Gödöllői Climate Club

17 November 2010

People present:

Bezecky-Bagi, Beáta; Tóthné Bogdányi, Franciska; Kaszap, Márta and István; Kovács, Melinda; Benkéné Kruppa, Lívia; Laurán, Csaba; Simó, Móni and Pali; Vadovics, Edina and Kristóf

During the meeting: environmentally friendly and energy saving products were displayed

1. We read and reflected on the message we received from our furthest-away members Orsi, Rian and Mirkó from Bratislava in Slovakia
2. We watched a recording of the Laurán family on Duna TV, and the interview with Edina V. on the Small footprint project.
3. Following this, Csaba told us a lot more about how they save energy and resources at home. A few things from his long list:

™ WATER

• Water saving taps
• Using vinegar for cleaning the kitchen, bathroom, etc. as well as for rinsing clothes
• Saving the water from the washing machine to use it for rinsing the toilet (with the help of a bucket)
• Collecting rainwater and using it for watering the garden

™ WASTE

• Selective collection
• Composting

™ HEATING

• Turning the heating down by 1 °C for the night – with this they save a lot of energy!
• Wall heating (set for 18 °C)
• Using a ceramic stall (burning wood)
• Condensing boiler

™ TRANSPORT

• Going everywhere by bike locally
• Hitching to Budapest (a form of car sharing…)
• Not owning a car

™ ELECTRICITY

• Energy efficient light bulbs
• Turning everything off (no stand-by use)

4. After Csaba’s story, we discussed a great many ideas and challenges. A few of these:

IDEAS AND PIECES OF INFORMATION

™ There’re two types of energy efficient bulbs:

• One type can be (and tolerates being) turned on and off a lot (usually more expensive)
• The other type is cheaper and is meant for places where the light stays switched on
• It’s worth checking this when we buy new lights!

™ Vinegar:

• Using 20%-os vinegar for cleaning and rinsing, and diluting it: this way we buy less packaging material…
• We can mix it with various oils
• Pour max. 1 dl into washing for a full load

™ Compost is available to take away from Franciska!

PROBLEMS AND THINGS TO FIND OUT ABOUT

™ How much energy do modems consume?

Csaba agreed to take our meter and measure it + report back to us at next club

™ Philips exchanges faulty energy efficient light bulbs for free. Does Tunsgram also do it?

Csaba is researching it …

™ Is it bad for TVs, monitors and computers to be switched on and off?

Edina agreed to find out…

™ How can we use convectors most efficiently

5. While we talked about these things, we discovered that a lot of us introduced all kinds of measures since the start of the club about a year ago, and saved a lot of energy through it. A few examples:

™ Turning the heating down by 1-2 °C (not just for the night)

™ Checking the temperature setting on our electric heaters and turning it down

™ Emptying freezers and finding other ways of conserving food + sharing freezers with the extended family

™ Using washing and bathing water to rinse the toilet

6. Kristóf introduced us to the online carbon calculator GreenDependent developed at www.karbonkalkulator.hu. We’re hoping that this will make calculations and monitoring easier J At the next club, we’ll all report on how we managed to use it

7. Decisions made

(1) Gödöllő has recently introduced a selective waste collection system. A lot of us find that after separating everything, we have hardly anything left for the bin – still, we continue to pay the same amount for refuse collection…

So, till the next club (i.e. next 4 weeks), we’ll all monitor how much (in litres) we have left each week after selecting everything.

We’d like to communicate our results:

™ In the local papers to show our good example – since a lot of people still don’t select + only bad examples are communicated

™ Towards the waste collection company – could we get a more favourable price for refuse collection?

Kristóf agreed to check whether favourable prices perhaps already exist

(2) We resurrect our mailing list (googlegroups).

Edina

(3) We write to our twin group:

Let’s try to make our contact more lively! For this reason:

™ Csaba will try to join the Fownhope mailing list

™ We’ll invite our “twins” to our list

Edina

8. At  our next meeting on 15 December, we’ll have a bit of a Christmas atmosphere… (mulled wine, Christmas tea and cakes). Still, we’d like to discuss the following:

™ Summarize the results of our “bin experiment”

™ Csaba will discuss his metering experience

™ We’ll share our experience with using www.karbonkalkulator.hu

™ GreenDependent will bring the green and energy efficient products again

9. Other plans:

™ We’ll organize a bicycle procession on Earth Day next year with other local NGOs, schools, etc. to promote cycling as well as lobby for better cycling conditions

™ We’ll invite local councillors to our club

The setting up of the Gödöllő Climate Club was supported by the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission in the framework of the “Changing Behaviour” programme.