Laundry blues...

Well, you'd be blue too if you were in a cold tub of water... really though, most clothes only need cold water. You can conserve more water heating energy by doing most or all of the laundry in cold water (the clothes really don't complain).

For all the details, I will refer you to someone who has already done all the math to show you the savings... Click the link below to visit treehugger.com (one of my favorite sites).

Wash Laundry in Cold Water by Colin Dunn on TreeHugger

Thanks,
Joe

Longer showers!

Yes, longer showers. Many of us have heard about one method of saving water by taking shorter showers. This reduces total water use and also reduces energy used to heat the water.

However, if you install a newer eco-friendly showerhead, you may actually be able to take longer showers without using any more water than before. The older "eco"shower heads barely felt like a shower at all, more like a trickle of water. However, today's technology has provided us with showerheads which both reduce water consumption and still feel like a shower.

I am not trying to promote Wal-mart here, but I am providing a link to which almost anyone who reads this will have access to. The link below is just an example of one of the newer showerheads which can help you take a longer shower and still be environmentally friendly...

Moen-Eco-Performance-Shower-Head

Thanks,
Joe

Car maintenance...

Being "green" does not mean you need to go out and buy a hybrid or electric car; though that would be cool, we can't all afford to do that. Doing regular maintenance on you current car is very important for both the life of the car and the environment.

Keeping you car in tip-top shape will keep it efficient. Skipping oil changes and letting that "noise" go for long periods of time will not only speed up the rate that your auto degrades, but they also hurt the environment. If your car is not running efficiently, you may need to use more fuel to go the same distance. Fuel use is part of your carbon footprint.

Something as simple as ensuring your tires are at the correct PSI will improve the vehicle efficiency. Some gas stations still offer free air while others may charge up to $1 for a few minutes, but that is a small price for something so easy.

There is still some argument about whether you really need to perform or get an oil change every 3 months or 3,000 miles or if it can be longer, but the high end of recommended time is 5 months or 5,000 miles. That's still less than skipping an oil change.

Learning the basics about car maintenance are not really required if you can at least pay attention to your car. If it starts making a sound that it did not make before, there is usually a reason for it and often that reason is not a good sign.

So, keep up on the keeping up for making your car last longer and helping the environment!
Thanks,
-Joe

Lights out...

Make it a contest for the kids. See who can turn out the most lights before leaving the house. Only one kid? Make it a timed contest. Turning out the lights when they are not in use just makes good sense. Getting into the habit is not always easy though. When it is a timed contest, they will begin turning them all off so the time to get the last few will be better when it's time to leave.

A 60 watt bulb in a lamp uses 60 watts of electricity per hour. My utility company charges me about a dime per killowatt of electricity. That means that I would pay about $4.64 for that 60watt lamp if I left it on for a month. Calculations: 31 days X 24 hours X 60 watts = 44640 watts / 1000 (kw) X 0.1 (the dime) = $4.64. Now I know not many people would leave the lamp on for the whole month, but those figures are just to give youan idea of the costs.

Everything we plug into an outlet uses electricity and can be measured in watts. Lights are just one of the easiest things we can remember to turn off. Check out the things you are using, there is almost always a sticker somewhere on the device that will tell you how many watts it uses and that is always per hour. Try adding it up and see where else you can save!

Thanks,
-Joe

Capturing "energy" in rainwater...

One of our most precious resources is water. Some of you may be thinking, water? Isn't the earth 70% water? Well, there are lots of studies and research on the earths water, but only about 1% of that water is useable. Useable for drinking, flushing, washing, gardening, etc.; only one percent!

What does that mean for you? Well, I guess that depends on where you live. In some places useable water is scarcer than in others. No mater where you live though, you can still capture water. The easiest way is captuing rain water in a barrel. You can also draw water out of the ground with an inverted cone and catch basin. There are acutally numerous methods.

The rain barrel method is the easiest for me. In the north east United States, there is a fair amount of rain, but not as much as the north west US. This makes capturing rain water a feasible option for the short dry spells between rains.

Here are a couple resources on rain barrels from HGTV:
Step by Step Instructions
Description video on How-To

If those aren't enough info for you, please let me know and I will help you get it done!

Thanks,
-Joe

Improvements?

What can I do to help you? Most of my posts here are designed to offer you tips on becoming more environmentally friendly, but is there more I can do to help you? Would you like to see links to examples? Would you like to see sites which show these tips already in use? Do you want numbers when I mention savings?

Let me know how I can help my posts become more effective for you.

Thanks,
-Joe

Power strips...

I am sure that most of you know, by now, that many of our current digital electronics do not turn off when we hit the power button. These devices go into standby mode which reduces power consumption but does not stop it completely. Also, cords used to charge cordless devices which have the adapter built into the cord are using power even when the device is not charging. Although those things do not use much power individually, their usage can add up when you have a lot of them in your home.

A simple solution is to use power strips that have their own on/off button. Plug your charging cords into one strip and turn off the strip when use take your computer, phone and MP3 player out for the day. Plug all the devices in your entertainment center into one strip and turn it off when everyone leaves for work and school. While you may only save a few watts of usage in a day, over the course of a year the savings can add up to a significant amount.

Power strips usually cost less than $10 and ones with surge protection may cost a little more. So, with the purchase of these few small extra devices and a small change in your routine, you can reduce your carbon footprint and your electricity bill!

