TODAY – Danny Morgan from ‘Synchronicity’ came over to our house in Sydney, to conduct a sustainability assessment on behalf of the Federal Government.  Danny walked through our home, looking at our energy and water usage, so to establish actions that can help us save energy and water.  This assessment was totally free.

Now that the assessment is over, we will receive a tailored home sustainability assessment in the mail, which is valid for six months.  The assessment recommends the best water and energy saving changes we can make to our property and it will outline practical ways for us to get started.  Obtaining your free sustainable home assessment report is the first step to qualify for an interest free Green Loan of up to $10,000 from the Federal Government.  The idea is to use this money to install solar, water-saving and energy efficient products.

Our number one goal is to install solar electricity and our number two goal is to install water tanks.  Believe it or not, installing water tanks is going to be harder to achieve because of our home’s space limitations.

If you live in the City of Sydney, you are mad not to ring Danny Morgan right now to organise your FREE sustainability report.  There is no obligation to proceed with the report’s suggestions.  You will however get great information on how you can save money on electricity and water and of course make your home more environmentally friendly.  You can contact Danny at  synchronicity@three.com.au or his mobile 0411 715 770.

If you don’t live in the City of Sydney, call 1800 895 076 to organise a local assessor to undertake your free sustainability report for you. 

For more information on the Federal Government green interest free loans, check out www.livinggreener.gov.au or www.environment.gov.au/greenloans

UPDATE - On earlier posts, I mentioned that my household is taking part in Sydney’s Home Energy Consumption Trial.  The trial is limited to 100 households within the City of Sydney Local Government area.  The key objective of the trial is to educate household members about the operating costs of electrical appliances and to encourage energy efficiency within the home. 

Looking at our quarterly electricity bill (1.9.09 to 27.11.09), our average daily usage is 6kWh.  This is down from 17kWh from the last quarter and 11kWh the same quarter last year.

My thoughts on the results:

I feel we have definitely lowered our average daily electricity usage but to be honest the real test will be the next quarterly bill.  The reason for this is obvious – we have been away for three weeks during this twelve week billing cycle.  25% of the billing cycle we were not in the home to even use electricity.  To be fair we need to add 25% to our average daily electricity usage to  perhaps get a more accurate result of what our usage might have been if we had not been away.   This equates to an estimated 7.5kWh average daily usage.  This is still down on the last quarter and down on the same quarter last year.

It was suggested that the difference from this quarter compared to last quarter may be the result of heating costs i.e. last quarter was in winter.  We are not big users of heaters but it still may have made a small difference.

Personally I think the reduction of energy use, is due to me not having our office lights on during the day (now that we utilize the sunlight coming through our window). Read more on this.  There are six, office down lights using 50kWh of energy each.  This is a saving of 300kWh for each hour or 2400kWH for each day. Of course some days the lights have to go on, when the sun isn’t out (like today in Sydney being rainy and overcast).

FUTURE - It will be really interesting to see what will happen once we get our sustainability report back.  Just imagine the difference if we do get solar electricity installed! 

Minimise energy usage in your greenhouse: part of the greenhouse can be sreened off to limit the area to be kept heated.

The Energy Aware Clock was created by Swedish designers and premiered at the Design September design show in Brussels, Belgium this past September. The clock tracks energy usage throughout the day and allows households to view their energy output, pinpointing the times when usage is highest and hopefully reducing wastefulness. While not available for retail yet, hopefully the concept will reach stores because the idea and design make conservation cool and easy.

Today, Peta from Sydney’s Precinct Magazine interviewed me at home, about living in the City of Sydney and trying to live a ‘greener’ life.

I spent the afternoon demonstrating our household Bokashi bin, worm farm, home wireless electricity monitor and even our dog poo recycling system.

Peta was particularly interested in the Australian Conservation Foundation’s report that shows Sydney residents to have an average eco-footprint of 8.58 hectares per person per year.  This is well above both State (6.33) and Federal (6.4) averages.

The Australian Conservation Foundation’s website states that “eco-footprint is an indication of the total amount of land required to supply all the resources a person’s lifestyle demands. Australian’s have the fourth largest eco-footprint in the world”.

So how does my eco-footprint compare to the average Sydney, NSW and Australian rate?  After chatting with Peta today I visited The Australian Conservation Foundation’s website and looked at their ‘Consumption Atlas’ then calculated my own personal eco-footprint.  According to their calculator my eco-footprint is 4.8 hectares per year.

This may be well below Sydney, NSW and Australian averages but it is however way above the 1.8 hectares, that ACF states is sustainable.

