UK AWARE Blog

With Wimbledon in full swing this week and it being strawberry season in the UK I thought that I would bring you some strawberry inspiration for your big day. I am loving the ‘bride’ and ‘groom’ strawberries above (top left), they would make a great talking point given out as canapes at the drinks reception. Perfect as escort cards the strawberry and cream lollipops (top right) are sure to add a smile to guests faces, old and young alike. A fabulous little pot of goodies (bottom right) is a wonderful favor idea from Shabby Princess Designs. She has lots of strawberry and cream inspired favor ideas to create, such as little bags and boxes and templates to use so I would recommend taking a look…… for the full blog post please take a look at the Without A Hitch Blog.

Source Wedding Cake, Mandalay Wedding Invitations, The Unbride, Shabby Princess Designs, Beaucoup,Craft Create and Decorate, Iced Magic

Lavender is an amazing flower and in season around late May / June time. It gives off a wonderful smell which is great to perfume a venue and in fact English lavender is the most heavily scented variety of the plant. Lavender is surprisingly easy to grow in the garden and in fact if not kept in check can take over flower beds, just place it in full sunlight and well-drained soil.

For full post check out Without A Hitch’s blog …..

Image Sources: Sunshine Lavender Farm, Wedding Bee, Pinterest, Flower Deliveries Online, Alwena Rose

Q: Having recently installed Solar PV, I will soon be replacing our old boiler and hot water cylinder. The heating and water run on gas. Does it now make sense to use electricity to heat the hot water for the house?

A: This is a really interesting conundrum – well I think it is – but maybe I am a dull solar enthusiast! Nevertheless I will try to purvey my passion in my answer.

The thing is that mains gas is much cheaper and has a lower carbon footprint than electricity. In addition to that, we in the UK have spent the last 40 years transforming our energy usage away from other fuel sources to gas if we can – remember the ‘dash for gas’ in the seventies – because we have had the luxury of cheap gas from the North Sea.

The bad news is that this is now running out and by about 2015 we will be importing around 90% of our gas from Russia and the Middle East.

So guess what will happen now – that’s right prices are rising and will continue to rise. So maybe gas will not continue to be the cheap alternative that we have all got so used to.

From an environmental perspective our calculations and assessments assume that electricity comes from stinky, dirty coal and gas fired power stations. What if the electricity that we used was zero carbon?

What if that electricity came from our own, on site solar powered electricity or PV system?

We would then be provided with a free and zero emissions way of powering things – such as an immersion heater.

There is another benefit too. We all know – or you should by now if you read the YouGen blogs regularly which I am sure you do – that you get paid for all the electricity you use from the feed-in Tariffs. Excellent!

You produce free electricity too, for which – on average for a domestic consumer – you would have paid about 15p per unit from your energy supplier. If you cannot use it you export to the grid and get 3p per unit instead. Well I am no mathematical genius but I can work out without the aid of a calculator which I would rather do.

So what to do with the excess’ electricity to maximise our investment? How about using to power your immersion heater and store the energy in the form of hot water than you can use later to bathe or shower with?

I am not sure that you would want to completely replace the connection to your boiler – in the winter or when it is dark you may be glad of it. But wouldn’t it make sense to top it up with free electricity when it is available?

You can also adjust your hot water heating controls to take best advantage of the free energy. Your installer can advise you about this to ensure that you get the best out of the solar power without ending up with a cold shower!

About the author: Paul Hutchens is an energy expert on the YouGen website, making renewable energy easy. Paul is also the  founder and director of Eco2Solar, which installs solar systems around the UK.

First published on the YouGen blog. For more information on renewable energy, please visit the YouGen website.

The lovely people at Greenvelope are offering you lucky readers a free Gold Package worth $139.99 (approx £86.00). This will cover all your wedding invitations, save the date cards, response cards, thank you notes and will also give you an event details page – what a bargain. Not only will you save money you will also save some trees and give to charity too.

For a chance to win this great prize come over to the Without A Hitch Blog and follow the instructions, the competition closes on 10th June 2011.

First published on the YouGen blog – April 2011

I’ve been testing the g-save economiser since the end of November last year. As described previously, it is a widget that claims to save up to 30% on your gas bill – but does it work?

