Hurricane Irene 2011 – Photo courtesy of NASA With Hurricane Irene heading straight for Boston I finally got around to calling my insurance company to see if I needed to make any changes to my homeowners’ coverage now that we have this expensive solar awning on our home. I’ve been meaning to do it once […]
No Spill Reusable Coffee Mugs
Posted on February 25, 2011 Written by 2 Comments
We drink coffee every day, but we don’t regularly buy it at coffee shops. To be honest, we avoid the coffee shops more because we can’t stand to spend $3 on a cup of coffee than because the environmental impact of all those single use coffee cups. I especially hate those styrofoam cups that our […]
Not All CFLs Are Created Equal
Posted on February 21, 2011 Written by 1 Comment
I’m assuming you know the basics – CFL light bulbs use significantly less electricity than traditional incandescent light bulbs. They’re somewhat more expensive, but they save you money on electricity and they are supposed to last longer. You should recycle them when you are done with them and if they break you should clean it […]
Our Green Little Secret for Turning Up the Heat in Bed
Posted on February 15, 2010 Written by 1 Comment
We have a secret for staying toasty warm in bed so we can turn down the heat at night. Our green little secret is an electric mattress pad. In the olden days they used to heat up bricks and stick them under the covers to warm them up before crawling into bed. Thankfully we no longer have to […]
1 Flush, 2 Flush, How to Make a Dual Flush
Posted on January 6, 2010 Written by Leave a Comment
Update 11/118/203 – removed the last of the dual-flush conversion kits when we replaced our toilet with a new 1.28 gpf model from American Standard. UPDATE 3/23/2012 Two years later, 2 of the 3 HydroRight Dual-Flush conversion kits have been removed and replaced by standard flush mechanisms and the third frequently fails to stop running […]
Insulating Our House Really Worked!
Posted on December 17, 2009 Written by 3 Comments
This fall we finally insulated our walls and increased the insulation in our attic. We had blown in cellulose put in. It rocks. Today the high was 25°F outside plus a wind chill in the single digits. Our upstairs thermostat was set to 55°F during the day and it never fell below 62°F […]
Just One Thing: Programmable Thermostats
Posted on November 30, 2009 Written by 3 Comments
Several of my busy friends have asked me if there is just one thing they should definitely do, what is it? To save money and use less fuel, get an Energy Star programmable thermostat and program it. The energy auditors I work with tell me that reducing your house temperature by 1 degree […]
Defanging your Cable Box Vampire
Posted on November 20, 2009 Written by 2 Comments
Earlier this week, the EPA released the new Energy Star requirements for Audio/Video (AV) equipment including CD, DVD and Blu-ray players. The new specification establishes On mode and low-power Sleep mode power consumption limits and Auto Power Down requirements that AV products must meet in order to earn the ENERGY STAR label. When you are […]
Sleep your PC to Save Energy
Posted on November 11, 2009 Written by 1 Comment
Personal computers account for about 1% of the total carbon emissions in the world according to the PC Energy Report 2009. Almost every family in the US has at least one computer at home and the sad fact is that most of the electricity used by computers at home is wasted. Not because the computer is […]