In finishing, I wish to thank Peta for taking the time to visit me at my home to research what I am doing on my ‘green’ journey.  Also Peta I wish to thank you for sharing your research with me as I am inspired to work at getting my personal eco-footprint down even further. 

It is spring again!  Spring can mean different things to different people and to me it is always the start of the busiest time of the year in my business calender.  This is because the wedding season has started and just around the corner is Christmas.

To prepare for this Spring, regular readers might recall my huge office clean out.  I felt it was time to do a massive clean up of everything we simply didn’t need any more and hence was ‘hogging’ space.  Being a passionate Ebay hater, I again turned to Freecycle.org to give everything away instead of using up my valuable energy and time trying to sell it (i.e. Ebay).

The really cool thing about Freecycle is as the giver, you can select who gets your stuff.  I had a young photography student claim most of the photography equipment.  An Aborigine artist claimed many of my large studio picture frames.  The clean up of my books went to a single dad with two teenage children. 

All in all I gave away items that I could of got perhaps $800 – $1500 on Ebay.  However by giving away on Freecycle I got so much more!  Also I noticed that my personal ’energy bank’ was not empty after the exercise like it often was from participating in Ebay auctions.  Not only did I feel good for having given everything away but also I have noticed the energy in the office has been more relaxed and positive.

Now that everything was gone I was inspired to rearrange the office (as I had not wasted my time or energy on Ebay).  The really cool thing about this story is after finishing moving the office furiture around we noticed that we were now able to open the windows and let more nature light into the front room office.  So now on a bright day, we no longer even need to turn the down lights on – now we simply open the blinds and let the sunshine in.

Looking at our wireless energy meter we had installed thanks to Sydney City Council we discovered that we are saving approx 1.11 Kwh each day by not turning on our office down lights (this is an estimation as on some days we still need to turn lights on i.e. overcast days and when we need brighter light for retouching photographic work etc).

Ironically my personal energy was not the only energy saved in giving away everything.

Food for thought.

Down lights in my office, turned off as the window lets in sunlight now.

Mini my dog sitting on me while I try to take the photograph of the office down lights.

Ripe Italian prune

One of the best things about having a small home orchard is being able to eat tree-ripened fruit.  Even when I shop at a local farmers’ market, I find that the fruit is often a bit on the green side, probably because it has a longer shelf life for selling when picked somewhat green.  The Italian prunes I bought a few weeks ago at a market took over a week to ripen enough to eat – and then the consistency was a little bit wrong somehow.  Above you can see what an Italian prune should look like, with the dark purple skin and golden orange flesh.  This Italian prune was picked fully ripe off the tree.  So tasty!

Sandy

The Green Grid, a global consortium dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in data centres and business computing ecosystems, has today announced, in association with Datacenter Dynamics, a new award category, “Improved Data Centre Energy Efficiency,” as part of the DataCentre Leaders’ Awards. This award will acknowledge and highlight organisations that have introduced an energy efficiency improvement programme in their data centre.
As data centre energy consumption grows each year, it is essential that organisations are taking steps to control this. As the reliance on data centres and the issue of greater energy efficiency become more prominent in organisations of all shapes and sizes, being able to measure and quantify energy usage in the data centre and to then develop proactive strategies to reduce it is key.

[Bron: www.thegreengrid.org]

Lees meer >

The farther away I get from high school, the more I realize that peer pressure doesn’t ever go away, it merely subsides and manifests itself into other forms that influence adults as much as teenagers.

An article from Public Radio demonstrates the effects of peer pressure on recycling/reusing  in the form hotel towels. The last time I was at a hotel (about a year ago) I noticed these signs in the bathrooms that went something like: “Please reuse your towels to help save the environment.” In the study highlighted in the article, rooms with this sign were used as the control group, while rooms with a sign that mentioned that “the majority” of other guests reused their towels was the test group. The result is awesome: twenty-six percent more guests reused their towels. The feeling we need to blend in with society has always fascinated me.

On the flip side though, very negative results appeared when a utility company in Washington sent out energy audits to customers comparing their energy use to their neighbor’s. Because consumers tend to gravitate toward a “magnetic middle” (instead of being above average?!) the company awarded double smiley faces to energy efficient homes. Though “bad” homes were not smacked with a frowny face (“We don’t give ‘em frowns. Nobody wants a frown.”), my guess is these customers feel like they were given a bad grade on something without even signing up for the class, which I guess would sort of feel like being attacked.

