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PART 1 |
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EASY TIPS FOR YOUR FAMILY
There are a lot of greener choices you can make -- many of them everyday. And everyone doing their part adds up to big change. Here are some tips:
EFFICIENCY AREAS AND LABELING One green thing many of us are trying to do is to make our homes more efficient in order to save money and be more responsible with our resources. Home efficiency falls into to three main categories: Water, Energy and Waste. One company, Procter & Gamble, is helping you detect products with greater efficiency. It has a new Future Friendly labeling program, which clearly marks specific products with energy, waste, and water savings. So, something like Tide Coldwater will be marked as “Energy Saving” because washing clothes in coldwater uses 80% less energy. They also have other products that are classified into the water saving and waste saving categories.
ENERGY-EFFICIENT UPGRADES Two cost-effective energy-efficient upgrades you might consider for your home are: LIGHT DIMMERS WITH OCCUPANCY SENSORS: A dimmer with an occupancy sensor saves even more energy than just a dimmer alone. With the added feature of the sensor, it automatically shuts off the lights after 15 or 30 minutes, when it senses no one is in the room. Lutron has one called the Maestro Occupancy Sensor with Eco-Dim Dimmer (also called a "Vacancy" sensor in California). It’s at Home Depot, and you easily install yourself. It can save you up to 50% in energy over a standard light switch. NEW-GENERATION THERMOSTATS: Also, check out the newest thermostats that work with your utility’s time-of-use schedule but also are a home upgrade. Honeywell has a new Prestige Programmable Thermostat with a beautiful touch-screen programming and an HD display. It saves you money when energy prices are high but still keeps you comfortable. Once programmed, it can save you up to 33% on your heating and cooling costs.
WATER-EFFICIENT UPGRADES For water, an inexpensive upgrade is a low-flow showerhead. It’s really easy to install. You can look into the WaterPik EcoRain. On average, it can save over 6.5 gallons of water during a 13-minute shower without sacrificing quality, paying for itself in less than a year. So, saving water is another way to save money on your utility bills.
WASTE EFFICIENCY AT HOME One of my most favorite waste reduction activities is to compost. There’s really no need to have an “ick” factor with it because it’s just returning nature to nature. I also fully expect that curbside compost pickup will be in most major metropolitan areas in the next 10 years or less. But until then -- if you can do it at home, then composting reduces waste to the landfill by 25-to-30 percent and it feeds your plants and soil for free. The other waste efficiency tip is to expand your at-home recycling by adding recycling containers into your bathrooms and home office. There’s a lot of recyclable waste from bathrooms – all the plastic razor handles, toilet paper roll tubes, shampoo containers, and cosmetic boxes.
Terra Wellington has been sponsored by the above products. |
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Copyright Wellington Media