03 Aug 09 Go Green And Save Energy

You may not realize, but an overwhelming percentage of the energy that you consume in the household comes from waste. Whether it be just not handling energy usage sparingly, or not even realizing the things that you could be changing in your lifestyle to make a positive difference on the amount of resources that you are consuming. Changing your electricity usage habits is not only a very positive move for the environment, but also will help you to save money on that electrical bill. You’d actually probably be very surprised at the difference that being more environmentally friendly makes on your wallet, as most changes will leave you being a more green person, with more green in your wallet.

A few tips to be better about your energy usage include:

-Each degree you turn down your thermostat in the winter, or up in the summer, saves around 3% of your overall heating/cooling bill.

-Using cold water instead of hot water to wash your clothes is another good option to save a ton of energy. Using cold water saves 80-70% of the power that you use on your washing machine. Not only is this a fantastic energy saver, but also cold water tends to protect your clothing’s original color better than warm/hot water does in the long run.

-Every home has a computer now, but desktop PC’s are huge power wasters, regardless of the way that you arrange your settings to save energy. Consider switching to a laptop. As long as you put in the time and effort, you can find a laptop that can do everything that you would use your desktop for, and you’ll use only about 1/3 as much power as a desktop PC.

-Finally, consider something as simple as just keeping your tires inflated to the proper extent. Ensuring your tires are properly inflated means that you can save upwards of 5% on your usual gas mileage. Keep in mind that every gallon of extra gas that you can keep from using, you can save a tone of carbon emissions from being spewed into the air, polluting the atmosphere, and ever living animal’s lungs.

Tags: Atmosphere, Carbon Emissions, Cold Water, Desktop Pc, Electrical Bill, Electricity Usage, Energy Saver, Energy Usage, Extent, Gas Mileage, Heating Cooling, Hot Water, Laptop, Mileage, Overwhelming Percentage, Thermostat, Tires, Usage Habits, Wallet, Washing Machine

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08 Jul 09 5 Ways To Help The Environment You Hadn’t Thought Of

There are plenty of ways to be more environmentally friendly without really changing your lifestyle in a way that will affect your daily routine in any sort of negative way. In fact there are plenty of ways to be much more environmentally friendly, that are also fairly easy to accommodate, that you probably haven’t even thought about. And here are five tips that you may not have considered that will bring you five steps closer to reversing that carbon footprint you’re leaving behind:

Eat a meatless meal at least once a week.
Unplug chargers when not in use.
Don’t preheat your stove.
Read the news online, opposed to buying a newspaper or magazine.
Use compact fluorescent light bulbs.

If you’re a meat eater, one thing you probably don’t realize is that meat exhausts a massive amount of resources to maintain and produce. From feeding/transporting the animals, to processing their carcasses, a lot of irreplaceable fossil fuels are exhausted, not to mention carbon emissions are released into the environment. Fruits and Vegetables cause far fewer resources to be exhausted in route to you at the grocery store. I’m not saying go vegetarian, but just cut it down a little bit. You’ll be healthier, and the environment will become a little bit more healthy with you.

Your charger for your cell phone, or any other portable device, will continue to draw power when plugged in to a wall socket, whether your device is present or not. This wastes energy, and also costs you more money on your electricity bill, for absolutely no reason. So save some green, and help yourself go green by unplugging any charger that isn’t currently in use.

When cooking a meal that will take over an hour in a stove to cook, don’t preheat your oven. The preheat time will only waste energy that doesn’t need to be consumed through a preheat process. Something like a roast doesn’t need a preheating process beforehand, and you’ll save energy this way. Also you can turn your oven off ten minutes prior to the meal’s cooking time ends, and the heat will remain to cook the food, but you will be consuming a little bit less energy by shutting the stove off early.

Newspapers and magazines are recyclable, but the problem is that very few people dispose of them in the proper fashion, so most newspapers and magazines just end up as more trash polluting our world. Instead cut down on the amount of trash, as well as the resources consumed to produce them, by just reading the same articles and news online via the internet instead.

Compact bulbs might be more expensive at the store, but they use 75% less energy than conventional light bulbs, and they last 10 times longer, making the energy savings alone worth the price. Plus it will actually save you more money in the long run. And Mother Earth will thank you for your efforts to conserve power.

Tags: Carbon Emissions, Carbon Footprint, Carcasses, cell phone, Chargers, Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs, Daily Routine, Electricity Bill, Five Steps, Fluorescent Light Bulbs, Fossil Fuels, Fruits And Vegetables, Fruits Vegetables, Grocery Store, Lifestyle, Little Bit, Meat Eater, Meatless Meal, Wall Socket, Ways To Help The Environment

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03 Jul 09 Tips To Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

The word carbon footprint gets thrown around a lot these days, amid concerns about the effect mankind is having on the environment. But what is a carbon footprint exactly? Well to put it simply, it’s the measure of the amount of carbon dioxide that gets put into the atmosphere as you go about your daily life. Basically everything involving technology emits harmful greenhouse gases like these, as almost everything in our society today involves travel, and every bit of that travel on gas powered vehicles does damage to the environment. But there are some easy ways that you can adjust your life and begin to make a difference, and most importantly reduce the carbon footprint you are stamping on our atmosphere.

Firstly you can do something as simple as turning your thermostat to be a few degrees colder in the winter, and a few degrees warmer in the summer. This won’t affect you in a negative way, as it will be a slight temperature change, but the difference to how much energy you’ll be using up will really add up in the long run. This reduces your carbon footprint, and saves you money in the long run.

Use a dishwasher whenever possible to wash your dishes, as these use less hot water than washing dishes by hand, on average. Hot water is bad, because it exhausts energy and causes more carbon emissions to be released into the environment. So you should shy away from using too much all the time. This means taking shorter showers, and washing your clothes in cold water. Or in fact take a cold shower every once in a while. Studies suggest that cold showers are better for your health, as they strengthen your immune system, and help increase circulation and blood flow throughout your body.

Turn off your lights when you leave a room, even if you’re only going to be gone for a short period of time, as this will conserve more energy than you think. Use a microwave instead of your stove whenever possible, as a microwave uses far less energy than your stove. And just in general follow guidelines like these for using less energy. It’s great for the environment, and will also save you money in the long run.

Tags: Blood Flow, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Footprint, Circulation, Cold Shower, Cold Showers, Cold Water, Dishwasher, Few Degrees, Greenhouse Gases, Hot Water, Immune System, Mankind, Microwave, Period Of Time, Short Period, Temperature Change, Thermostat, Washing Dishes

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03 Aug 09 Go Green And Save Energy

08 Jul 09 5 Ways To Help The Environment You Hadn’t Thought Of

03 Jul 09 Tips To Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

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