With sustainability I feel there is such a fine line marketers and salespeople and manufacturers walk that when accidentally crossed could turn the customer off for good, or hit a sore spot with them. Even though the results of this test aren’t yet in, energy usage could decrease while leaving a sour environmental taste in customer’s mouths. What ever happened to keepin’ up with the Joneses?

On an earlier post, I mentioned that my household is taking part of Sydney’s Home Energy Consumption Trial.  The trial is limited to 100 households within the City of Sydney Local Government area.

According to information I have received, the key objective of the trial is to educate household members about the operating costs of electrical appliances and to encourage energy efficiency within the home.

Last week an electrician came out to install the energy monitor.  One part of the monitor system is connected to our switch board which was hardly noticeable (see below before and after shots).  The other part of the monitor system was a small hand held wireless energy monitor.

Our household energy switch board

Our household energy switch board after installation of energy monitor

With this wireless monitor we are able to freely move around the home with it in hand, turning appliances on and off and see straight away how much energy that appliance is using .

The monitor will remain in our home for the next twelve months and over that time we will be able to see our energy usage as cents per hour or kWh per hour or Kg green house gas per hour.  Also there is a ongoing meter that shows how much up to current time we have used as well as comparing weeks, months, quarters and even years.  There is no hiding from the results.  What energy we use over this time is added to the total usage.

Now we as a household will know exactly what energy we are currently using.  Then we can start to look at what can be done to lower our usage…..and we are already doing this.

The electrician who installed our monitor system said that we already had a reasonably low energy usage but I know we can be so much better.

Taking the handheld wireless monitor into our home office, I did a little test with the down lights.

Taken in our home office with down lights on (also in the home the fridge and phone system are on and computers are on hibernate).  It is costing us  2.752 cents per hour to run these appliances.

Turned the down lights off (fridge, phones and computers remain the same): 0.590 cents per hour to run.  This means the down lights in the office by themselves cost us 2.162 cents per hour to run.

With the downlights on again, we can change the mode on the wireless monitor and see that .235 Kwh of energy is used per hour to run the downlights (with fridge, phone and hibernated computers running).

Lord Kelvin (1824-1907) was a British mathematician and physicist who said “If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it.”

Google has taken that idea and created PowerMeter, an online software to help consumers measure their daily energy use.

Here is a YouTube video that explains a little bit more about Google PowerMeter.

Pretty interesting stuff… maybe someday, you’ll be able to view all your energy use and make adjustments throughout the day. Instead of having to physically unplug things, maybe you could just press a button (or a touchscreen… iPhone app anyone?) and turn off your entire house. Except for the fridge, of course.

Although, Lord Kelvin probably didn’t have a fridge, and he seems like a cool dude.

     Rep. Steny Hoyer was making the talk show circuit this morning, trying to sell the President and Speaker Pelosi’s Energy Tax and Trade bill, HR2454. He claimed that the opponents numbers are out of sync, and that we must pass this bill. And he said he wanted to make it extremely clear: This is not a TAX!!

     While the Democrats may be able to say that this is not an additional tax on the American public, taxing it for our energy usage, the long range effects will basically serve as a tax on us.

      Businesses will be hit with additional costs as a result of the “cap and trade” energy policy. These costs will ultimately be passed on to the consumers. No matter how you word it, we are going to be taxed for the energy usage.

      Those who will benefit the most from this legisaltion will be Al Gore and Nancy Pelosi, both who are heavily invested personally in alternative energy companies.

      Based on Speaker Pelosi’s comments after a meeting with her caucus yesterday, it appears that the Speaker may not have the votes to pass this legislation.

     And when the legislation fails, it will be one of the first major setbacks for the Obama administration.

In a positive light where one area is shutting down funding a group has formed to increase the funding for alternative energy. US Bancorp and SolarCity are partnering up to create opportunities for homeowners to become more green.

Also in North Carolina they are going to be offering 20,000$ to customers to install solar panels.

This is a positive spin on things considering in other places in the US are cutting back.  More cities and states need to do this.  If the government makes it worthwhile for people to go green then more people are going to go green because in my experiences people in general don’t want to start the movement but if the government initiates the movement then people will go with it.  It’s a very ignorant way of thinking but people in general are ignorant.

The government needs to get the general public to move towards green.  By taxing oil it is one way to get big companies to convert their energy usage to renewables rather than oil.

