The UK is the only country in which energy consumption levels are lower now than they were in 1965¹, according to the latest research by BP.

Over the past 50 years, the UK’s economy and population has tripled, yet our energy consumption is close to just 5%. This is the lowest of all countries BP has historical data on.

Part of the explanation is that the UK’s industrial output has dropped, but the low energy consumption levels are most attributed to energy efficiency awareness and technologies.

In terms of energy efficiency, the industrial sector has seen the biggest improvements since 1965. Transport, on the other hand, has made zero change since 1970, and is currently the UK’s largest contributor of energy burn, accounting for 38% of the country’s total consumption.

From a worldwide viewpoint, BP’s latest report shows that energy consumption is slowing globally. In 2014, levels rose by just 0.9%, which is the smallest growth rate since 2009.

¹ CITY AM, 2015. UK energy consumption falls below 1965 levels as industrial output declines and energy efficiency rises. [Online] Available at: http://www.cityam.com/221520/uk-energy-consumption-falls-below-1965-levels-industrial-output-declines-and-energy. [Accessed 28th August 2015].

Looking for a way to generate an extra income? The answer may not be that far out of your view…just take a peek through your back window.

Here are seven ways to make some extra money using your garden.

1. Rent your guesthouse on Airbnb.

   If you have a separate accommodation space in your garden, perhaps that you normally put family up in when they visit, you can rent it out to travellers on a per-night basis when it’s unoccupied. It’s free for property owners to place a listing on Airbnb; you’ll only pay 3% of the service charge once you secure a booking.

2. Use your garden as a glamping site.

   Glamping (a glamourous form of camping) holiday companies such as Lantern & Larks, are often looking for pretty, secluded, and flat land sites of around six acres to pitch tents. You can either rent it to them for about £5,000 per year and they’ll take care of all the finer arrangements, including drainage digging, building, furnishing, and bookings, or you can self-manage and maintain the site in return for 25% of the booking fees.

3. Hire your garden out for film shoots and weddings.

   Film and television companies will pay around £1,000 to hire a garden location, whilst weddings can bring in up to £10,000 if your garden is large enough to house a marquee to seat 150 guests. The only thing to bear in mind is that you’ll need planning permission if you plan to host for more than 28 days per year.

4. Set up a paintballing or quad-biking course in your garden, or even a pony club!

   If you’re inundated with outdoor space, you can set up your own business. Do some market research to determine the type of local attraction that would add value to the area; for instance, if you are surrounded by schools and there isn’t a quad-biking facility within a 5 mile radius, set one up!

5. Build a holiday home.

   If you’ve got the space and cash to invest, building a holiday home can be a fantastic income generator. Sarah Eastman, owner of The Larches in Church Stretton, spent £20,000¹ upgrading a log cabin on her property’s land with new flooring, roof installation, and a gravel access path to a guest parking area. She now receives an average of 50 bookings per year, was awarded the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence in 2014, and makes £9,000 per annum via her holiday let – so in just over two years, she’ll have paid off the money she invested and be turning a pure profit.

6. Become a tourist attraction.

   If you’ve got particularly beautiful grounds, you could simply open them up for public tours. This is what the owners of Dassels Bury, a historic five-bedroom house in Hertfordshire, do for £2 per visitor (they give their collections directly to charity).

7. Rent out your garden studio to a small business owner.

   Even if you only have space for a shed in your back yard, you can still make money by fitting it with plumbing and electricity before renting it out to a local entrepreneur or small business owner to work from. Unlike with a holiday let, you’ll likely still have your weekends to yourself with this option too!

For more tips on how to make the most of your home, don’t forget to visit us on Facebook and Twitter.

¹ The Telegraph, 2015. How to make money from your garden. [Online] Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/11816715/How-to-make-money-from-your-garden.html. [Accessed 28th August 2015].

The British summer is drawing to an end but with the August Bank Holiday on the horizon and an assortment of festivals left to savour, including Reading and Bestival, there are still plenty of opportunities to jump in your campervan or pitch a tent.

