Beyond Solar: Energy Efficient Living by admin

Occasionally, I’ll post some tips to more energy efficient living. This is our first round in a series that hopefully will compile most of the information that is out there already and some original thinking.  Much of this comes from aggregated post, blogs, newsletters I’ve gathered over the last weeks. If you have a tip to greener living you’d like to share please send me an email, I’ll post it for the benefit of us all!

Energy Efficient Living Manual – Chapter 1

Lower your thermostat and put on a sweater, a shawl or a hat: you’ll look stylish. You’ll be saving yourself some dollars, and saving the earth some extra carbon. And you skin will thank you for that – cooler air is better than dry overheated one.

When buying a washer, choose a Front Loader, they’re more efficient, most come with short cycle (my favorite) and you can load them up to max and still have clean laundry.

Air-dry your clothes whenever possible. Buy a clothesline; put it up in your bathroom, your veranda, in your backyard.

If you have no choice but to use the dryer, clean the lint trap before loading it. If the air can flow freely your dryer won’t work overtime to compensate, you’ll save up to 30% energy on each load according to the Sierra Club. Occasionally, wash the lint trap mesh to remove cleanup from dryer sheets and other small material.

Fix the flush and any dripping faucets. The waste of water can represent hundreds of gallons a year for a leaking flush or dripping faucet. How much water does a standard toilet uses per flush? If it’s a pre-1980s toilet between 5 to 7 gallons. For a post-1980s, 3.5 gallons per flush, for the newest low-flow models it’s about 1.6 gallons per flush. If you have an old toilet model, you can install a homemade displacement device – which is basically a plastic bottle filled with sand or pebbles placed inside the tank, it reduces the amount of water flushed each time. Ideally you’ll want to replace your old talk with a lowflow tank. Most cities have some form of rebate program for energy and resources saving appliances and equipment.

Change your shower head to a water efficient showerhead. Besides taking shorter showers, you can help reducing your water consumption by changing to a water efficient showerhead. Most will use about 1.6 gallons of water per minute (gpm) as opposed to the standard 2.5 gpm or more. If you are like most Americans, your average shower time is 10 minutes that is 10 Gallons of water a day, 14,600 liters of water not wasted each year, just by changing your shower head.

Unplug your Appliances and Kill That costly Watt: Unplug your appliances (computer, fax, cell phone, TV, radio) or get a multiplug outlet with an ON/OFF switch. Even when not working your appliances are still using energy called “phantom power”, “standby power” or “leaking electricity”. Unplugging cuts off that drainage

You can use a neat device Kill a Watt to determine how much ‘drainage’ you are getting from your appliances. You’ll be surprised by how expensive that “phantom power” really is.

Upgrade your light bulbs to CFLs. We’ve heard that one before, but if you haven’t yet, bite the bullet and just do it. For those who are still working through this. CFL stands for Compact Fluorescent Light bulb. Most CFLs are designed to replace an incandescent lamp and can fit in your existing light fixtures; they give the same amount of light than incandescent, use less power and have a longer rated life. In the United States, a CFL can save over $30 in electricity costs over the lamp’s lifetime compared to an incandescent lamp and save 2000 times its own weight in greenhouse gases.

and… Turn Off the Lights.
… right.

If you are interested in lowering the cost of solar energy for your home by buying in a group, sign up at 1bog.org today.