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Using Green Energy In Your Home

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People have become more environmentally conscious in recent years. People are realizing the impact they have on the earth and are taking measures to ensure that they can preserve it. One way people are doing this is by using green energy. The content featured below contains tips that can help you save the earth by using green energy in your home.

One of the first green energy changes you can make to our home is by changing the amount of water you use when showering. Although showering uses less water to clean than taking a bath, it can still use a significant amount of water that can have a negative impact on the environment. You can take shorter showers to use less water, but this may not be enough for some households. Many stores sell special shower heads that use considerably less water than normal shower heads, and still give the same feeling and enough water output to bathe.

Most people wouldn’t think of these when they think of green energy, but ceiling fans are useful for green energy usage. In the summer, ceiling fans circulate air in rooms, keeping them cool and reduce the need to use air conditioners as often. In the winter, these same fans can circulate warm air that comes from the heater and reduce the the amount of time that the heater stays on, burning less energy in the process. It takes very little energy to power the ceiling fan compared to the other devices, making them perfect for usage in multiple rooms.

Clothes dryers use a lot of energy to dry laundry. Depending on the number of family members who use a dryer, there can be a lot of energy wasted in the laundry process. A greener solution can be used during the summer months. Rather than heading to the dryer, hang clothing outside on a clothesline when it’s sunny. The heat from the sun will dry clothing and leave a fresh smell from the summertime air. Since the sun’s energy is completely free and renewable, you can use this technique over and over without wasting energy or money.

Many homes burn excess electricity through the lighting in their home. Most homes have standard incandescent bulbs that burn too much energy and don’t last very long. In addition, many homes leave lights on, even when they are not using them. Whenever a light in your home is not in use, turn it off. For lights that you will use, you can make two additional changes. You can install LED light bulbs or CFL bulbs, which use less energy than normal bulbs and last longer. You can also install dimmer switches into any light switch. The dimmer will allow you to control the brightness each light uses. When a lower brightness is used, less energy is used.

One of the ways in which we can help the earth is by using green energy. Using green energy isn’t difficult, especially when you use this article. You’ll be glad to know that your actions are making the earth a better place.

The Very Best Tips To Go Green And Save Energy

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The Very Best Tips To Go Green And Save Energy

When you go green, you save energy, reduce pollution and save money. These are all great reasons to take the plunge and change your lifestyle. If you have been pondering going green for some time but simply don’t know where to start, you have come to the right place. In this article, we will discuss some of the very best tips to go green. Read on to learn more.

Insulation is a great addition to any home. When your home is well insulated, you keep the negative aspects of the outdoors out and the positive aspects of your heating and cooling system in. A nice, tight house with good insulation costs less to heat and cool and is more comfortable and even quieter. There are some insulation jobs you can do yourself, such as weather-stripping doors and windows and laying down insulation in your attic. Unless you are very handy, you will need to call in a professional to insulate your walls or install insulated siding on the outside of your home. This will present an initial expense, but the money and energy you will save in the long run and the increased comfort you will enjoy will make the expense well worthwhile.

Once your home is insulated, you won’t need to run your air conditioning and heating systems as much or as high. Save even more money by keeping your home a little cool in the winter and making use of sweaters, warm clothing and blankets. In summer, don’t chill your home quite as much as you used to. Instead, dress in lighter and more comfortable clothing and make use of money and energy saving fans to move cool air about your home.

Save electricity with CFL and LED light bulbs and standalone solar lighting options. Look into solar panels to provide your home with some or all of its power. Solar energy is becoming more affordable and easy to install by the day. Once you have a good solar energy system in place, you can save money, reduce pollution and even make money by selling energy back to your electric company!

Remember to make the green energy choice! Reduce, reuse and recycle every chance you get.

When you purchase an item, reduce rubbish by purchasing products with minimal packaging. There is no reason to buy a non-perishable product that is packaged inside of a Styrofoam case, within a cardboard box, inside of a plastic wrapper, for example. Water that comes right out of your tap to be filtered by you with your inexpensive, affordable filtration pitcher is far preferable to water that comes in plastic bottles in a cardboard carton encased in plastic (and costing more per gallon than gasoline!)

Reuse items rather than falling prey to the disposable society paradigm! That same water that you filtered yourself can be taken with you in a reusable, stainless steel thermos that will last the rest of your life with proper care. This is much better for you and the planet than drinking bottled water from plastic bottles that leach toxins into your expensive designer water and then either take up space in the landfill until the end of time or consume energy to be melted down and turned into more plastic bottles.

Recycle everything you can! When you do have to purchase something in a plastic, steel, aluminum or cardboard container, be sure to recycle it properly. This also goes for paper. When you recycle these items, you reduce the amount of raw material that must be used to make more plastic, steel, aluminum or cardboard. While it is best to avoid purchasing these kinds of disposable items to begin with, once purchased, be sure to reuse them as you can and recycle them when you can’t reuse them.