Thanks,
-Joe

Procastination...

It would be nice if "stuff" just did itself; of course, nothing gets done without doing it. The same as doing the dishes, laundry or dusting, if you don't practice "green" methods, they will not get done either. Luckily for us, most things that will help reduce carbon footprints and help the environment take waaay less time than the daily chores and are often far easier too.

A few simple things that come to mind: use cold water for all laundry loads, your laundry will still get clean and you use less fuel by not heating the water; compost your food waste, not only will you be creating the compost, you will be reducing landfill; and mow the lawn less, yes, less, a longer lawn will actually grow healthier and you use less fuel by mowing less frequently. I don't mean you should try growing a jungle where your lawn is now, but an extra inch or two can still have a manicured appearance (raise the wheels or the blades on the mower).

So, get to it and make life easier and better! :)

-Joe

Gardening

(Cartoon found at Todays Cartoon)

Growing a vegetable garden can be a lot of work or costly, but worth the effort. There is no store (except maybe a farmer's market) that comes close to the taste of vegetables that you grow yourself. I think part of it is knowing you put in teh effort to produce whatever green you are eating, but freshness is the biggest part of it. Picking something out of the soil, off the vine or from the stalk and serving it immediately just makes it taste better. Live in the city? Don't think you can do a garden? Just google "urban gardening" and be awed at the results...

Single Stream Recycling.

Many townships and some cities have begun using this new method for recyclable sorting. "Single stream" means the consumer does not have to sort in advance, instead all recyclables go into a single collection container and a single truck. The sorting begins with the service collector. As the bin is dumped into the truck, (s)he will pull out anything that is obviously not recyclable and leave it in the bin or throw to the garbage if it has not yet been collected.

At the processing facility a combination of human efforts and mechanical seperators are used to ensure that everything is sent to the proper collection pile. Paper, cardboard, tin/steel, aluminum, clear plastics, colored plastics, clear glass and colored glass all go different directions. I know many people believe that if the recyclables go into one truck they must just go to the dump. Well, I have seen the facility my town uses and it really does work. I am not sure if it is really cost effective(yet), but it is good none-the-less.

So, when you feed the cat or make the chili or eat the last donut, toss the container in the recycling bin, not the garbage. It will reduce landfill usage and new materials required for future containers.

Thanks,
-Joe

Lemonade...

You know the adage, "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade"... well, I got some lemonade to make.

I use the craigslist free section religiously when I have the time to spend on it and I can often come up with some pretty good stuffs. I recently picked up a 2500 gallon pool which I only had to spend about $75 in parts to make functional. I also found a really nice antique china cabinet which now graces our kitchen. Today, I went to get a very nice heavy duty wooden "jungle gym," all I had to do was dismantle it to get it. Similar ones sell for around $1000 so I thought I was gonna get a good deal. Thought being the key word.

I got about half of it apart with out too much difficulty, but the other half was a bear and essentially soured the deal. That's where the lemons come in. The guy had built it himself and he built it to last. Each joint was connected with a 3/8"x4" bolt, but that was not enough. Each joint also had the added connection strength of a few nails. Not just any nails, but those nice corkscrew type that are supposed to prevent loosening when the structure is wiggled. the nails were also put in on each side of each joint and each at a different angle versus just straight in (all parallel to each other). Good deal for him; it served his kids well for almost 10 years.

What he got today was some free demolition. Attempting to get those joints apart pretty much destroyed the wood. So, now I have a whole bunch of lumber which is full of corkscrew nails and cannot be turned back into a nice heavy duty "jungle gym" for the kids.

I thought about just taking it all to the dump, but I would have to pay for that and then the purpose of using craigslist free section is totally defeated. I would essentially have had to pay for giving someone else five hours of manual labor.

So, I make lemonade. I will get the rest of the nails out at a leisurely pace and then use the lumber to build something else. Maybe I will make the shed I was looking for so I can get all teh garden tools off the back porch.

Why is this post here? "Reduce, Reuse. Recycle." :)

-Joe

A Great Book.

One of my professors, who just recently retired after more than 40 years teaching, recommended a book to me. I liked the book so much and found it so informative that I am passing the recommendation on to you. The book is called "World on the Edge" by Lester Brown. It tells quite a bit about what humans have done to harm the environment, what is irrevocable and what is not. It also goes into a great many things we, the human race, can do and are doing to prevent global destruction due to lack of resources. If you have ever heard of "Plan B" in relation to global warming (climate change), then you will already have a good understanding of what's in this book. If not, you will be astonished at what is happening around you!

Be Green?

Do you want to be "green?"  There are hundreds of sites out there telling about all these really big ways to be more environmentally friendly.  Some of them are really good resources and if you have the time you can find everything you want.  Reducing your carbon footprint is not difficult or costly.  There are a lot of thing you can do that will not cost you anything and some that may even save you money while simultaneously helping the environment.

Finding these things on the internet and then finding a way to apply them in your home is not always easy.  That's where I come in.  I can come to your home and do an evaluation of your current resource usage and then show you ways that you can reduce consumption and/or increase efficiency.

Sound good? Sound easy?  It is.  Of course I will charge for my service, everyone has got to make a buck.  I will not charge much, usually about $20 for a quick evaluation.

Want more info? Contact me at greenjoeblog@gmail.com or call 585-310-blog (2564)

Thanks,
Joe