Photograph courtesy of Boston.com

Vermont has passed a Right to Dry law. It is amazing to me that we have to legislate these kinds of things, especially in a state where you cannot turn around without bumping into someone who is pro-environment or spouting “green-ness”. This law gives those that live in condominiums and apartment units the right to air dry their clothes and install clothes lines or clothes drying racks. Evidently, this has proven difficult for these homeowners since condominium associations can control all sorts of things and evidently refuse to believe that air drying clothing is a good thing. Rather, for many, especially those that live in more urban environments, where a lot of these condo associations must have been from, air drying clothing is considered a sign of poverty. No one wants clothes hanging outside of multi million dollar condominium units, hence the “no drying” rules. Here in New England and particularly in Vermont, air drying takes on a new and different meaning. Here it is not a sign of poverty, but rather a sign of environmental consciousness. A symbol yet again of Yankee frugality – why pay money for electricity or propane to dry clothes when the sunshine is perfectly free? Statistics demonstrate that approximately 15% of a household’s energy usage goes to drying clothes.

We have had a dryer rack for a number of years which we purchased at the unfinished wood store in Manchester, Vermont and used while we lived in NJ. Although I admit that I don’t dry everything on it, there is something to be said for the smell of fresh air dried clothing. I am glad to see that everyone, no matter where you live in Vermont, has the right to enjoy that same thing.

While Vermont is at the forefront of a lot of things, this law wasn’t one of them. Florida passed the first “Right to Dry” law.

by Roberta Cruger, Los Angeles on 05.14.09

“Electronic billabong:” power strip supping up electrons. Photo via Flickr: by Stibbons

Electronic equipment, including cell phones, iPods, PCs, videogames, and plasma TVs have increased demand for residential energy use annually by 3.4 percent since 1990, according to the International Energy Agency. This trend leads the IEA to estimate that personal electrical energy usage in homes should triple by 2030 worldwide, hence more carbon emissions from coal and natural gas plants. It noted this trend is undoing efforts toward energy-efficiency.

Last summer, we joined the Green Power Program at Puget Sound Energy. The Green Power Program allows energy customers to buy and add into the system energy from green energy sources (wind, solar, biomass and landfill gas). It’s a good way to support the growth of green power sources for your local utility.  Since independent residential green energy infrastructure (home solar systems for example) can be quite expensive, this is the fastest, easiest, and cheapest way to go green with your energy usage, in my opinion. In reality, I do believe that it will take consumers working with energy companies to really solve our green energy needs.  While independent efforts to introduce green energy do help, I believe the real solution for the vast majority of energy users with come through our existing grid tapping into green energy sources in the future.  You can help support this conversion. 

How the program works (from the PSE Green Power Program page): 

• When you enroll in PSE’s Green Power Program, PSE purchases renewable energy credits from regional renewable energy facilities on your behalf.
• This guarantees that electricity from wind, solar, and biomass facilities is delivered to the regional power pool (the grid).
• Electricity from renewable energy facilities reduces the need for electricity generated from non-renewable sources like fossil fuels, creating measurable environmental benefits.
• PSE’s Green Power Program is certified by Green-e Energy, the nation’s leading voluntary certification program for renewable energy.

On top of this, it really is inexpensive and you can choose a program that will work with your budget.  We chose to purchase green energy for 100% of our electricity usage.  Looking back over our bills, we used the most electricity in January and paid an addition $17 to participate in the program.  Most months it is even less. By doing this, on average, each participating household helped avoid the release of 13,375 pound of carbon dioxide emissions into the air.

We still plan to do independent energy savings  and green energy projects, including grid-tied solar, but for now the Green Energy Program allows us to green our energy consumption in a way that is easy and inexpensive.  If you have a green energy program at your local utility, check into it today!

Update:  Neurotic Gardener shared this great site for finding the local green energy program in your area.  Thanks Neurotic Gardener!

Sandy

Have you ever noticed that all the productivity experts and best-selling authors on the subject of efficiency rarely, if ever, mention such basic topics as doing laundry or preparing meals? These are tasks that everyone needs to do frequently, on a regular basis (or they at least need to have someone else do these tasks for them, which I’m guessing is the case for the aforementioned authors). But for everyone who doesn’t have a secretary, personal assistant, and housekeeper, and still wants to be productive and efficient, you need to have an effective system for wardrobe maintenance. I’m assuming that anyone who’s reading this already has some sort of system for laundering their clothes. How’s that system working for you? It might be time to make some adjustments to your routine or tweak the details to streamline the process. Things may have changed in your life or in your living situation. You may have slipped into some less-than-optimal habits by continuing a “just for now” routine that you started long ago. You may have been doing your routine long enough that you now know what you’d like to change (if only someone would assign you a maintenance redesign project). Well, consider this a call to begin a mindful reassessment of your wardrobe maintenance system. In most cases, this will be a fairly easy task that you can undertake to make your system into something that’s not filled with drudgery or chaos. Who wouldn’t want that? I have four points to consider to help improve your wardrobe maintenance system:

