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Small lifestyle changes can make big impact, require little sacrifice to save environment
By Mary Beth Breckenridge
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Saturday, Sep 29, 2007
Let's be honest: For most of us, going green sounds like a great idea until it requires a lot of effort or sacrifice.
But making your home more ecologically sensitive doesn't necessarily have to involve ripping out off-gassing vinyl or replacing synthetic carpets with bamboo floors. Even small changes can have an impact.
Here are some simple ways to live a little lighter on the Earth.
Chill out
When you're doing laundry, wash in cold water when you can, and always rinse in cold. New laundry detergents specially formulated for cold water get clothes just as clean as warm water, and they save on the energy that would have been needed to heat the water, the Alliance to Save Energy says. What's more, cold water saves wear on your clothes, so you won't have to replace them as often.
Save the hot-water wash for the things that need it towels, bedding, underwear and laundry with oily stains.
Wash and dry in full loads to further reduce water and energy use. If you're really ambitious, invest in a clothesline and skip the dryer.
Unplug
Electrical devices such as TV sets, computers and even cell-phone chargers keep drawing power when they're not in use. In fact, Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas M. Kostigen, authors of The Green Book, maintain that 10 percent of the electricity used in the home is consumed by devices when they're not operating.
Unplugging those devices, or plugging them into a power strip that you can turn off, stops that electricity drain. Or you can take an easier route: Install a GreenSwitch (http://www.GreenSwitch.tv), a new product that turns off the power to multiple devices with the flip of a single wall switch. It works by sending a wireless signal to the wall plugs and light switches you've designated in advance, and can even be used to change the setting on the thermostat.
Change the temperature
Another way to control your temperature setting easily is to install a programmable thermostat. It's particularly useful in homes that regularly sit empty for long stretches during the day, and it also automatically adjusts the temperature at night.
Lowering your thermostat from 72 to 65 degrees for eight hours a day in colder months can cut a heating bill by up to 10 percent, the Alliance to Save Energy says. Programmable thermostats also make it easy to raise the temperature during air-conditioning season, further cutting your energy use.
Choose one with an Energy Star label, recommended Ronnie J. Kweller, a spokesperson for the alliance.
Turn off
It's easy to forget to turn off a light when you leave a room, so why not let the light do the thinking for you? Motion sensors and timers turn lights off automatically, noted Paul Novack, who sells environmental building products through his Brooklyn business, Green Depot (http://www.greendepot.com).
Plug-in timers let you set times for a light to come on and go off. Motion sensors turn lights off automatically when they stop detecting motion for a certain period of time. You can find motion sensors in wall-mounted light switches, ceiling-mounted units and even in compact forms that simply screw into a light socket.
Turn on
On the topic of lighting, you can further save electricity and reduce the number of light bulbs you buy over time by switching to compact fluorescent bulbs. The good bulb typically uses one-fourth to one-third the electricity of incandescent bulbs and lasts six to 10 times as long.
Since judging the quality of a compact fluorescent bulb is difficult, environmental advocates recommend buying only bulbs with an Energy Star label. According to the government, if every U.S. household changed one incandescent light bulb to an Energy Star compact fluorescent, enough electricity would be saved to light 2.5 million homes, and the reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions would equal the amount produced by almost 800,000 cars.
Compact fluorescents contain a small amount of mercury, so be good to the Earth and recycle burned-out bulbs as hazardous waste.
Seal up
In a typical house, 10 percent or more of the energy used for heating and cooling is wasted because of air infiltration from openings in the exterior walls, according to the U.S. Energy Department. Sealing those leaks will cut your energy use, Novack said.
Common trouble spots are the cracks around windows, places where pipes or wires enter the house or where ducts come out of the wall, and the joints between the home's perimeter walls and the floor, he said. Smaller cracks can be sealed with caulk; for larger openings, use expandable foam.
Let the sun shine in
''Passive solar heating'' is a fancy term for letting the sun warm your home. You can take advantage of that free heat just by opening window treatments on the sunny side of the house on cold days.
Close them at night to keep heat in. Investing in insulated window treatments will boost their energy-saving value, Kweller said.
If you're planning to do some landscaping, make it do double duty, she suggested. Deciduous trees planted on the sunny side of a house will shade the house in summer, reducing cooling costs. In winter, after they lose their leaves, they let the sun shine through to warm the house.
Just three carefully positioned trees can reduce your energy consumption for heating and cooling by as much as 25 percent by shading your home and blocking prevailing winds, the alliance says.
More tips
Turn the water off while you're brushing your teeth. Two gallons go down the drain in just two minutes, according to the October issue of Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine.
Drink tap water rather than bottled water, The Green Book suggests. By making the switch, you help reduce the 60 million plastic water bottles that are discarded every day.
Install dimmers so you reduce your lights' intensity and your electricity use when full lighting isn't needed, Kweller suggested. If you want to use compact fluorescent bulbs, check the package to make sure the kind you're buying can be used with a dimmer.
Replace shower heads with low-flow models. High-efficiency can cut hot water use by about 40 percent, the Energy Department says.
Download music and software instead of buying them on discs. It's cheaper and helps cut down on the 45 tons of CDs that end up in landfills every month, according to The Green Book.
The Dallas Morning News contributed to this report. Mary Beth Breckenridge is the Beacon Journal home writer. She can be reached at 330-996-3756, or at mbrecken@thebeaconjournal.com via e-mail.
Let's be honest: For most of us, going green sounds like a great idea until it requires a lot of effort or sacrifice.
Get the full article here.
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