Keep safe this camping season with our gas and fire tips:

1. Never bring disposable barbeques or portable heating appliances inside

   A number of campsite deaths have linked to carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning from barbeques in recent years.

   You can’t smell, see, or taste a carbon monoxide leak, and the gas can build up to fatal levels particularly quickly in enclosed spaces such as tents and caravans. So even if it looks like the coals have cooled off, never bring your portable barbeque inside, and the same rule applies for portable heating appliances that use fuels such as paraffin, gas or kerosene.

2. Install a CO alarm in your mobile home

   Fixed heating appliances in caravans and motorhomes that are flued are usually safe as toxic gases are directed outside. However, on a windy day the gases can be blown back inside, which is why it’s so important to have a carbon monoxide alarm installed so you’ll be alerted if the toxic gas is present in your temporary living quarters.

3. Regularly get your mobile home’s gas appliances serviced

   You may not be in your caravan or motorhome as often as your bricks-and-mortar home but it still needs servicing on a regular basis to prevent a gas leak putting your family in danger on your next holiday.

   To read more about gas safety inspections, click here.

4. Pitch your tent at a sensible distance from your neighbours

   If a gas explosion occurs and a fire breaks out, tents will rapidly burn due to their flammable materials. Where possible, try to keep your tent at least six metres away from other tents to reduce the spread of fire.

5. Ensure you know the campsite’s fire-fighting arrangements and where the nearest extinguishers and sources of water are located

   Find out the safeguarding information from the campsite manager, so you can be prepared should the worst happen.

   If your clothes catch fire, try not to run around in panic, as this will only fuel the flames with oxygen and make them burn faster. Instead, smother the flames with a heavy material (such as a coat or blanket) or roll on the ground until the flames go out.

For more seasonal tips and guides, don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Before plumbing, disease was rife – and it spread fast.

One major problem was that, as the Roman Empire fell (and it was the Romans who pioneered plumbing systems), people turned against their inventions, believing that getting wet actually caused illness. This contempt and fear persisted throughout the Dark Ages, and although some Europeans defied local customs by bathing, they did so against great protest. It’s reported that when Queen Elizabeth bathed, her servants entered a state of panic, as they genuinely thought she would get ill and die.

Then there was the issue of the facilities available. We may now be accustomed to certain standards for our toilets around the world, but a flushable toilet and fresh running water are relatively new concepts, and still remain a luxury for some.

Here, we look at diseases that proved to be preventable with an efficient plumbing system in place.

Bubonic plague in Europe

In past times, indoor bathroom facilities consisted of a pitcher and a commode, and all human waste was thrown into the street.

The lack of sanitation meant that urban areas filled with rodents, and disease spread quickly. The bubonic plague (commonly referred to as the Black Death) notoriously killed up to an estimated 200 million¹ people in this way, and as it peaked in Europe, up to a third of the European population was completely wiped out.

With the introduction of modern bathroom plumbing featuring flush toilets and clean water supplies, human infection is now rare, with the last epidemic occurring in America in the early 1900s.

Cholera in London, England

In the 1800s, European infant mortality rates were extremely high at between 25% and 70%. A huge factor was that in the first half of the century, densely populated areas such as London didn’t have the sanitation methods to prevent regular outbreaks of diseases like cholera. People would share a communal well to get their drinking water and they would dump waste into open pits called cesspools, or directly into the River Thames.

Cholera spreads easily through contaminated water and foods, and it kills extremely quickly, often proving fatal within hours of the first signs of infection, vomiting or diarrhoea.

In 1854, yet another outbreak struck Europe, with over 500 deaths in London’s Soho alone. Dr. John Snow traced the outbreak back to a pump in Broad Street and persuaded officials to remove the pump handle, which was a difficult task because doctors of the time believed disease was in the air, not in the water. Of course, once the water supply was cut off, the cholera outbreak abruptly seized, and Dr. Snow became renowned as the father of epidemiology.

Typhoid fever in Chicago, USA

Chicago’s population grew from a mere 350 in 1835 to more than 60,000 in 1850. Sadly, the city’s water infrastructure wasn’t set up to cope with such large-scale population growth and typhoid fever spread.

