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Posts tagged green tips

Save Water without Replacing the Toilet

Jul08
2010
Leave a Comment Written by Alicia

toiletWe’ve talked in past Green Living blogs about how important it is to purchase an energy-efficient toilet in order to save water, energy and money. Older toilet models use more than three gallons of water per flush, whereas low-flow, energy-efficient models use less than 1.5 gallons per flush. But let’s face it. We’re dealing with a tough economic time right now and some of us can’t afford to purchase improvement projects for our homes right now. Fortunately, there are DIY ways to save water, energy and money with the toilet you already have!

Flushes

One old-fashioned toilet trick that still works to save money and energy is the old “brick-in-the-tank” trick. Though, instead of a brick, an updated tip that an article from the Mother Nature Network recommends is to fill an old one-liter plastic bottle partially with sand, marbles or pebbles, and then the rest of it with water. As long as the bottle remains weighed down, it doesn’t matter what material you fill it with. Remove the label and place the bottle in the toilet tank away from moving parts. This will displace water and save you water usage and money without replacing your toilet! READ MORE »

Posted in Green Living, Tips and Ideas - Tagged eco-friendly advice, owning a home, replacing a toilet, toilet
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Create Energy Audit

May06
2010
Leave a Comment Written by Alicia

Performing a personal energy audit is a great way for you to review energy usage in past years, discovering where you can decrease usage in order to decrease bills. Plus, it’s also a great way to promote your energy savings to potential buyers when selling your home!

To begin, follow these first steps to create a do-it-yourself energy audit:

  • Organize the past few years of your energy bills into spreadsheets by writing down how much energy you used and what the energy bill cost each month of each year. Separate into categories when available, such as heating costs, cooling costs, lighting costs, etc. To obtain old energy bill records, call your utility company’s customer service number.
  • Study the data to see where your energy costs fluctuated, and why. Highlight trends that you notice, such as your lighting costs increasing every December when the daylight hours become shorter and the holiday lights are turned on each night. Do you always use more energy in specific months? Did the charge from your utility company increase? This will help you determine what is causing the bill to fluctuate and where you can cut the most costs.

Once you have your past energy bill costs laid out in an organized fashion, begin investigating your home for areas that need energy-saving improvements.

  • If you have purchased or are purchasing energy-saving products, such as fluorescent light bulbs, Energy Star appliances or eco-friendly insulation, write down when you installed or are installing these items. Mark down how much the product cost you, and how much you save compared to prior months.
  • Locate air leaks around your doors or windows by walking around with a stick of incense. If the smoke rapidly moves at any point, outside air may have caused the movement. You can caulk cracks or add insulation to these areas and then reevaluate your energy costs afterward.
  • Turn your thermostat a few degrees lower for a month, replace dirty furnace filters or old air-conditioning coils, clean air vents, and close vents in rooms that are rarely used for a month. Evaluate the change in your heating or cooling costs after making these changes.
  • Purchase a kilowatt-hour electric usage monitor to see how much energy your electronics use. You plug the monitor into a wall socket, and then you plug your electronic into the monitor. The monitor tells you how much energy the device is using, and how much the device is costing you. This is ideal for kitchen appliances and large stereos or televisions. Once you see what is using the most energy, replace those items, unplug items when they aren’t being used, or turn down the temperature of items, such as your refrigerator or freezer.
  • Pay attention to how much you use your lights. Is your bill cheaper in the summer because of shorter days? Try replacing your bulbs with fluorescent bulbs, or turning on reading lamps instead of overhead lighting, and match up the same month in previous years when reviewing your savings.
  • Each time you replace an item with an upgraded and/or energy-efficient item, mark it in your data. Each time you evaluate your home, such as testing for air leaks or vacuuming dust out of air vents, mark it in your data so you know when you completed these evaluations and when you’ll need to do it again next year. Pay attention to when your energy bills decrease, and figure out which changes caused the most significant savings.

Creating an energy audit will not only help you keep track of your savings, and figure out where you use the most energy, but it will also help you sell your home when that time comes. By having all of this information available for potential homebuyers, you can prove that your energy-efficient upgrades have decreased energy bill costs for them in the future.

Posted in Green Living, Tips and Ideas - Tagged eco-friendly tips, energy tips
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Extra Uses for Appliances

Apr22
2010
Leave a Comment Written by Alicia

These days, when you visit the appliance department at your local store, there is an appliance for almost everything you could ever imagine. You can purchase a blender, a smoothie maker, a juice maker, a milkshake maker and a margarita maker, but why? Can’t the blender alone create smoothies, juice, milkshakes and margaritas? This is just one example of how to use one appliance to multitask.

Although appliances are marketed to make you feel like you need each one, the truth is most of our appliances can be used in more than one way. By doing so, you will save energy, money and space on your counters, in your closets and all over your house!