When you make smart green choices in your home and in your everyday life, you can have a tremendous impact on the amount of energy you consume. Subsequently, you will save money and live a healthier lifestyle. Follow the tips presented here to go green and save energy.

Simple Ways to Make Your Home Greener

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Going green was a trend in the 1970’s, during the oil crunch. It went away during the boom days of the 1980’s, but it has really been a way of thinking since the 1990’s and beyond. Nowadays, people are extremely serious about leaving the earth to their children in a better condition than it was when they found it. Some of these changes are quite simple, so read the tips in this article to get off to a good start.

When your old light bulbs burn out, don’t replace them with those incandescent ones. They’re harder to find for a reason — it’s time to move toward the CFL bulbs that will last for years before you have to replace them. They are more expensive than the old ones used to be, but you will make up the difference when you don’t have to replace them as often and when your electric bill is lower. The CFL bulbs use energy a lot more efficiently than the incandescent ones did.

When you are buying items that you spray (spray paint, hair spray, and so on), check the bottle to make sure that there aren’t any CFC’s in them. There shouldn’t be, because the EPA outlawed them several years ago, but it is always good to check. These are the chemicals that started eating that gargantuan hole in the ozone layer a few decades ago. Luckily, scientists were able to catch this in time, but we did a lot of damage in a fairly short amount of time.

Composting isn’t the most fun family hobby, but it can be one of the more rewarding. You start by taking food wastes and grass clippings from your home, and instead of sending them to the landfill inside the garbage dump, like you’ve been doing, now you’re going to keep them and put them to work for you. You can either buy a compost pail and put it outside somewhere, or you can start a pile somewhere out of the way in your back yard. You put your compostable items in there and wait — the heat and pressure inside the pile will turn all of this “trash” into fertilizer that you can use to improve the quality of your soil. You’ll be making your contributions to the dump smaller and improving the quality of your yard at the same time!

Installing an entire roof’s worth of solar panels can cost thousands of dollars. However, if you have a little extra money, you can start with an installation of a few panels and put in a dedicated line right to your hot water heater. You’ll still have the heater plugged into your electric or gas input from the house, too, so that you’ll have hot water even if it’s cloudy for a week or so. However, when the sun is out, you’ll be drawing energy from the sun to heat your water, instead of from the utility grid. You’ll start saving money over time — and you can use that cheaper electric bill to bolster your savings for the next row of solar panels.

Going green can give the planet — and your wallet — a boost of green. Try some of these ideas today!

Quick And Easy Tips For Green Living

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Everybody wants to be greener today, but many people are under the mistaken impression that it is inconvenient or expensive to go green. In this article, we will discuss some quick and easy everyday ways that you can go green! Read on to learn more.

It just takes one green-minded consumer to change a light bulb and save 75 percent on energy consumption and cost. New LED and CFL light bulbs burn cooler and use less energy than old-fashioned incandescent bulbs. Using less energy means creating less pollution. They cost a bit more than old-fashioned bulbs, but they last a lot longer, so you end up saving money on your purchase price in the long run, too.

Look for the Energy Star Label to save money and energy for the life of the appliance. These days, it’s almost impossible to find a new appliance that does not have the Energy Star Label, so any time you replace an old appliance or electronic item with a new one, you are sure to save money and energy naturally. If you generally purchase second-hand appliances to save money, take a long, hard look at energy consumption. You may find that spending more on a new appliance will end up saving you big-time on an ongoing basis.

You can save even more electricity by turning off lights when not in use and setting electronic equipment to low power settings whenever possible. Unplugging electric items when not in use or using a power bar so that you can shut off electricity to them all at once will also save you money and power.

Water is a finite resource. We only have the amount of water on Earth that we began with. Using water wisely every time you use it is a smart way conserve this precious and vital resource while saving money on your water bill. You can take big measures, such as installing low-flow toilets and water saving shower heads. Maintaining your plumbing well by fixing leaks immediately is another great way to save water. Encourage everyone in your household to develop the habit of turning off the water when having it on is unnecessary. For example, you could turn off the water while brushing your teeth, use a bucket and rag to wash your car, fill dishpans to wash dishes rather than washing them with the water running, run your washing machine or dishwasher only when full, and so on. All of these simple steps will save many gallons of water.

Making smart transportation choices is a great way to save energy, reduce pollution and stay in shape. Choose walking, cycling, carpooling or public transportation whenever possible. Keep a list of errands and items and take care of them all in one trip rather than driving your car back and forth to the store and other destinations multiple times a week. These simple steps will save fuel, reduce carbon emissions, save money and help you save time and stay fit.