The majority of the city’s sewage was directed to the Chicago River and flowed directly back into Lake Michigan, which provided drinking water for its residents. Unsurprisingly, a cycle of disease ensued.

It took years to correct, but in the early 1900s Chicago modernised its water system and reversed the flow of many rivers and streams. Typhoid fever instances plummeted as a result.

Polio in India

India is the second most populous country in the world with an estimated population of 1.2 billion, yet its sanitisation standards fall behind much of the industrialised nations. Currently, 96 million Indians do not have access to clean drinking water and 780 million do not have a toilet, hence open defecation is common in rural areas.

The life-threatening disease Polio thrives in faecal matter and is easily transmitted via human waste. Although polio vaccinations have considerably reduced the amount of polio cases in India, the vaccine is controversial due to its high rate of injury and death in thousands of people who caught NPAFP after receiving the vaccine.

Therefore more emphasis must be placed in overhauling India’s sanitisation facilities, as the pattern is easy to see; in areas with poor sanitation, polio is common, and in areas with good sanitation, polio is scarce.

Dysentery in Rwanda

The Rwandan refugee camps set up in Zaire in 1994 struggled with outbreaks of dysentery, which at its peak was killing up to 2,000 people per day.

Human waste was building up near to the places where people cooked and ate, causing disease to spread, but once UN officials brought in purified water and encouraged refugees to use outhouses for defecation, the incidences of dysentery rapidly declined.

Sanitation prevents disease by removing the cause of transmission

The Greeks and Romans created elaborate systems of aqueducts, baths and drainage, but when the Roman Empire crumbled and sanitation became a lost art, society paid the ultimate price.

Vaccines may often take all the credit, but it’s important to remember that plumbers are fighting disease and saving lives too. Furthermore, as increasing numbers of people choose to forego vaccinations in light of concerns over aluminium and mercury content, the value of a sanitary plumbing system has never been so high.

¹ Lusaka Times, 2015. How plumbing (NOT VACCINES) eradicated disease. [Online] Available at: https://www.lusakatimes.com/2015/08/25/how-plumbing-not-vaccines-eradicated-disease/. [Accessed 26th August 2015].

London’s waste plumbing system is facing its biggest overhaul since it was first built in the 19th Century – and Londoners will pay for it.

The £4.2bn Thames Tideway Tunnel will be 15 metres (25 km) in length and aims to prevent the 39m tonnes of waste that overflows from our Victorian plumbing system every year.

The project has come under criticism due to its funding structure and lack of competition in the bidding process. However, the Thames Tideway Tunnel’s financing proposals have now been approved, and customers of Thames Water will face a water bill increase of £20-25¹ per year as a result.

How is it funded?

Thames Water set up a separate company to build and own the tunnel.

• One-third of the cost will be funded by Thames Water
• £2.8 billion will be raised by the project company
• The Government has pledged to act as an insurer, bearing any overrunning costs and covering any incidents during the construction

While customer bills will pay for the sewer, it is being financed and delivered by Bazalgette Tunnel Limited, with the utility to assume ownership once the tunnel is completed in 2023.

Professor Chris Binnie, the former chair of an assessment team that supported the super sewer a decade ago, has said that alternatives should be looked at, as a number of technological advancements since initial talks took place negate the need for such a large-scale project.

He said: “There are a number of ways of reducing [sewage] spill frequency which weren’t sufficiently developed at the time of our original report for us to recommend. Those include local sewer separation between storm water and foul water, real-time control of the sewer system and local detention tanks.”

Construction on the Thames Tideway Tunnel is set to begin next year following the grant of a licence by Ofwat and the confirmation of contracts and investors. It is the second largest infrastructure project in the UK after Crossrail.

¹ Financial Times, 2015. Financing for London’s ‘super sewer’ gets go-ahead. [Online] Available at: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e596801c-4a29-11e5-9b5d-89a026fda5c9.html#axzz3joaPo6Jr. [Accessed 25th August 2015].

There’s an assumption that modern technologies do not have a place in the trades, or that tradespeople are unwilling to adopt them, but the latest survey from Logic4training has proved these assumptions wrong.