Well, I’m afraid that even after three and a half month’s testing the jury is still out. I’ve got gas meter readings from the period 28 November to 13 March over the past three years. They are as follows (in cubic feet):

10/11: 343
09/10: 334
08/09: 314

So, even with the g-save, I’ve used more gas this year than in either of the past two winters. However, not much more than last year, and this most recent winter was much colder. I know we put the heating on more than normal, and left it on longer than normal, so it’s not as simple as the headline figures indicate.

Looking at the imeasure graph of the period, gas use in December was significantly up on the same period last year. The question I can’t answer though is, would it have been an even bigger spike if I hadn’t had the g-save? Quite possibly.

During the period of mid February to mid March 2011, our gas use was significantly less than in the same period last year. Again I don’t know if that was due to better weather or the g-save or a combination of both.

I’m afraid that this is all a bit inconclusive, but my gut instinct is that we used the heating a lot more than normal this year, and that without the g-save our gas bill would have been a lot worse than it was. But, as I say, that’s a gut instinct, based on how much we pressed the override button, and not on solid statistics.

About the author: Cathy Debenham, Founder of YouGen – Renewable energy made easy.

First published on the YouGen blog. For more information on renewable energy, please visit the YouGen website.

There are some great ideas out there if you want to be a bit different and unique on your wedding day. Here are some great images of using vegetables as an alternative to flowers for your wedding, the big advantage is that your guests will be able to take the vegetables home with them which will be eaten over the coming weeks so there will be less waste.

The sweet mini vegetables used for escort cards (top right) can also double as a light snack during the drinks reception….the arrangement above (top left) has a great range of colour. If you where having your reception at home or in the garden the display could double as your vegetable selection during the meal.

Using asparagus and artichoke’s to decorate the candles is a nice touch for a rustic feel (top centre). I think you would have to be very brave to use ‘greens’ for your decoration. They do give a very laid back informal approach to the table (middle left).
Above are some amazing flower displays carved out of fruit and vegetables, some of these flowers are so well done that they look real, but of course can be eaten at the end of the day (above bottom).

So there you have it a few great ideas about how you can be creative and use vegetables as decorations on your big day. If you plan out what you need you could also grow some of it yourself saving you some money and knowing that it will be all fresh on the day from your (or family member’s) garden.

Content supplied by Without A Hitch

1. Use in season flowers for your decorations or alternatives such as fruit, herbs or sweets that can be used and eaten after the event.
2. Have your ceremony and reception as close as possible to cut down on travel between locations, if it is unavoidable encourage car sharing or hire a coach/vintage vehicle so everyone can travel together.
3. Wear a nearly new or once worn wedding gown. If you want vintage even better, pick up an authentic dress rather than a newly made imitation.
4. Take a look at eco friendly invitations and consider a wedding website to cut down on the amount of information inserts you need to issue to your guests.
5. Gifts – if you already have a home set up consider setting up a gift-giving list so people can donate to a charity in your name.

Information supplied by Without A Hitch please take a look at the blog for great green inspiration and DIY projects.

With only a few days to go to the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton we thought we would take a look at the elements of the day and see how William and Kate are trying to keep things green.

Content Created by Without A Hitch

I talk about using season flowers but what is available and when, and what can you do with them? Well each month I am going to pick out one or two blooms from that time of year that are in season and give you a few ideas about what you can do. This month is Tulips. A lot of flowers carry old meanings and symbols from long ago and the tulip is no exception. Red tulips say “I love you”, yellow – “There’s sunshine in your smile” and multicoloured tulips say “Beautiful eyes”. Over all Tulips tend to symbolize the perfect lover, so these are a great flower to have at a wedding.

Tulips are a versatile flower and can look great on mass (as the top left image shows) or as a single bud like the buttonhole above centre. Tulips can also have two different looks, one when the flower is closed and then when they are fully open they look amazing.

The Tulip lends itself to being put into different angles due to it having a very flexible stalk, and doesn’t mind being submerged under water for a time, so have a look at doing some fun and funky designs with them you will be amazed at the possibilities.

Another in season flower in April that I wanted to bring to your attention is Viburnum or Snowballs. This flower is becoming more popular of late but still isn’t widely used which I think is a shame as the big white flowers would look gorgeous in a plan vase with a ribbon around it, simplicity at it’s best.