Green Home

What's a green home?  Have you ever wondered how you ever got all that stuff?  Here we will take a look at what to do with what you have, how to accumulate less in the future and how to live green around the home.  A green home is not just dealing with the stuff, it is about using less water and less energy.  Americans use twice as much water and energy as anyone else in the world.  We can all do better than that if we try.

• Shower: The number one objective in the shower is to use less water.  This can be accomplished by using low-flow shower heads and taking shorter showers.


• Dishwasher: Only use the dishwasher if you have a full load.  You can also try eliminating, or reducing your pre-load rinsing.  By doing these two things you can save over seven thousand gallons of water a year, as much as the average person drinks in a lifetime.


• Water Filters: Use water filters on your faucets instead of buying bottled water.  Filters only need to be installed on one or two taps in your home for good clean drinking water.  One and a half million tons of plastic is used each year for water containers.  This is one of the best places to start if you wish to become part of the solution.



• Toilets: An enormous amount of water goes down the drain each day from flushing toilets.  Here are a few green tips for reducing your contribution.  When it comes time to replace your toilet look into the dual-flow designs.  By using the high flow only on special occasions drastic water savings are seen.  With a conventional toilet putting a brick in the tank reduces the amount of water used with each flush.  Consider also not flushing as many times during the day, are all the flushes really necessary?  The four plus gallons of water saved with every flush is as much water as many people in the world use in an entire day, for drinking, bathing and flushing.


• Brushing: An easy way to save about five gallons of water a day is to turn the water off when brushing your teeth.  This sounds simple enough but do you do it?


• Shaving: Try combining your shaving with your teeth brushing.  Brush while you wait for the water to heat for shaving.  It's just an idea, but it's worth trying.


• Garden Hose: Equip your hose with a shut off thingy and use it every time the water is being used.  This one little tip can save about seven gallons of water for every minute you are running water for no purpose.  Install a timer at the tap.  Hundreds to thousands of gallons are wasted every time you forget to turn the hose off.  We have all done that, haven't we?  Throw the hose in the pool and come back a few hours later to find the yard flooded.



More Green Home Tips


• Pool: While we are talking about pools do you keep yours covered?  You can reduce your evaporation by up to ninety percent if you did.  An average pool looses about a thousand gallons of water a month.  Keeping the pool covered when not in use will be a big help to all of us.


• Lawn: There are many ways to go green around the outside of your home.  If you use an automatic watering system on your lawn, look into adding a rain sensor to override your auto settings when watering is not needed.  Maybe it's just me but it always bugs me to see sprinklers running during, or just after, a rain.  An average lawn needs about one hour of water a week.  Try cutting back and see if your lawn looks just as nice.  Use plants that are native to your location, they usually require the least amount of water.  Drip systems can save up to 70% over the cost of conventional watering.  Practice water harvesting and using rain water for as much of your watering needs as possible.  The watering of lawns and plants in the U.S. accounts for about eight billion gallons of water a day.


• Disposal: Garbage disposals should only be run with cold water going into them, not hot.  The more you learn about using your food scraps for composting the less use you will have for the disposal.  Considering how much water they waste, that's a good thing.


• Composting: The more composting you do the less the disposal is used and the more water we save.  But there is so much more to be gained by composting and it is so easy.  Compost can be used in your flowers, on your grass, in your garden and around your fruit trees.  Anything growing, indoors or out, can use the valuable nutrients found in compost.  Making your own is easy, it does not have to be messy or smelly.  There are very nice looking counter top containers designed to hold your food scraps to make keeping out of the disposal and the trash easy.  Once a week of so this container gets taken out to the compost tumbler in the yard.  Every month you and your neighbors have a fresh batch of compost for all your green stuff.


• Recycle: I thought every body did this, if not maybe it's time to get in the game.  It's easy, just separate your aluminum, paper, plastic and glass from the trash.  These items go into the recycle bin.  Did you know that if every one in America did that we would be reducing the amount of trash taken to landfills by approximately seventy five percent?


• Thermostat: Want to save a hundred dollars or more a year?  Just one degree warmer in the summer and one degree cooler in the winter is all it takes.  Get used to one degree and you might be able to go for two.


• Microwave : Use the microwave as much as possible over your traditional oven.  Microwaves use close to five times more energy efficient than your oven.  For best results, keep the inside clean.  The more food you have caked on the inside of the unit the less efficient it becomes.



And the last Green Home Tips



• Stove: Use the microwave when possible and always use the correct size pot for the burner.  About five percent of our energy use is for preparing food.  Eating healthy foods, closer to their raw form, will reduce this amount even more.


• A/C Filters: Always having a clean filter in your duct work will reduce your heating and cooling bills, and your energy use.  Never having to throw one away is a pretty green thing to do.  Buy washable, reusable filters and keep them clean.


• Water Heaters: Make sure your heater is insulated and the thermostat is set at 120.  The next thing you should be doing is finding the rebates and tax incentives and hooking the heater up to a solar unit.  Solar water heaters are the best use of solar we have going on today.  They are affordable with fast payback times, meaning you start saving up to thirty percent of your electric bill within the first year or so.


• Lighting: Start by using energy efficient light bulbs. The average American spends about thirteen dollars per year per every 100 watt light bulb.  We can do so much better than this.  When you leave a room, turn off the light.  Outdoor lights can be set on timers and motion sensors.  Outdoor lighting is also a great place to start getting into solar power.  Small solar panels can power your outdoor lighting and outdoor power use inexpensively and with a minimum of installation.


• Windows: Shade your windows with trees or awnings during the summer afternoons.  Make us of drapes, blinds and even solar shade screens.  Taking care of your windows, keeping out the heat and the cold, could reduce your electric bill by as much as fifty percent.

These are just a few of the many ways you can begin to enjoy a green home.  The greener our homes become the greener out planet becomes.  Lets all pitch in and try to leave something nice behind for our kids to enjoy.  And this can start with a green home.