i got a thing in the email from mother earth news
talking about being/living green and if you walk the walk
we are not doing fantastic
but we aren't doing bad either
1) compact fluorescent just about ever single bulb is replaced now by them, with the exception of a few that we don't use much at all
2) we air dry our clothes and haven't used a dryer now in .......i think 18 months
3) we really do recycle but not as much i think as we could
we do plastic, paper, and cardboard
4) we compost ALOT
5) we grow a lot of food
6) we can and dry a lot of food......... and this actually did end up saving us money!
7) we use wood to heat with a high efficiency UL listed soapstone wood stove
8) i don't drive much, bernie does but that's for work and he is now got that big van, but again he uses that for work ( he USED to drive a tiny mini pickup but that bit the dust)
9) energy star appliances, yup........... we got em even the new freezer is energy star rated
10) we've reduced our electric use by 35% over the past two to three years
11) we have the house WELL shaded by trees during summer, and the air conditioner that is run when it's really bad during the day, is actually IN a tree ( don't ask)- the upstairs one is tiny, energy efficient and only run at night if we need it
now i think we can and should do better, i would like to increase the efficiency of our insulation and windows and i would like a non electric table top washer
and i really do wish we had more gas efficient cars but we don't
i would also LOVE to put in some solar
one of my friends is experimenting with that ( dorothy you better update me when you get them up)
and i would love to follow that for the well pump and the freezers
i would also like to have some sort of a solar oven for baking
and an outdoor wood fired oven
but that is not for now
i would love an evergreen wind break on the northwest side of the house but again that isn't an easy or fast fix
so
what are your ideas for energy savings?
I am gradually changing over all of the light bulbs. That proved to be problematic with my standing 3-way lamp, but I finally found the thingie that the lamp shade goes on to that is adjustable so now it fits over the new florescent light bulb. I also am learning to recycle- cans, glass, plastic and paper. That also saves money on trash removal costs. You know I garden, but much less now. Still I will be growing some things. In the summer I dry the laundry outdoors. There is more that can be done, and I will do what I can as I learn and am able. :) I'm happy to be be GREEN! It's my favorite color!!
ReplyDeleteWe have changed over to the new light bulbs also and installed tankless water heaters in the kitchen and bathroom, have seen the gas bill go down since doing that, got a wringer washer so we now reuse some of that water if not to dirty for the next load, savings there and also line dry, our clothing has not seen a dryer in i think 5 years, except for the towels they get a 5 to 10 minute run in the dryer, we recycle. Canning food really helps, for that i have a portable 2 burner propane burner thingy, hooked up to a 20 lb tank and that saves on the electric, working on replacing the 30 yearold freezer with a new one but will take a little more time. all that i can think of for now, miss u on the yahoo canning group v
ReplyDeletelove reading ur blog
don