Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Going Green

By going green, I do not mean turning into Kermit the Frog. I do mean doing our little bit to be more environmentally friendly so that our children have a less polluted world to inherit.

Some of the things we can all do right now are the following:

1. Running a FULL dishwasher and using the air dry option.
2. Only doing a FULL load of laundry.
3. Hanging clothes to dry. Dryers are some of the biggest energy hogs we have in our homes.
4. Buying family sized packages rather than individually packaged products. We like to go to Costco and buy meats there. We'll buy the 2kg (~4 lbs) of steak/pork/chicken and break it down into dinner sized portions and then freeze the rest in. This option makes sense if you have a family, but if you live by yourself, then this is a bit difficult unless you don't mind freezing things in for longer or eating the same thing for a week.
5. Think before opening the refrigerator. Take everything you need out in one go rather than opening the door many times. Same goes for the freezer.
6. Turn lights off in rooms you are not in.
7. Set the thermostats to 20 C (68 F) in winter when you're there and to 18 C (65 F) when you're not there. Have an electrician install a digital thermostat so you can have a better control of the temperature and you can program the thermostat.
8. In summer run your air conditioning to the warmest you can handle. I run mine to 74 F. I just like to take the humidity our of the air. I don't like the grocery store chill in the summer. When I'm not home, the program calls for 78F. About 30 minutes before I get home, the thermostat starts cooling to 74F.
9. Install a blanket around your water heater. The extra insulation will keep your water hot longer thus preventing your heater to start more often.
10. As your bulbs burn out, replace the incandescent light bulb with compact fluorescent lights (CFL). When a CFL burns out make sure you dispose of properly since CFL's contain mercury.
11. Around the car, make sure the tires are inflated to the proper air pressure. This will make your car more fuel efficient. Make sure your car is well maintained. Go to the garage for the scheduled maintenance.
12. Consider getting a manual lawnmower rather than a gas powered one.
13. Recycle your plastic bags. We bring our plastic bags to the grocery store now. Our grocery stores in Montreal have started charging $0.05 per bag.
14. Take advantage of your community's recycling services.

The above tips are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to going green at home. I'm sure I've forgotten a few.

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