+  Location

+  Supplies & Equipment

+  Space

+  Routine

You need to have a designated location where things are kept and processed during the maintenance routine. Remember the saying “a place for everything and everything in its place”? Well, the first part of that phrase is probably the more difficult of the two. And if you’re going to streamline your system, you might need to rethink the default locations you’re currently using. Don’t stick with a centralized laundry hamper in the hallway that the entire family has to use if it doesn’t work for you. Don’t force yourself to cram all of your dirty clothes into one basket, if you need more space or if you need additional containers for sorting. Think of yourself as the system designer for this process and make each element of it work in a way that naturally flows for you. If there are designated spaces for what you need to do, at the location you need to do it, and the supplies and equipment you need to use, it will be easier for you to develop a streamlined routine, and you’re more likely to sail through the process without moments of indecision or settling for what you’ve got to work with.

Consider these criteria for the aforementioned points.

+ Location

- for clothes awaiting cleaning or repair – this might be a place where clothes are hung, or more likely, a hamper or clothes basket; preferably, near the source of that decision
- where clothes are cleaned and repaired – this refers to where the do-it-yourself tasks are done as well as the take-it-somewhere tasks – where do you polish your shoes or sew on a button? have you located a designated shoe repair place or a place where you would go for alterations?
- where clothes wait to be put away – not where stacks of clothes sit for weeks after laundering, but where they wait during the cleaning, drying, pressing, hanging/folding process (the top of the dryer is only so big)
- where clothes go once they’re cleaned or repaired – again, not the top of the dresser or hanging on the closet door; this location should be determined by the space allocation of your wardrobe and how you rotate your garments (most recently worn go in the back) or how you organize your clothing (such as by color or sleeve length) – the main point is to have a functional storage system and to avoid stuffing things into drawers or into the closet just to get everything put away
- where supplies for the process are kept – preferably, at the location where they are to be used, and in a location where they are easily viewed and accessed

+ Supplies & Equipment

- containers, kits, or stations where supplies are grouped and always kept – having your supplies grouped into kits will make them easier to find and use; having them stored in a container makes it easier to transport them to the precise task area where they’ll be used or to move them off a shelf when the need arises, such as for cleaning, taking inventory, or a dreaded plumbing leak
- stain treatment supplies – if you use a stain stick that can be applied days before being laundered, it may be useful to have multiple sticks and keep them at each location where dirty laundry is collected; these can also be good to have for travel
- laundry products – preferably, you can keep these to a minimum and avoid multiple opened products and almost-empty containers; if you have to take your laundry to another location to do your wash, having your products in a carrying container will make it that much easier to transport, and make you less likely to forget something
- sewing kit, buttons, etc. – everyone should be able to sew on a missing button, but you need to be able to find all the supplies you need to do this; keep buttons, needles, safety pins, several colors of thread, and a small pair of scissors in a small sealable container that you can easily find and take to a work space
- shoe polishing kit – a nice shoe polishing kit will greatly increase the likelihood that you will polish your shoes and get more life from them; this is an item that may be worth a little splurge – compared to the price of new shoes, the cost of a shoeshine kit could be a great value; make sure that you have polish colors that correspond to the shoes you own, and don’t forget to add white liquid polish to your kit if you need it for touching up your tennis shoes or summer sandals
- laundry processing equipment – this might include hampers, laundry baskets, laundry bags, drying racks, clothes hanging racks, clothes pins, ironing board & iron, hangers, or storage organizers; having the right tools for the job makes the task more pleasant

