Here's a few tips from the Environmental News Service:
Decorating:
Consider replacing older strings of holiday lights with more energy efficient light emitting diodes, LEDs. Ask your lighting supplier for LED holiday bulbs, or look for them on the Internet. Now available in green, orange, gold, red, white and blue, they're shatterproof, shock resistant and safe to touch. They present no fire hazard and save up to 80-90 percent of your decorative lighting energy costs.
If LEDs are not an option, consider buying new miniature lights, which use about 70 percent less energy and last longer than the larger bulbs.
If you prefer the brilliance of the larger lights, switch to 5-watt bulbs, which use about 30 percent less energy than 7-watt or 10-watt bulbs. Although the new bulbs will cost money initially, you will see energy savings immediately.
Cooking:
Using the smallest appliance for the job while cooking during the holidays will always save energy. Microwave ovens use less than half the energy required by a conventional oven.
Use the smallest pan and burner needed for the job. A six-inch pan on an eight-inch burner will waste more than 40 percent of the energy. Cook with lids on your pans. For example, cooking pasta without a lid on the pot can use three times as much energy.
You can read the rest here.
The Programmable Thermostat
Programmable thermostats are excellent for conserving energy in the home. According to the US Department of Energy website, homeowners can save $180 a year using such thermostats.
Energy Star-grade thermostats allow you four pre-programmed settings: (wake, day, evening, sleep). The point is to have automatic settings so that you conserve heating and cooling energy in the times (or seasons) when you don't need it as much.
Check out the Dept. of Energy's guidelines for tips on maintaining your thermostat.
What is Solar Power?
Solar. It's the new buzzword of the 21st century. It's been touted as the final frontier in green energy. So what is solar power and how can you harvest it for your own benefit?
Solar power involves the conversion and processing of sunlight into electricity. The first commercial solar plants were built in the 1980s, in--where else--sunny California. There's still some concern over whether our current system for harvesting and converting energy is efficient enough to provide enough power for all of our energy needs, but solar tech has evolved so rapidly over the last few years that it may be even more of a reality in the near future.
Solar is so attractive as a power source because it's clean (as in, doesn't emit carbon radiation), it's a free, inexhaustible source of energy, and it can be used for low- and high- power purposes. So how can you implement it in your home?
Solar Panels
If you want to go for the big guns, expect to spend anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000 on panels in your home. Installing panels doesn't mean taking your whole home off the grid, though -- you'll still be supplemented by traditional electricity when it's too cloudy or rainy outside to generate enough power from the sun. If you're overproducing solar energy, then you'll actually get a credit from the electricity company!
Solar Hot Water
If the panels are too expensive, then consider getting a solar heating system for your home. "Active" solar water heaters have circulating pumps and controls. According to the US Department of Energy, there are two kinds of "active" heaters: direct and indirect systems. Direct systems "circulate household water through the collectors and into the home." Indirect systems "circulate a non-freezing, heat-transfer fluid through the collectors and a heat exchanger."
Passive systems are less expensive and usually less efficient, too. Take a look here for some of the differences between passive systems.
Appliances
There are a number of solar appliances that you can use to lessen mounting electricity costs in your home. Here are a few:
Solar Radios. Small solar radios can be extremely helpful in an emergency. Most popular models have about a 20-hour battery life.
Solar Ovens. Solar ovens can be used for anything that you'd cook in a gas or electric oven; it also takes as much time to cook food as a conventional oven would. You can purchase one for less than $300 at many online retailers in the United States.
That's it for our special solar feature. Check back for more!
How to Stop Energy Vampires
Energy vampires are everywhere in your house. Do you know how to spot them -- and stop them from wasting your precious resources?
According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, energy vampires are devices that "are ready to operate or receive signals at all times," which causes them to "act like vampires silently sucking away energy even when they are turned 'off.'" Also known as "standby" or "phantom energy," it amounts to about five percent of total energy consumed in a household per year.
If you need to rid yourself of energy vampires, take a gander at these common culprits:
Cell phones, cordless phones, microwave oven, laptop computer, wireless router, speaker system, lcd computer system.
The US Department of Energy estimates that these vampires cost Americans about $4 billion a year in wasted energy. PCWorld estimates that that spending could cost each family at least $130 a year. So, how do you get rid of them?
1. Unplug Or Strip Down
"Smart" power strips can monitor your energy use and automatically cut vampire energy. Some devices should probably left on to avoid resetting -- like a digital clock, for example -- but smart strips usually come with a remote control that allows you to specify, with ease, which devices to turn off and when.
2. Check Labels
An easier way to cut down your energy waste would be to buy low-energy devices in the first place. The US Department of Energy's Energy Star-labelled devices are already low-power enough for general use.
If you want to test for energy vampires in your home, you can use the Kill-a-Watt energy meter to measure power consumption over time.
Saving the World for Cheap: Efficient Light Bulbs
If you're looking for a way to green your home and save money, look no further than energy-efficient light bulbs! The US Department of Energy estimates that an ENERGY STAR-grade bulb -- that is, a bulb that meets federal government standards for efficiency -- can save about $6 a year in energy costs and $40 over its entire lifetime. The main alternatives to typical incandescent bulbs are LEDs (light emitting diodes) and CFLs (compact florescent lights). Here are some of the differences:
LEDs
LEDs use up to 75% less energy than incandescent bulbs. Sure, the upfront costs can be high -- $40 for the most popular brand, a Philips 12-watt Ambient LED. It can last for 25,000 hours and is dimmable as well. MSN Real Estate estimates that the cost of the bulb can be recouped in three years, with savings of just under $12.80. (The bulb itself should last for 12 years.)
CFLs
Compact florescent lights have the cost advantage against LEDs: you can buy ENERGY STAR grade ones for about $2 a pack, and they last a good 9,000 more hours than incandescents. They also use about 1/5 of the power of incandescents, resulting in a lower energy cost for you in the long run. The downside is that CFLs contain the toxic substance mercury, so you can't dispose of them easily. Home Depot now offers CFL recycling services in all of its retail locations; check your local garbage services or governmental agency to determine their protocol for disposal.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)