October 2008 Archives

About 90% of the energy consumed in a typical wash load is for heating the water. Generally, unless the stains you are trying to remove involve oil or grease, the washing machine will do its job the same with either cold or hot water. Choosing to wash your clothes in cooler water can save you quite a bit of energy.

Your clothes drier is also a huge energy consuming culprit. There are several ways to save energy, the most effective being to air dry some clothes on a clothesline when the weather and fabric type permit it. Also, you should only be using the dryer for as long as is necessary to dry your clothes. Newer dryers have moisture sensors which shut off once the clothes are actually dry, but by experimenting with your older model dryer, you can probably determine approximately how long you have to leave the dryer on to dry your clothes.

Other small adjustments can help save energy as well. Cleaning the lint filter in the drier and making sure the exhaust vent isn't blocked both improve air circulation and the latter can help prevent a fire. You can also dry your clothes in batches to help optimize the length of time for the cycle, e.g. light fabrics like undergarments and t-shirts together for shorter times than when you wash the bath towels and heavier fabrics like jeans and sweatshirts. Finally, investing in a new washer that is Energy Star approved can save you about 50% energy.

These days, new toilets are required to use less than 1.6 gallons per flush; this is a far cry from the 7 gallons per flush back in the 1950's but still enough to make toilet flushing one of the biggest water wasting culprits in your home. A simple change can be made to reduce, if not completely eliminate, water waste from flushing the toilet.

Consider the following: you have a water conserving shower head that pumps out 6 gallons per minute, and you are showering for about 10 minutes per day. Using these numbers, there are 60 gallons of water per day that are washing your body, and then going down the drain and out to the sewer. Now consider this, you don't even have a new water conserving toilet, you have an old fixture which is using 4 gallons per flush, and you are using the restroom 6 times throughout the day, this means you are using 24 gallons of water to flush the toilet.

What if you could use the water that washes you in the shower, and subsequently goes down the drain, to then flush the toilet as well? Makes sense right. With a storage tank and a pump, this idea can become a reality. A plumbing reroute will allow water to be stored and a pump can be used to refill the toilet tank after each flush. Unless you have a problem with using your shower water to flush the toilet, this will eliminate waste from toilet water usage in your home. Excess water can be routed to water the garden as well.

While the shift towards battery-powered devices is good in many ways, there are hidden costs involved. Most consumers leave their phone and iPod chargers plugged in day and night, whether they are charging the electronic device or not. These chargers draw a small amount of current even when there is nothing connected to them, wasting power and costing you money. So when you unplug your phone from its charging cradle, unplug the cradle as well and save yourself some cash.

Worse still, computer printers and TVs can draw more power than a fluorescent light bulb, even when they're not being used. Keeping these devices unplugged will have benefits beyond energy savings. Adding an extra step to using your printer may deter you from printing unnecessary documents, saving ink and paper. Making you stand up to plug in the TV before use instead of being able to just pick up the remote from your couch may be enough to help you break the boob-tube habit, enabling you to recover those precious wasted minutes that could be going towards something more productive, like a hobby or exercise.

If the laziness component here is a buzzkill, you can always invest in power strips that sense inactivity in the circuit, and kill power to save electricity. While these won't help for constant-draw appliances, such as refrigerators, their simplicity will allow you to reduce the energy your home uses while keeping the amount of energy you need to expend from going up unnecessarily.

The term "Energy Star" has been getting a lot of hype lately in the home appliance market, and with good reason. Large appliances such as refrigerators and freezers can make up a large percentage of the average home's electricity bill. However, the current state of the economy may mean that a new refrigerator that meets the Energy Star international standard may be out of the question. The good news is that there are other ways to save money while still keeping your food cold and safe.

For starters, make sure you're not using any more refrigerators than you have to. Most families have an old "beer fridge" in the garage or basement for tasty beverages that may be served during parties or while having friends over to watch the game. While the benefits of having a frosty brew close at hand cannot be overstated, these old fridges typically use twice as much energy as a new Energy Star refrigerator, making their constant use even more detrimental. Keep that fridge unplugged (and open so it doesn't develop any nasty odors) until the night before your gathering and you can save enough money over the year to fill it with another twenty cases of beer.

Once you have that sorted out, the next step is to invest in a chest freezer. Energy Star models can be had for under $300, will only cost $30 a year to operate, and will keep your frozen food in good shape even longer, since the cold air doesn't spill out as it does from an upright model every time you open the door. Keep your costs low by buying a manual defrost model, which has the added benefit of preventing freezer burn that can be caused by auto-defrost freezers. Aside from the energy savings, using this freezer to store meat and produce purchased in bulk from a warehouse store can save you even more money, while still allowing your family to eat like royalty.

Bamboo is popping up all over the home these days from bamboo wood flooring to bamboo cabinets and now kitchenware; dishes, plates, serving utensils, and even dust pans and brushes! What can't bamboo do? According to Wikipedia there are over 91 genera and about 1,000 species of bamboo which grow in diverse climates all over the world, from cold mountains to hot tropical regions. It's no wonder that so many people are interested in bamboo for it's sustainability, affordability, and great look.