+ Space

- space for wardrobe maintenance items – not only do you need to have a designated location for collecting dirty laundry, you also need to have space for it; besides that, you may need baskets or containers for hand-washing & special treatment items, dry cleaning & repairs to be outsourced, items to donate or otherwise purge, and items needing do-it-yourself repairs (one more tip regarding laundry baskets & containers: rectangular-shaped containers are almost always better than round, or even elliptical-shaped)
- storage space for supplies & processing equipment – if you don’t have space and easy access to your cleaning & maintenance products and supplies, it’s not going to be fun; keep in mind the portability factor too, when thinking about your space and storage containers; and make it easy to put things away
- uncluttered flat surfaces – this is a tough one, because cleared flat surfaces tend to attract stuff galore, but you need such spaces for sorting, preparing, processing, pressing, folding, regrouping and reorganizing; so do your best to find some, even if it comes from a folding table
- a container for collecting pocket contents, lost buttons, etc. – you’ll probably want a container that has a sealable lid, so that you don’t end up with coins, buttons, and tokens spilled behind the washer and dryer; if you’re good, you’ll empty this collection container after each laundry event, but even if you’re not up to that level of efficiency, having a collection container can be an acceptable option and better than the alternative (setting coins and buttons on top of the washer or dryer where they inevitably will be knocked off into some place where they shouldn’t go)
- laundry sink or tub for pre-treating, soaking, hand-washing – granted, if you don’t have one of these, it’s hard to just create space for one, but you can put it on your wish list; and if you do have one, keep it clear of clutter and stocked with a scrub brush and other supplies you need to have on hand; an alternative to a sink or tub might be a plastic wash bin designated for that purpose
- space for air drying – this can be a clothesline (outside or inside), a drying rack, or a hanging device that’s used over your tub; just make sure that its accessible when you want to use it, and that it’s easily returned to its non-drying function when you’re finished (think retractable clotheslines and fold-up racks)
- space for processing cleaned clothes – this combines several previously mentioned elements, but I’m repeating it here because you need to have space (and maybe special racks) for hanging clean clothes, folding clothes, towels, & linens, sorting & stacking clean items, room to press garments that need ironing, and space to regroup and organize items that will be returned to different rooms (if you have to take your laundry out to be washed, you may need provisions for covering the clean items during transport)

+ Routine

- designate day(s) for laundry and wardrobe maintenance – laundry may be done weekly, but you can also integrate clothing repairs, shoe polishing, and other clothing maintenance tasks on this designated day; handling dry cleaning and other outsourced types of tasks can be relegated to days when you run errands
- frequency of laundering/cleaning – reassess how frequently you launder or dry clean your clothes – not how many times a week you do laundry, but how many hours you actually wear a garment before laundering it; if you put on an outfit at the end of the day to go out for the evening (and aren’t working up a sweat by dancing), perhaps you can wear it another time before washing it; be aware that over-washing and excessive dry cleaning can significantly shorten the wearability of a garment, not to mention the extra labor and resources it takes to do that extra cleaning
- share the labor – this point is especially directed at women, who typically take on the job of family launderer by default (and probably includes the wives of Stephen Covey and David Allen); don’t be a martyr and don’t encourage helplessness and dependency by taking on the entire household’s wardrobe maintenance; teach self-reliance by instructing children to maintain their own clothing. Release your care-giver instincts, lower your standards, and let them do it themselves! Household members should have individual responsibility for their own wardrobe items and bed clothes, and should share or rotate tasks for “community” laundry tasks (such as towels and linens).
- consider all-hands activities – engage the entire household for such things as hanger-gathering, quick & easy closet purges, donation gathering, shoe polishing night, curtain laundering, bed linen washing, and seasonal clothing transfers
- plan for complete follow-through of the process on laundry days – avoid musty or mildewy clothes forgotten in the washer, wrinkled clothes left in the dryer, and missing or disorganized clothing items that can’t be found because they were not put away; don’t start the process unless you know you’ll be able to follow it through to completion
- integrate a compatible activity with your laundry processing – make your laundry day more productive by integrating individual or family activities that can be done between the steps in the process; listed here are some examples of such activities:

• exercise, walk, ride a bike, do yoga or a workout routine between loads
• make it a cooking/baking day or prepare salad/vegetables for the week
• read a book, magazine, or browse through a cookbook
• listen to podcasts or audio books (or my favorite, This American Life)
• dust bedroom furniture, baseboards, light fixtures, and clean mirrors, floors, door frames, and light switches
• straighten up the closet, dresser drawers, night stands, and linen closet in preparation for clean laundry
• write up plans for the week, update your calendar or address book, write e-mail messages or replies, write a few pages for your book/screenplay/business plan/blog
• plan your menu for the week and write up a grocery list

- schedule an after-laundry activity – create a sense of urgency to get the task done, and provide something to look forward to (preferably, something that doesn’t involve everyone needing to shower first [you know, the hot water issue after laundering]; and maybe you should pass up an activity that involves spending or an eating-out activity – it would be good to get out of the habit of using these activities as a reward, for obvious reasons); listed below are some suggested alternatives:

• go visit some friends or family (hello grandma!)
• go to the park, pool, or playground; play tennis, kickball, ping-pong, or volleyball
• set up a backyard game of croquet or badminton and have a cookout
• go for a drive – just exploring or revisiting old neighborhoods or new sites
• have dinner at home (maybe with food from the cooking/baking you did), then play a board game or do a family project or activity together

Bonus: Money-saving Aspect of Maintenance

Taking care of your wardrobe items is inherently a money-saving venture, but if you can make some adjustments in your maintenance system, you can save even more.

