*The Five Great Green Ideas for the Fall
- Put a timer on your hot-water heater. Especially if you're not home for hours at a time on a regular schedule. There's no need for your hot water heater to keep running 24/7. Turn it off a few hours a day (or a few hours every night) and save.
Oh, and if you're going away for a few days, turn your hot-water heater off altogether. It doesn't need to be running while no one is home.
- Finally change the last of your old bulbs to CFLs. It’s getting darker earlier, and that means we need more lighting. Be green and save energy.
- Install solar accent lights outside your house. Pretty soon, you’ll be coming home from work in the dark. Why keep an outside lamp on all day for the few minutes you’ll need it when you come home. You can pick up nice solar lamps for a few bucks each. Put them around your door and they’ll charge up during the day and illuminate your way home after a long day at the office.
- Go green with LED flashlights. If you like long evening walks, or if you’re a dog owner, chances are you’re going to get caught out after dark. Pick up an LED flashlight, which will provide a great illumination while using only a tiny amount of energy. Batteries will last virtually forever, or you can get versions that plug into the wall or come with solar chargers. I’ve replaced all of my flashlights with LEDs and haven’t had to recycle a bulky D battery in years.
- Stock up on sweaters, thermals, and fleece. Okay, this tip has nothing to do with technology, but wearing more layers means you won’t have to turn your heat on quite so high. So to me, it counts.
*Source: www.sustainlane.com
 10 Simple (and Cheap) Green Ideas
*Source www.care2.com
- Each degree you turn down the heat saves 3 percent of heating costs, while each degree you raise the temperature of your air conditioner saves 3-4 percent of cooling costs. By changing the temperature by 2 degrees all year, you can save about 2,000 pounds of C02 a year.
- Cook with a slow cooker or a toaster oven (or even a solar oven!) to reduce electrical use from kitchen appliances. For a meal that requires one hour to cook in an electric oven, and which uses 2.7 pounds of Co2, a crock-pot uses 0.9 pounds of Co2 for seven hours, a toaster oven 1.3 pounds of Co2 for 50 minutes, and a microwave only 0.5 pounds of Co2 for 15 minutes of cooking A solar cooker requires NO Co2!
- Switch to a laptop instead of using a desktop computer and cut three-quarters off your electrical use. Turn off the laptop at the end of the day.
- Switch to cold water washing and save 80 percent on energy used for laundry and save an estimated $60 a year. Hang dry your clothes instead of using the dryer and save 700 pounds of C02 a year.
- Plug anything that can be powered by a remote control or that has a power cube transformer (little black box) into a power strip, and turn it off, and/or unplug, when not in use. (Power cubes are 60-80 percent inefficient.)
- Turn off the lights when you aren’t using them and reduce your direct lighting energy use by 45 percent. Stop using heat-producing halogen lamps (they can also be fire hazards). Install occupancy or motion sensors on outdoor lights.
- Switch to compact fluorescent from regular incandescent bulbs and use 60 percent less energy per bulb and save 300 pounds of C02 a year.
- Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket and save 1,000 pounds of C02 a year. Insulate your hot water pipes.
- Use public transportation whenever possible, carpool, shop locally, and ideally switch to a hybrid or energy-efficient car (if you haven’t already).
- Keep your tires inflated to improve gas mileage by 3 percent. Every gallon you save also saves 20 pounds of C02 emissions.
Please feel free to let us know if you have any suggestions regarding recycling or if you have any ideas about innovative “green” ideas.
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