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Back to our roots with passive solar energy

Submitted by Site Editor on Thu, 05/28/2009 - 17:36

Anyone who has ever sat next to sunny a window in late summer knows exactly what passive solar energy is.

Passive solar heating and cooling represents an important step in conserving energy in the home and solar energy has become a hot topic in recent years.

Solar energy is nothing new however, people throughout time have been able to use this seemingly recent technology. The ancient Greeks used solar design in their architecture. They clearly understood that a building facing South could take advantage of the sun's heat during winter time.

Trade in your shower head

Submitted by Site Editor on Sat, 05/23/2009 - 11:26

Standard shower heads can pump out an amazing amount of water.

If your shower head is powerful enough to peal the soap from the bathroom walls it may be time to look for an upgrade. Even though you can take a shower quicker than anyone in the neighborhood, that shower head is shooting out water at a rate of 5 to 7 gallons per minute.

By switching to a low flow shower head (2.5 gallons per minute) you can save a staggering 600 gallons of water per month.

Use Power Strips

Submitted by Site Editor on Thu, 05/14/2009 - 11:35

Remember the days before power strips? Those huge bundles of wire that you could find behind everyone's TV. Of course back then it was only 3 plugs, because we simply did not have so many gadgets.

In fact, it those gadgets that are what is wasting so much of our energy in the home today. It is estimated that 5 - 20% of a home's electricity is wasted on powering devices that are not even being used.

Fortunately, there are some really cool systems on the market that can control this power consumption, but most of us do not have the money to purchse these systems.

Choose Energy Star Products

Submitted by Site Editor on Sun, 04/05/2009 - 11:33

Appliances in the home cost home owners can cost as much as 70% of monthly electric bill.

By choosing Energy Star Products you can drastically reduce this cost. In fact, it is estimated that Energy Star Products saved Americans 19 billion on their 2008 electricity bill and saved the equivalent of 29 million cars in greenhouse gases at the same time.

If you have old appliances consider upgrading to the new approved brands. You can easily tell if an appliance is approved by the Energy Star Label.

Change Those Air Filters

Submitted by Site Editor on Sat, 03/28/2009 - 11:31

We all know we are supposed to change our air filters every 90 days. And yes, we have all been guilty of not changing them when we are supposed to.

By doing this we are simply costing ourselves more money each month. Some experts suggest changing filter change frequency to every 4-6 weeks. This makes sense when you run the numbers.

Change the light bulbs in your home.

Submitted by Site Editor on Tue, 03/03/2009 - 11:06

We have all heard the story, change your light bulbs out for new CFLs or Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs and we can all save the planet. Well, as it turns out that there is a whole lot of data out there to support this recommendation. If every household in the the US were to change out their 5 most used lights in the home with CFL bulbs or their equivalent we could save an estimated 8 Billion in energy savings annually.