Save money by extending the life of your clothing. Extend the life of your clothing by
- making repairs & alterations needed to keep the garment functional
- reducing the frequency of laundering or dry cleaning
- reducing the wash and rinse temperatures
- eliminating or reducing the frequency of using heated drying
- reducing the amount of laundry detergent and fabric softeners used
- using a front-loading washer rather than a top-loading model, if you have the choice

Save money by eliminating or reducing the use of laundry products:
- fabric softeners, dryer sheets, anti-static products, and spray starch are products that are best used sparingly, if at all
- beside the cost of these products, fabric treatments affect the surfaces by making them slightly resistant to water, slightly glossy, and more difficult to clean (because of being impervious to water) if used routinely over an extended period of time
- be aware of the quantity of detergent you use, and adjust it for the amount of soil on the clothing and to minimize the soapiness that needs to be rinsed; many laundry detergents are now more concentrated, and suggested usage amounts tend to err on the side of using too much (which, from a marketing standpoint, will require you to buy more product more frequently); and don’t forget, the detergent and laundry products you use ultimately end up in the water supply system for treatment and redistribution, so be mindful and frugal with your usage – try reducing the amount you use until you find the minimal amount needed to do the job

Save big money by being selective about your home laundering methods:
- Remember that any kind of heat-generating equipment or appliances (stoves, ovens, toasters, water heaters, irons, clothes dryers, space heaters, furnaces, electric blankets, hair appliances, etc.) use more energy than almost any other type of energy usage in your house (way more than lighting or electronic devices), so any reduction you can make in your use of heat-generating appliances will result in significant savings
- Save $85-$150 per year in energy by air drying your clothes instead of using a gas or electric dryer
- Save $11-$226* per year in energy by reducing the use of heated water for washing and rinsing

And if you have the option, or are close to replacement of your appliances, keep these potential savings in mind:
- Save $28-$137* per year in water, detergent, and energy by using a front loading washer instead a top loading washer
- Save $12-$30* per year in energy with gas dryer instead of electric

*The figures I’ve cited are ranges derived from outstanding detailed information provided at Michael Bluejay’s site, Saving Electricity, which compares various factors of water and energy usage in the laundry process; it also compares other appliances and energy usage issues. If you appreciate excellent research and want to know specific information about appliances, energy usage costs, and efficiency, I would highly recommend his site. Take that, Stephen Covey and David Allen!)

1. Adjust your thermostat

According to the Energy Saving Trust, reducing the temperature on your thermostat by 1°C could ‘cut your heating bills by up to 10 percent and typically saves around £65 per year’.

2. Don’t leave televisions, computers and other electrical appliances on standby

According to Moneysupermarket.com, TV’s left on standby in the UK use around £116 million worth of energy every year and DVD and video players consume more than £225 million while on standby. Computers left on standby account for even more wasted energy in the UK. A computer can still use up to 75% of its energy when left on standby, collectively costing British households £800 million a year.

3. Take a shower, not a bath

A typical bath will use around 100litres of water, three times more water than a shower. Using a shower instead of a bath will save significant amounts of water which will lead to savings on your water bill.

4. Don’t overfill your kettle

Kettles are one of the most used appliances in the kitchen with the average family using their kettle around 4 times a day and a total of 1500 times per year. It is estimated that on average we boil twice the water we need to when boiling a kettle – which means using twice the energy. Boiling only the required amount of water could help reduce your energy usage.

5. Turn off lights when you leave the room

Turning lights off when leaving the room is one of the easiest ways to save money on your energy bill. It’s quite surprising then that people still leave lights on in empty rooms which. Taking the time to turn the lights off before you leave a room will save you money in the long run. It is also possible to save money by installing energy efficient light bulbs. I will discuss this further in my next blog post.

Whilst some of the above money saving suggestions might seem quite basic, they can prove to be very effective. Saving money on your heating and utilities needn’t be time consuming and difficult. Taking a little time to consider the energy you use can lead to significant savings in the long run.

Dan

Just minutes ago I replaced a burned out light bulb in my room, so I figured that now was as good as time as any to talk about the future ban on “standard” bulbs.  Little over a year ago the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 was signed into law.  Among other things, this law mandates that all incandescent light bulbs be 25 percent more efficient by 2014.  So while not requiring a straight-out ban, it is assumed that there will be no revolutionary discovery to make incandescent bulbs more efficient, therefore they will have to be phased out.  Well that is to say, all light bulbs that use between 40 to 150 Watts.  Appliance bulbs and the such are exempt in this law (but hopefully they too will be eventually be phased out in preference to the more efficient LED bulbs).  Also exempt are color light bulbs and 3-Way bulbs, but you can buy CFL bulbs for these as well, so it’s your responsibility to make the less-polluting choice.