Here are three examples of extra uses for a common appliance:

  1. Wet-dry vacuums are a popular appliance these days, with their immediate multiuse feature being that they can pick up liquids and solids. However, they can do a lot more than just that. You can use your wet-dry vacuum to unclog drains by plugging the hose into the port that blows out air, sticking the hose down into the drain and turning on the switch. Or, plug the hose into the port that sucks air in, stick the hose down a drain and retrieve items that you may have lost in the drain, such as jewelry. You can also clean out your fireplace, clean up overflowing toilets or basement flooding, or remove snow or rain from your walkways!
  2. Not only can your microwave now cook practically everything your oven can, plus more, but also the microwave has numerous other uses that have nothing to do with cooking food! Disinfect dish rags and sponges by soaking them in vinegar or lemon juice and then heating them in the microwave for one minute. This also works to disinfect cutting boards. For baking, you can soften brown sugar by adding a few drops of water to the plastic bag and then microwaving it for 10 to 20 seconds, and you can bring solidified honey back to its liquid form by microwaving the uncovered container for 30 seconds to a minute.
  3. Drying your hair is one of many uses for your hair dryer. You can also use it to find out if any of your windows or doors are leaking heat by having one person stand outside with the hair dryer, blowing it along the window or door edges, and have another person stand inside with a candle. If the flame flickers or blows out, you might need caulking. You can remove a bandage or piece of tape easier by blowing heat on it first to soften the adhesive, you can remove crayon from wallpaper, and you can remove wrinkles from plastic tablecloths or shower curtains with the warm, blowing air.

These were just three examples of ways to use your appliances in new ways. By thinking creatively, you will save energy, money and space! Little steps like these create greener, more energy-efficient living.

Posted in Green Living, Tips and Ideas - Tagged appliances, eco-friendly, Green Living
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Begin Your Spring Garden

Apr08
2010
Leave a Comment Written by Alicia

If you want thriving gardens, now is the time to plan. And as it turns out, your garden can benefit from your eco-friendly choices. Start planning your gardens now so that they are thriving by this time next month!

Here are the most important aspects to keep in mind:

  • Soil. Healthy soil is the foundation of healthy gardens. Performing therapy on your soil now is ideal before the plants begin to fully grow back. First, you should create layers of nutrients that include compost materials, manure when possible, and organic ingredients, such as kelp. To make sure your soil contains the correct pH levels, purchase a testing kit from a local gardening center. The level should be around 6.5. If yours is too high or too low, a nursery professional can help.
  • Seeds. Rather than wait for Mother Nature to cooperate with you, work now so that the rain has time to moisten your newly planted seeds. Begin growing vegetable seeds inside and replant the seedlings outside at the end of April. With annual and perennial flowers, it’s safe to begin planting those outside now.
  • Mixture. Mixing up a garden with an assortment of plants and flowers will help retain the health of your soil. Therefore, try planting new flowering bulbs in the same garden as old perennials, try repotting annuals that seem to have made it another year, and mix in edible vegetable plants with flowering plants.
  • Fertilizer. No matter what, avoid applying toxic chemicals on your lawn or plants that will slowly poison your nutrient-rich soil and kill the insects and microbes you need to keep your lawn healthy. Opt for slow-release organic fertilizers that will slowly release into your yard, will last all summer and will not cause damage to the natural nutrients and life found in your yard.
  • Design. In order to obtain the highest potential from your gardens, design your outdoor oasis as if it were just one more room in your house. Add stepping stones or a gravel path through separate gardens, incorporate benches to rest on while enjoying the sights, integrate a water feature that adds soothing sounds to the ambiance and include lots of vibrant colors in the gardens to attract interest. The more time you spend in your garden, the more you’ll benefit from nature.

For more insight on spring gardening, visit greenlivingideas.com. Not only will spring gardening allow your yard to look vibrant, it will also keep your air cleaner and your produce healthier. It might even lift your mood every time you look out a window.

Posted in Green Living, Tips and Ideas - Tagged exterior appeal, gardening, outdoor, planting
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Natural Pest Control

Oct30
2009
1 Comment Written by Alicia

green living

A decrease in temperatures could mean an increase of unwanted pests joining your household. This year, instead of purchasing another pesticide, try these natural pest control tips.

According to a report by Environment Health Perspectives, 83 percent of American households contain up to four different pesticide products, even though these products often cause health risks, such as allergies, an immunity system breakdown or even brain effects. In 1993, 140,000 poison cases were reported to poison control centers. Pesticides have up to 300 active ingredients and up to 1,700 inert ingredients! That leaves room for a lot of health risks, just for the sake of ridding your house of unwanted pests.

To read the whole EHP report, visit pubmedcentral.nih.gov.

With that said, there are natural, green ways to keep pesticides away, presented by care2.com. To prevent pests from entering your home in the first place, try these tips:

• Get rid of standing water or damp areas. Immediately clean up spills, even if it’s just water; clean and dry dishes right away; fix leaky faucets.

• Sweep and vacuum weekly, especially in the kitchen. Wipe down counters and tables. Clean up all those crumbs! Store food in tightly closed containers, and consider wrapping plastic bags around boxes that pests could bite through.

• Re-caulk and seal cracks and openings in the walls, floors and ceilings. Line doors and windows with weather stripping; add screens to windows and doors.

• Change bed linens regularly, and if you have pets, wash them regularly.

• Take the garbage out often, and only throw food away in a covered garbage container or in a composting bucket. Keep the recycle bin in the garage.

If you follow these rules and pests still find their way into your home, purchase a non-toxic pesticide. You can even make homemade pest-repellents, such as an all-natural fly strip made with brown packing tape dipped in a mixture of honey, sugar and water. To repel fleas, use scents of rosemary, lavender, vinegar or lemon.

For more natural pesticide ideas, visit care2.com/greenliving.

Posted in Green Living, Tips and Ideas - Tagged Green Living, Home Improvement, natural pest control, pests
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