A staggering 90%¹ of traders now own a smartphone or tablet. Electricians and gas engineers are the most likely to have embraced mobile technology, whilst plumbers are slower to the uptake, being less likely to have a website, embrace social media, and use apps for business purposes.

Considering the fact that iPhones only first came to market ten years ago, these latest findings demonstrate how integral mobile technologies have become to all aspects of our modern-day lives.

Which traders use apps at work?

• 83% of electricians
• 72% of gas engineers
• 67% of oil installers
• 44% of plumbers

Whilst the primary use of apps is likely to be to take bookings or schedule appointments, 18% of all the recipients that took part in the survey take payment through an app.

Smartphone vs. tablet? Plenty of traders are using both.

• 40% of gas engineers
• 33% of electricians
• 33% of oil installers

Interestingly, none of the plumbers surveyed use smartphones and tablets, presumably opting for one technology over the other.

Just over half of traders have a website.

In this day and age, you’d think that every business would have a website, but not all traders do. Of the traders that do have a website, electricians are leading the way in terms of mobile-friendly sites – an essential feature to reach more customers and rank higher in Google searches.

All traders said that they receive enquiries via the internet and some from traditional mediums, such as word of mouth and print advertising. Only plumbers report that the majority of their work is acquired offline.

Social media remains unexplored territory.

The industry lags behind other sectors when it comes to social media, with the majority of electricians and plumbers still not having set up a Facebook page for their business. Gas engineers do fair a little better; nearly half use Facebook and a third use Twitter.

At WPJ Heating, we want to help as many people as possible, so we have embraced modern mobile technologies. Our website is responsive, so even if you’re browsing for a local plumber or gas engineer from your mobile, it’s easy to find the information you need, plus you can book your job online by clicking on the orange button.

We have Facebook, Twitter and Google+ accounts, which we update regularly with information, news and guides that we hope you’ll find useful, and we even have an Instagram account to share pictures from some of our most unusual jobs!

¹ HPV, 2015. How techy are the trades?. [Online] Available at: http://hvpmag.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/3479/How_techy_are_the_trades_.html. [Accessed 19th August 2015].

TrustATrader, an online traders directory, is calling on its members to take part in 5k and 10k races through Battersea Park on Sunday the 18th of October 2015, all in the name of its official charity, Friends of the Elderly.

Founded in 1905, Friends of the Elderly supports older people through a number of care and community initiatives, with the aim of building a society in which all elderly citizens are treated with respect and enabled to live life to its full.

The charity’s research shows that over five million¹ older people are affected by loneliness, and this is something that plumbers, electricians and builders see for themselves every day as they go in and out of peoples’ homes to carry out maintenance and safeguarding works.

With more than one in ten older people admitting to feeling lonely, this campaign encourages neighbours to get to know each other. Popping by for a cup of tea or stopping for a chat over the garden fence really can make a huge difference in an elderly person’s life, and can enrich a younger person’s life too.

If we don’t start making a change now, it’s estimated that the amount of older people feeling lonely in the UK will rise by 40% over the next 15 years. This is due to demographic adjustments, wherein more people are living longer and often outliving their loved ones, whilst housing constraints mean more people are forced to live further away from the loved ones they do still have left.

Steve Allen, Chief Executive at Friends of the Elderly, says: “We are absolutely delighted to be working with TrustATrader to reduce loneliness in the older population. Having a team of traders running in Battersea Park to fundraise for our befriending services is the perfect launch to our partnership, and we look forward to many more traders getting involved in the future. We believe that feeling lonely or alone shouldn’t be a natural part of getting older and we aspire to a society where all older people have the opportunity to live fulfilled lives. With your support, we make that vision a reality.”

To sign up for the 5k or 10k race, click here, and don’t forget to specify that you’re running for Friends of the Elderly.

¹ PHAM News, 2015. Join Battersea Park run to support Friends of the Elderly. [Online] Available at: http://www.phamnews.co.uk/join-battersea-park-run-to-support-friends-of-the-elderly/. [Accessed 14th August 2015].