So What Does This Mean For You?

Cost savings…over time.  CFL bulbs cost twice as much up front but when you consider straight replacement costs, you’ll end up spending approximately $16.25 buying incandescent bulbs for every $2.50 spent on a CFL bulb. Then of course there is the savings on your electric bill, the difference between using bulbs that are 10-15 Watts per hour versus bulbs that are 40-60 Watts per hour.

But what about mercury?

I want to address the “aren’t CFL bulbs dangerous because they contain mercury?” issue.  The short answer is simply NO.

The amount of mercury contained in a normal CFL bulb is, on average 4 milligrams, enough to cover the very tip of a ball-point pen (whereas that thermometer you’ve had your whole life and still put in your mouth whenever you feel sick has about 500 milligrams, or that shark steak you had for dinner has nearly 1 milligram of mercury that you ate).  Additionally, there is more mercury released into the atmosphere by the burning of coal to power your incandescent bulb than is contained in the CFL you could replace it with.

No mercury leaks when the bulb is in use.  The only time you have to be concerned by it is if the bulb breaks.  The EPA has a great fact sheet about CFL bulbs and directions of how to clean up a broken CFL bulb.  Get educated here (pdf).

Burned out CFL?

Great, now just take it to your local recycling center (unless you’re one of the lucky ones that gets driveway pickup for such things, then just put it out and enjoy the time/hassle savings).  If you’re not sure of what recycling center near you accepts the bulbs, visit the EPA’s site to search for the nearest one to you.  Never, ever, EVER send a CFL to an incenerator – it’s just really BAD.  If you can’t recycle it (but really, why can’t you?), then wrap it in two plastic bags, tie it off and send it off with the rest of your trash.

That said, if your CFL bulb burns out before 2 years’ time has passed, and you have purchased one that is an Energy Star, then you’re in luck.  The manufacturer is required to garuntee the bulb will last at least two years as part of its getting an Energy Star rating.  So keep all your reciepts for the bulbs.  If your bulb burns out before two years is up, then check the manufacturer’s web site to find out how to claim your refund or replacement.

So start switching out your incandescent bulbs to CFLs, you’ll save on your energy bill, be helping the environment by needing less polluting electricity, and you’ll have less of the annoying chore of climbing up a ladder or on a chair to change the bulbs since CFLs last longer.

December electricity and gas usage

Our December utility bill (covering mid November to mid December) shows our best energy reduction results so far. Our daily average K HW usage for electricity was down 17%.  Our daily average THRM usage for natural gas was down 34%.  There are two primary reasons for the latter in particular: 1.  The average daily temperature was 5 degrees warmer compared to last year, meaning the furnace didn’t have to work as hard, and 2. We’ve been really good at keeping our thermostat set to 68 degrees.

Greenhouse lettuce in December

Out in the greenhouse, temperatures have dropped significantly.  While it typically stays 10 – 15 degrees warmer inside than outside (sometimes requiring a small propane heater), that’s not saying a lot when the low temperate of the day is 8 degrees.  A few days ago we moved our lime tree inside the house because it isn’t exactly a plant that can handle sub-20 degree temperatures.  Today I did the same for the lemon tree.  Pretty much everything in the greenhouse that was growing (pepper plant, pea pods, broccoli and cabbage plants) is now kaput, except for the lettuce.  A few weeks ago, I put a floating row cover over the lettuce bed. When I pulled it back today to see how the lettuce has weathered the cold, definitely sub-freezing temperatures, I was pleasantly surprised that it looks fine. 

The other interesting challenge of such cold weather is taking care of the chickens and goats. And the biggest challenge by far is how quickly their water freezes over.  Giving the goats access to water requires boiling water and a hammer.  We bang through the layer of ice and then pour in boiling water.  Of course, this needs to be repeated later in the day.  We’ve also started taking the chicken water into the garage at night so that it doesn’t completely freeze. We take it back out in the morning when we let them out of their coop.  Later in the day, we have to go back out with boiling water and thaw it out again.  Luckily, the weather doesn’t seem to be bothering the chickens too much.  When I researched chicken breeds, I specifically looked for cold-hardy birds that would lay well in the winter.  They appear to be doing both.  We are consistently getting 2 – 3 eggs from them even on cold days.

Stay warm!

Sandy