Sunday, April 11, 2010

Saving the Environment at Home





  1. Turn off appliances. Turn of the computer, and the computer monitor when not in use. Approximately 40% of the time computers are in use, they are idle with no operator. Turn off the lights that are not necessary. Use your judgment and determine when to turn off lights at night or day. There are timers that can be put on to control automatic lighting. Unplug major devices that are not in use. Cable boxes and digital receivers still consume about 40 watts- that adds up to hundreds of dollars a month.
  2. Lower your thermostat. In winter, try to maintain air flow between rooms by not closing the doors unnecessarily. Find the best temperature setting. Try to put a thermostat in every room to give you better control. One degree change can save you a big percentage, as the heater will be idle longer. In summer, try to use efficient air conditioners and do use the thermostat. It can lower your consumption by half.
  3. Switch to florescent lighting. It can save 30% of your electric bills.
  4. Let dishes dry by mere air flow. Just turn off the dishwasher before it drys the dishes. Just leave the door slightly opened and the air will dry the dishes.
  5. Wash clothes with warm or cold water instead of hot. Your clothes will get just as clean.
  6. Copy and print on both sides of paper.
  7. Clean Your Fridge. Refrigerators use a tremendous amount of energy every year. To cut down on waste, clean the condenser coils every year. Also, do not keep the temperature unnecessarily low.
  8. Recharge Your Batteries. If you recharge your batteries, you will save money and help stop multiple environmental problems. You can prevent potentially hazardous metals from getting into landfills or the air, where they can be dangerous. So, buy rechargeable batteries and recharge them.
  9. Stop Junk Mail. If you stopped all the junk mail that comes to your house, you would save the equivalent of 1.5 trees every year.
  10. Use Reusable Goods. Everything that you throw away at home ends up in a landfill. Whenever you can, use reusable goods in place of disposable goods. For example, in the kitchen, use rags instead of paper towels.
  11. Just say no to plastic bags.The plastic bags you bring home from the supermarket probably end up in a landfill. Every year, more than 500 billion plastic bags are distributed, and less than 3% of those bags are recycled. They are typically made of polyethylene and can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade in landfills that emit harmful greenhouse gases. Reducing your contribution to plastic-bag pollution is as simple as using a cloth bag (or one made of biodegradable plant-based materials) instead of wasting plastic ones. For your next trip to the grocery store.
  12. Use the microwave to cook small meals. It usses less power than an oven.
  13. Keep drinking water in the refrigerator instead of letting the faucet run until the water is cool.
  14. Wash your teeth with cold water. You normally are finished by the time the water gets hot anyway. The cold is more pure since hot water tanks are source of impurities.
  15. Do not flush sanitary napkins or Kleenex down the toilet. It wastes water and septic space, whether public sewer or private sepic system. It is expensive to pump out your septic system.
  16. Do not dump any oils or other hazadous wastes into the sewer. This changes the chemical balance in your public sewer system, and can cause extra maintenance to your septic.
  17. Leave the milk, eggs, juice out in the morning so refrigerator is opened only once. You will save energy if you leave these items out of 45 minutes instead of bringing them out each time someone else needs them.
  18. Use cold water to fill the teapot or sacepan. It heats almost as fast, costs less and has fewer impurities.
  19. Go paperless.There are so many benefits from going paperless, mainly by signing up for online services. Your information will be more secure, you’ll save a lot of paper and help businesses cut down on the costs of mailings. Imagine having to get rid of an extra filing cabinet or two at home!
  20. Use traps instead of rat and mouse poisons and insect killers.
  21. Put leaves in a compost heap instead of burning them or throwing them away. Yard debris too large for your compost bin should be taken to a yard-debris recycler.
  22. Take your car to a car wash instead of washing it in the driveway.
  23. Maintain and repair durable products instead of buying new ones.
  24. Buy used furniture – there is a surplus of it, and it is much cheaper than new furniture.
  25. When using an oven, minimize door opening while it is in use. it reduces oven temperature by 25 to 30 every time you open the door.
  26. Join a carpool to get to work.

8 comments:

  1. Some really nice tips, except.... use a microwave instead of your oven? Better for the environment - maybe, I don't know.

    Better for your health? Definitely not. See here: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/05/18/microwave-hazards.aspx it's scary stuff.

    And who cleans their teeth in warm water?! Is that a typo?

    There's a few more good tips in this article: http://www.stormclad.co.uk/blog/15-ways-to-save-the-world-from-home/

    I like the idea of not preheating fan ovens - I never knew that was an option.....

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