Archive for February 20th, 2009
Seven days to go green and save money. If that’s what you’re looking to do, not change your lifestyle this is for you.
To start off the with, I’m going to give you something simple to do.
These are the easy things you can do.These seven days will put you well on your way to a greener, healthier home and way of life. But it’s only a start.
Let’s get started! I want you to start by taking a shorter shower. The average home uses 15% of it’s energy in heating water. Taking a 5-minute shower instead of lolli-gagging and taking a 20-minute shower will improve your power bill and the amount of water you use, which is another benefit for the environment.
You could go all out and take a cold shower, but the title is 7 simple days, and taking a cold shower isnât very simple.
The other way to save water heating energy is to only turn on the dishwasher when it’s full. Tonight, instead of turning on that dishwasher right away, peek in there and see if you could add some items before turning it on. Again, you’re saving water on top of your water heating bill.
Same goes for washing clothes. Only here, you can cut out hot water all together. Using cold water for laundry saves on average $63 a year. And there are detergents specially formulated for cold water that get your clothes the same amount of clean.
While you’re over switching your washer to cold/cold, turn the hot water heater down. What do you have it on now, hot? It should be set to warm, which is somewhere between 120-140 degrees. Can’t tell? Hold a thermometer under your sink and see what it readsâ anywhere over 120 degrees is too hot.
That’s it for day one! See simple, quick, and didn’t cost you a penny.
- Take a shorter shower
- Turn on the dishwasher only when full
- Wash clothes in cold water instead of hot
- Turn the temp on your hot water heater down
Do this, and you’ll see the results on next monthâs power bill, and water bill. I will post Day 2 soon for an Organically Green Lifestyle.