This week, an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease devastated New York, leaving at least twelve¹ people dead whilst the city’s health professionals continue their battle to contain the deadly virus.

In the UK, there are around 360 cases of Legionnaires’ disease every year, from which 30 people die².

Children, the elderly, smokers, and those with poor immune and respiratory systems are most at risk of contracting Legionnaires’, the potentially fatal form of pneumonia.

Despite such vulnerability, most people give little consideration to Legionnaires’ or its causes until it has reached the headlines, as it did this week. Sadly, once an outbreak has hit, it is too late.

How is Legionnaires’ transmitted?

Legionella pneumonophila is the bacterium responsible for Legionnaires’ disease. It got its name from the first known outbreak in 1976, where a large number of delegates at a USA Legionnaires convention contracted the disease.

The bacteria are most commonly found in water, and multiply in nutrient-rich conditions at temperatures between 20-45 degrees Celsius. The bacteria is dormant below 20 degrees Celsius and cannot survive in temperatures above 60 degrees Celsius.

The disease is contracted by inhaling small water droplets suspended in the air, known as aerosols.

Common Legionella sites in the UK: hot tubs and whirlpool baths.

Hot tubs have become very popular in the UK, with an estimated 10% of Brits owning one. Unfortunately, hot tubs are a breeding ground for Legionella bacterium due to the number of people getting in and out of them, the fact that most hot tubs are kept at a temperature of 40 degrees Celsius, and the fine mist that occurs above water level, making it easy for users to breathe in the deadly infection.

Whirlpools or spa baths are another site of infection, as although the water is likely to be changed regularly, stagnant water containing bacteria can settle in the jets and be released when the bath is next used.

And it’s not just around the home that people have to be wary, as there have been a number of outbreaks in public settings, one of the most severe of which occurred at a flower show in the Netherlands in 1999. It’s thought that the Legionella bacteria was inhaled as people paused to have a look at two new spa pool displays in the exhibition halls, tragically resulting in 133 laboratory confirmed Legionnaires’ cases, and 21 deaths.

Just three years ago, a similar case occurred at a garden centre in Stoke-on-Trent. Two men died and a further 21 people were infected during the outbreak, which started from a hot tub display.

CIPHE urge consumers to be vigilant.

The Chartered Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering (CIPHE) have launched a campaign to educate consumers about the perils of Legionella, and to provide potentially life-saving advice to prevent another outbreak occurring.

For those who own a hot tub, spa pool, or whirlpool, CIPHE advise:

• Routine disinfection
• Thorough cleaning
• Close monitoring
• Regular servicing and maintenance
• Adherence to manufacturers’ instructions

Further information on how to manage your appliances and control the risk of Legionnaires’ infection is available from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

¹ CBS New York, 2015. City Council To Debate Bill To Register, Regulate NYC Cooling Towers. [Online] Available at: http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/08/11/legionnaires-cooling-tower-bill/.
² CIPHE, 2015. Legionella Bacteria. [Online] Available at: http://www.ciphe.org.uk/consumer/safe-water-campaign/hot-tubs/.
[All information sources accessed 12th August 2015].

The River Thames may appear to be a normal, dirty, old river at first sight, but what lies in the beds of this historic river may shock you.

This is a list of the top ten most unusual things that have been found in the Thames.

1. 1. The occasional corpse
      Over the years, reports of body parts showing up in the waters of London have included chins, pelvises, arms, and even the dead body of a sheep wrapped in a duvet.Worryingly, this is not as uncommon as you might think. It is reported that, on average, a dead human body is found once a week¹ in the River Thames.

1. 1. 1. Michael Jackson
         In 1995, Michael Jackson decided to float a giant statue of himself down the Thames to promote his new album ‘HIStory’. There were a total of nine statues throughout Europe, all 10 metres in height, and 2,100 kilograms in weight. Very subtle Mike…

1. 1. 1. A goose-drawn water chariot
         In 1815, a man known as Usher the Clown floated down the river in a washing tub pulled by four geese, all the way from Southwark Bridge to Vauxhall.