Keep excess rubbish out of the landfill and make the most of our resources by participating in recycling. Many communities have curbside recycling for paper, plastic, steel, aluminum and cardboard. Most communities have recycling centers where you can deliver these items if curbside pickup is not available. Additionally, you may be able to locate recycling points for cell phones, batteries, printer cartridges, paint, motor oil and more. Identify the recycling options offered by your community and participate fully. You will be amazed at the reduction in the amount of trash you throw out weekly. Be sure to donate any usable items you may have to local charities. Throwing perfectly good, usable items into the landfill to sit until the end of time is unconscionably wasteful.

It’s easy to see that everybody can go green! When you make smart choices in your purchases and your use of water and other resources and take a few extra steps to recycle and reuse, you are being a good steward of our planet. Follow the tips presented here so that the world will be a better place thanks to your existence.

Make Your Home Greener Today

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Making one’s living place more “green” is not just a popular trend these days. Instead, people have gotten genuinely serious about improving the shape of the world for future generations, and there’s no reason why you can’t do the same in your house. Read the tips in this article to help your house get green — for good.

If you still have incandescent light bulbs in your home, it’s time to get rid of them. As they burn out, don’t replace them with the same type. Instead, replace them with the CFL bulbs that last much longer — and burn much less energy. If you have fixtures in your home that are not compatible with the CFL bulbs, it is time to start replacing them. Incandescent bulbs burn too much energy to be sustainable over time.

Also, when you buy a spray can (paint, hair spray, and so on), check the label of the can to make sure that it says “No CFCs.” This refers to the chemicals that used to be found in spray cans, which ate the original holes in the ozone layer. The EPA has banned the use of these chemicals in spray cans, but that does not mean that they might not sneak into stores, so check the labeling.

Composting involves turning your home’s food waste and grass clippings into a powerful fertilizer that will improve the quality of your home’s soil. What you do is throw things like banana peels, apple cores, bread heels, and other food waste into a composting container — or out on your compost heap in the back yard. Along with grass clippings, these will gradually break down into compost, as the pile forms heat and pressure. When the compost is complete, you can add it to soil that you are using to plant, or scatter it with mulch in some of your beds in the yard. This is a pastime that you can follow as a family to improve your yard — and help the environment.

If you don’t have enough money to put in a full solar array on your house, you can still put in three or four and use them to create a dedicated circuit to one of your larger appliances, such as your water heater. The solar rays will contribute a small amount of electricity to your grid, and may take the burden of keeping your water hot away from your utility company. As you build up savings on your electric bill, you can sock more money away for the rest of your solar array.

A clothes line will allow you to dry your clothing without paying for the electricity or gas that it would take to run your dryer. It will also keep your clothes smelling fresher, while making your home greener.

If you start to go green at home, you will help the planet and your own budget. Try some of these ideas today and enjoy watching your home get greener every day!

Learn Everything You Need to Know About Green Energy

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Green energy is part of the news almost every day now. Not only is society completely dependent on non-renewable sources of energy currently, green energy is getting cheaper and cheaper. The important question is whether or not green energy is really worth it. Keep reading to learn all about green energy.

A simple way to go green is to replace your shower head and toilet with low-flow versions. You won’t notice a single difference until you get your water bill. Engineers have found ways to keep the pressure you are used to without using extra water. Think about how much water goes down the drain each day in your bathroom. It is such a simple matter to reduce that cost.

You might have been skipping out on buying CFLs this whole time since they are so much more expensive. On the other hand, you could be worried about the deadly gasses they contain. Both of these excuses are no longer valid. CFL bulbs pay for themselves pretty quickly since they use about one-fifth of the energy of a traditional light bulb. LED lights will cost about the same over the course of their life as CFL bulbs, but they don’t contain the gasses. This simple change can make a big dent in your electric bill.

Most green energy sources use nature to heat water to boiling. You can skip a step and use that same hot water for other purposes as well. The obvious application is hot water itself, but it can also be used to heat your home or pool.

As your appliances age, they become less efficient. New Energy Star appliances must pass vigorous standards for energy efficiency, quality, and usability. That means that you can be assured that these appliances will work great and will use less power than non-certified models. They can use as much as 50 percent less energy than the older version wallowing in your home.

Energy savings is as simple as adjusting your thermostat slightly. How far you go is up to you. The general standard is that just a few degrees each way as the seasons change is sufficient enough to make a big dent in your energy usage. You can do simple things, like wearing a sweater in the winter, to make this comfortable. Slippers and drinking some hot chocolate are easy ways to complete your relaxing winter evening. In the summer, try to avoid heat producers, like not turning on the oven until the evening when it is cooler outside.

As you can easily see, there are great ways to use green energy that don’t involve some far-off turbine farm. It is something that can be applied to make your own life better. Regardless of how you feel about the green movement in general, these ideas can be used to save money as well. Use these tips to make sure you can live within your budget and feel good about how you are doing it.