Easy Ways to Go Green
March 26, 2010
Going green does not have to be a major life-changing event. You do not have to start using everything solar or buying a cow for your steaks or even growing your own veggies. There are easy ways you and your family can make a huge a difference.
Of course, you must know if you want to help the environment, you must start at home not out in outer space. Small changes you do around your home are truly beneficial to the environment such as recycling or making a few small changes at home will help the planet as well as your health.
Recycling is probably the easiest and even the fastest way to be earth friendly. You may not realize this but the Unites states creates around 208 million tons of solid waste every year reported by the National Institute of Health. Just cutting down on the amount of trash, we create and recycling as much as possible will certainly help planet earth. Just so, you can get an idea of how you can help – by recycling one glass bottle you will save enough electricity for a 100-watt bulb to burn four hours. Wow!
The best way to go green is by starting at the beginning. The Environmental Protection Agency explained that the biggest energy hog in our world are the appliances we use every day such as our refrigerator, stove, dishwasher, washing machine, and dryer. Home appliances use around 18 percent of the total energy bill. Check all of your appliances. If they are 10 years, old or more you need to replace them with newer models. The reason being, new models are energy efficient, but you should still look for the “Energy Star” logo before you buy. Appliance bearing this logo use between ten and fifty percent less energy and water than regular models.
The next big energy hog is the temperature you set the thermostat at to heat and cool your home. In cold weather turn down the thermostat a bit more than normal and in hot weather keep the thermostat just a tad higher. If you could just turn down your thermostat to even one degree below 68 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter, you would save 3 to 5 percent more heating energy and then keep your thermostat at 78 degrees in summer will save you money and energy.
Talking about heating and cooling your home. Other ways to save energy besides turning up or down the thermostat is to clean the filters in your home monthly. You may even need to purchase a new furnace that carries the Energy Star logo. Instead of burning up during the summer months, shade the east and west windows this will help keep the house cool. In addition, wait until evening hours to run your dishwasher.
Ceiling fans can aid in keeping the home cool instead of running the air conditioner 24/7. Just by turning on the fan you can make the home feel a bit cooler than it really is, as the circulating air feels cooler. It may be 82 degrees Fahrenheit in the house but it would feel like around 78 degrees while the fan is slowing circulating the air.
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2 Comments to Easy Ways to Go Green
Comments
Can you imagine even at least half of the population will go green? It would make a tremendous change. Too bad it won’t happen.
You cannot even let a group of ten people agree on something. How much less if its 4 billion we are talking about
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Thanks for sharing these tips for going green. It is good to see that there are some people out there who care about the world like me
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