to region. Some local authorities supply just one recycling bin, while householders in some areas have nearly half a dozen different receptacles outside their home.

The best solution for making the task of recycling that much easier is to separate your waste as and when you throw it away, and to do this you’ll need recycling bins around the home. Fortunately, a great many different recycling bins are on the market that offer all sorts of different solutions for dealing with household recycling waste.

Slim job recycling bins

Slim Jim Recycling Bins

Perfect for the kitchen the Slim Jim Lid’s come in various colour options, and they have different lids for bottle and Can recycling, which has two circular holes, and paper recycling,  with one diagonal slit in blue.

Combin

The Combin

Perhaps the most eco friendly recycling bin as it is made from recycled cardboard. The plastic lid keeps everything secure and enables longevity, while the recycled cardboard base maks it a very inexpensive option. Sold in packs of five with stickers that allow different labelling combinations.

Aluminium Recycling Bins

Made from brushed and lacquered aluminium

These large capacity recycling bins look great in any kitchen but are also ideal for public areas such as entrance halls, exhibition centres, airports, shopping malls and schools. With a general waste recycling bin, and a confidential paper recycling bin for offices.

Log burning can be a little tricky sometimes. From carrying all those logs from the log store, to not having enough kindling to get the fire going properly, log fires do take some planning and patience. However, recently quite a few handy products have arrived that make the process of using log firs and wood burning stoves so much easier.

Log Splitter

Not having enough kindling can be a real pain when you are trying to start a fire. Now, thanks to this handy wall mounted log splitter you can turn logs into kindling simply and easily. With this handy tool, you’ll never have to buy kindling again or struggle trying to light a fire with wood too large for the job.

The Log Gobbler

The log gobbler makes carrying logs from the log store to the fire struggle free. No longer do you have to ruin your clothes while carrying armfuls of logs as the log gobbler makes transporting logs a piece of cake. You can also take it on woodland walks and collect wood as you go.

Log Gobbler

Eco Logburner Fan

While wood burning stoves and open fires burn exceptionally hot, they are not very good at circulating the heat around a room. Now, this ingenius heat-powered fan allows you to circulate the warm air created by the burning logs, saving up to 14% of fuel. It doesn’t require batteries or mains power as its thermoelectric module acts as a small generator and uses the heat to supply power.

Eco fan

The Log Maker

No home with a wood burning stove or open fire would be complete without a log maker. Log makers enable you to make free fuel by turning waste paper and card into compact, burnable logs that burn hot but produce very little smoke. A great way to get rid of waste paper and card.