Reduce Your Energy Use and Carbon Emissions by 2-6 tons per year for under $300 without changing your life style
The simplest thing that you can PERSONALLY do to save money, help the environment, and create a more sustainable lifestyle is to take a series of simple actions to save energy.
1.Go through you home and feel for drafts around windows and doors when there is a wind outside or a big temperature difference. Caulk around the frames of windows and doors. Also feel for drafts around electrical boxes on exterior walls as these are often improperly sealed and can be major sources of heat loss or heat gain. Replace weather stripping around your door if you feel any draft and consider installing a heavy curtain to cover your door as this can help insulate it and save energy. Caulking costs less than $1 per window, and weather stripping is under $10 per door. These steps can save up to 1100 pounds of CO2 per year for a typical home. Ask your utility company for a home energy audit to find out where your home is poorly insulated or energy inefficient. This service may be provided free or at low cost. Make sure it includes a check of your furnace and air conditioning.
2.Plant trees around your home. Each tree also directly absorbs about 25 pounds of CO2 from the air annually. Many government departments will give you small trees for free!!!
3.Check the gaskets around your refrigerator/freezer doors to make sure they are clean and sealed tightly. Turn your refrigerator down. Refrigerators account for about 20% of Household electricity use. Use a thermometer to set your refrigerator temperature to approximately 37 degrees Fahrenheit and your freezer approximately 3 degrees Fahrenheit. Half of electricity in North America is generated by coal and every kilowatt hour used contributes over 2 pounds of carbon dioxide to the environment.
4.Set your clothes washer to the warm or cold water setting rather than the hot setting. Using warm or cold water versus hot water for two loads of laundry per week can save approximately 500 pounds of CO2 per year if you have an electric water heater, or 150 pounds of carbon dioxide for a gas water heater. Even better, look into a solar hot water heater such as the low cost models from Omachron available in January 2009. Investing in such solar water heater can save 4.9 tons of CO2 annually and can pay for itself in only 2-3 years.
5.Ensure that your dishwasher is full when you run it. Use the energy saving setting if you have it to allow the dishes to air dry. Allowing you dishes to air dry can save 20 percent of your dishwasher’s total electricity use.
6.Turn down your water heater thermostat from 140 degrees F to 120 degrees F. this will save 1,20 pounds of CO2 per year for an electric water heater, or 880 pounds for a gas heater. If every household in the United States turned its water heater thermostat down 20 degrees, we could prevent more than 45 million tons of annual CO2 emissions.
7.In the winter, set your thermostat at 68 degrees in daytime, and 55 degrees at night. In the summer, keep it at 78. Lowering your thermostat two degrees during winter saves 6 percent of heating-related CO2 emissions. That’s a reduction of 420 pounds of CO2 per year for a typical home.
8. Clean or replace air filters as recommended. Energy is lost when air conditioners and hot-air furnaces have to work harder to draw air through dirty filters. Cleaning a dirty air conditioner filter can save 5 percent of the energy used. That could save 175 pounds of CO2 per year.
9.Buy low cost, energy-efficient, mercury free LED light bulbs such as those from Omachron Lighting Corporation for your most-used lights. Although they cost more initially, they save money in the long run by using only ¼ to the energy of an ordinary incandescent bulb and lasting 50x+ times longer. LED lighting can provide better lighting with a better color and an attractive light. Only 10% of the energy consumed by a normal light bulb generates light. The rest just makes the bulb hot. If every American household replaced one of its standard light bulbs with an energy efficient LED light bulb, we would save the same amount of energy as a large nuclear power plant produces in one year. In a typical home, one LED light bulb can save 520 pounds of CO2 per year.
10.Wrap your water heater in an insulating jacket, which costs just $10 to $20. It can save 1100 lbs. of CO2 per year for an electric water heater, or 220 pounds for a gas heater.