1. 1. Wilma the Whale
      A national treasure, Wilma the Whale was watched by an international audience as she lost her way up the Thames. Crowds gathered on Battersea Bridge to see her, the 16-foot northern bottlenose, swimming upstream.Despite the rescuers best efforts, Wilma tragically died just outside of Margate.

1. 1. An ice-cream van
      In celebration of National Ice Cream Week, Cadbury’s created the HMS Flake 99, a Landrover adapted to be an ice cream van.Floating up and down the Thames, playing ‘We Are Sailing’ by Rod Stewart and sporting the slogan ‘Licensed to Chill’, the ice cream van really gave James Bond a run for his money.

1. 1. A hippo
      Artist Florentijn Hofman navigated a giant model of a hippopotamus from Greenwich to Nine Elms to celebrate the mark of the start of Totally Thames 2014. The artist is also well known for floating a giant rubber duck through the Thames.

1. 1. Blood-sucking eel
      Described as an eel-like creature, with a sucker-shaped mouth surrounded by teeth, and pre-dating the dinosaur, the sea lamprey was declared extinct in the 1960s. However, in 2009, a young boy found a 40cm-long sea lamprey in the Thames!

1. 1. The Battersea Shield
      Time for a history lesson: Estimated to date back to 350-50 BC, this piece of bronze was found in the bed of the Thames by Chelsea Bridge in 1857.Historians question whether the bridge may have been Julius Caesar’s crossing of the Thames, as other weapons have also been found from the same period.

1. 1. Cocaine
      It is estimated that almost 2kg² of cocaine are passed into the Thames each day. Some reports have even said that there are traces of the drug in our drinking water.

1. A Nazi dagger
   A Nazi dagger, in excellent condition, was found in the beds of the Thames. A lightning symbol features on the dagger, representing the SA (Hitler’s military force). It is assumed that a British soldier brought the dagger back after the war.

¹ The Guardian, 2015. Watery grave. [Online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2004/dec/15/features11.g2.
² The Telegraph, 2015. The Thames: awash with cocaine. [Online] Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3325948/The-Thames-awash-with-cocaine.html.
[Accessed 10th August 2015].

Beyond having the right qualifications, customers want their plumber to be personable and up-to-date on the latest legislation changes, recent research by bathrooms manufacturer Bristan has revealed¹.

• 64% of respondents deem keeping on top of legislative changes to be the key requirement that sets an excellent engineer or installer apart from the rest
• 8% of respondents placed an awareness of smart technology as essential
• 7% want their plumber to be knowledgeable of new products
• 7% think that the most important thing is that their plumber can work ‘super quickly’

When it comes to personality and physical traits, plumbers with excellent people skills are highly regarded amongst their fellow professionals.

• 42% think that good people skills are what makes a pro plumber
• 34% believe the best plumbers take pride in their work

None of the respondents viewed physical strength and patience as necessary to perform a plumbing task.

For those working in the plumbing industry, most plumbers thoroughly enjoy what they do and would encourage their children to follow in their footsteps.

However, 86% of plumbing professionals feel they don’t get the credit they deserve, citing the main reason for this being that people underestimate the importance of their role in society, and just how essential the trade is.

Craig Rendall, director of trade sales at Bristan said: “While a very rewarding job, the modern plumbing role isn’t necessarily an easy one. As our results show, not only do today’s qualified plumbers have to keep up with a constantly changing legislation load and technological advancements but, given the nature of the job, it’s just as important to go above and the beyond the call of duty when it comes to their customers’ wellbeing.

“As such, it is a shame to see that today’s plumbers don’t feel as appreciated as they should – after all, they have a very important role to play in helping consumers and ensuring a safe water supply for all.”

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE TO READ: WOULD YOU RATHER LIVE NEXT DOOR TO A PLUMBER OR A DOCTOR? »

¹ HPV Mag, 2015. ‘Perfect plumber’ poll highlights personable character and awareness of new legislation as key traits. [Online] Available at: http://hvpmag.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/3447/_Perfect_plumber__poll_highlights_personable_character_and_awareness_of_new_legislation_as_key_traits.html. [Accessed 10th August 2015].