Natural Home, which sells several bamboo kitchenware pieces describes the product as being tough, durable and lightweight. It's one of nature's most sustainable resources, reaching maturity in just four years without pesticides or chemicals. Furthermore, bamboo's density makes it naturally water-resistant, which inhibits germs and bacteria. It also won't scratch your pans like metal and doesn't absorb moisture like conventional wood.

The sustainably grown bamboo products sold by Natural Home are used in cutting boards, sink brushes, iron brushes, palm brushes, hand broom (and dust pan), crock, and utensils.

We just spotted these very unique and beautiful dishes in an ad in the September-October copy of UTNE Reader Magazine and wanted to pass the tip on to our readers here! All of these glass products are hand-spun from 100% post-consumer glass which means you'll have a fun story to tell the next time you're hosting a dinner party.

The blueish tint of these recycled glass bowls is very antique looking, almost like an old fashioned buoy floating off the coast of Seattle... perfect for serving warm clam chowder. Since each piece is hand spun each one is like a miniature piece of artwork and with the option of two bowl types, three rectangular plates and a pitcher this set would look great serving sushi, salad or anything in between. Chuck those old paper (or worse styrofoam!) plates and pick up these recycled glass dishes. Each plate is made from 100% recycled glass otherwise destined for landfills.

On September 27th the San Francisco California Academy of Sciences (CAS) finally opened it's doors in Golden Gate Park after five years in a temporary location at 875 Howard Street. The new building design is strait out of a Teletubbies pipe dream and features a landscaped flower garden / aviary roof with solar panels and massive skylights. The designer is an Italian architect named Renzo Piano who is noted for winning both the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1998 (which is considered the top industry honor in architecture), and the American Institute of Architects' Gold Medal in 2008. His latest design for the Academy of Science is so environmentally friendly that it is expected to earn platinum Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certification.

The most notable part of the new museum is the "living roof" mentioned earlier, it includes 1.7 million native California plants such as strawberries, California poppies, grasses, and other berries that all support local birds and insects. The roof itself is made of over fifty thousand biodegradable connector trays made of coconut husks and tree sap. Not only will the fauna on the roof support wildlife, convert CO2 to Oxygen, and act as insulation, it also obsorbs over 98% of the rainfall (~3.8 million gallons per year) that hits the building which reduces runoff into the nearby Pacific Ocean.

Inside the building radiant heaters warm the floor in winter months and sixty thousand photovoltaic cells on solar panels supply the academy with energy, nearly 5% of it's total needs. The Academy was founded in 1853 and has moved several times over the years. For more information call 415-379-8000 or visit the new website at www.calacademy.org

When it comes to home insulation or attic insulation there are a few choices out there including foam insulation (both spray on and foam boards). Wall insulation sometimes requires more rigid structures. There is always a sinking feeling, however, when using a material that we all know is not environmentally friendly and may even contain volatile organic compounds (VOC's). Styrofoam has historically released toxins into the atmosphere during production and is known to degrade very, very slowly and consume a lot of space in landfills. There are also drawbacks to using fiberglass, it's harmful to breathe in and extremely irritating to handle which makes installation and updating a real challenge. The tiny glass particles in fiberglass can be very irritating to the skin and since it's made from glass it doesn't biodegrade especially well. In five or ten years we may look back on fiberglass and foam the same way we do asbestos which has been found to cause lung cancer.

A great new alternative recently hit the market that addresses the environmental issues as well as handling challenges of traditional home insulation. We're talking about denim insulation made from blue jeans cotton. This is a winning product all around, it's made from organic materials potentially grown right in the country you're already living in (so it doesn't require as much wasteful shipping) and in many cases the material itself is made from leftovers as denim clothing products are created. Furthermore, the natural properties of denim make it a wonderful insulator and installers love it because they don't get glass in their lungs and can interact with the product more efficiently, thus providing a better end service to you. Cotton fiber insulation is being produced by a few large companies including UltraTouch and is available all over the web or through your local builder, definitely ask for it the next time you need insulation.

Certain parts of the world seem to be built for drying things out, say Nevada or California, certainly Colorado (at least part of the year) but not very many people in the US use this to their advantage, at least not yet. In other parts of the world line drying clothing has long been the standard, it saves a bunch of money up front and even more over the long term as electricity is spared. As we know, clothing dryers are one of the least efficient most electricity hungry appliances in the home and you may be surprised to find out that even during the cold parts of the year, say in Colorado, that indoor wash hanging can serve as a natural humidifier for the cold, dry winter air.

It's refreshing then, to discover that close to 90% of the people living in Australia choose to line dry their clothes with similarly high rates in other non-us countries worldwide. The next time you're on the market for a new dryer consider the alternatives now available that save space and are more aesthetically pleasing. One company out of Pennsylvania offers several innovative clothing dryer options including portable/removable drying racks for people who don't want to clutter the yard or don't have a large yard. Visit the Breeze Dryer website to learn more.