greenHo.ws

The Energy Independence and Security Act was signed into law on 12/19/07. There are a couple of key items in that bill that should benefit all of us. Probably the biggest news item was the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standard being raised. The law sets the new target at 35 miles per gallon for the combined fleet of cars and light trucks by model and it has to be reached by the year 2020. Also included in the bill were provisions to raise the energy efficiency standards for a broad range of lights and appliances. This includes regular light bulbs and fluorescent lamps additionally efficiency standards were set for external power supplies, and the majority of major home appliances.

A somewhat controversial piece was the Renewable Fuel Standard.

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Greenman will tell you about this pile of electronics I used to have: old monitors, outmoded PCs, discarded cell phones, even first generation MP3 players and PDAs. It was never easy to part with old equipment, but the pile shrunk. As it did, we gained back closet space.

Most of the time, the old hardware was donated to someone who was a few generations behind in technology. Some of the time, the hardware went to charities. Occasionally, it even went in the trash (I am embarrassed to say).

We’re now going through our annual rite of purging, and I’ve found a new option for used electronics and gadgets.

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 One item worth looking at in the never ending green quest is replacing your refrigerator – even if it is operating perfectly. Depending on when your refrigerator was made the new refrigerators and freezers are dramatically more efficient than old models. All refrigerant wears out and seals start to leak so refrigerator and freezer performance tends to degrade over time so even if everything looks okay it is probably not operating at top efficiency.

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Along with trying to live “greener” I’ve also been working on personal growth-or rather the opposite. It isn’t news or even much of a revelation but losing weight means that I can set the thermostat a few degrees higher. Since I live in Florida, this should affect about 320 days of the year that I seem to run my AC. I don’t have any figures yet on energy usage but I’ve started tracking my overall consumption. My electric bill does come with a graph showing consumption versus the the past 13 months. So far the trend is down-both on the scale and the electric bill. And blood pressure.

I’m using Weight Watchers’ Online to track what I eat. It works for me but might not for everyone. Find something that works and stick with it. Please note that I am NOT recommending that our friends and readers from Chicago, Minnesota and Canada bulk up to save fuel!

Thanks for reading.

Soon to be “Skinny Vinnie”

What product has been awarded a 2006 Best of What’s New award from the editors of Popular Science, included in TIME magazine’s 2006 Best Inventions and named as a top 10 green building products for 2007 by Sustainable Industries magazine?

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One really quick and easy energy saving project is to insulate your water heater tank. After heating and cooling, water heating is typically the largest energy user in the home because hot water is used for so many activities.

If your water heater was built prior to 2004 it can most likely benefit from an insulating blanket. This is a thick fiberglass blanket, secured around the tank by waterproof tape. If you don’t know when your water was built, touch it. A tank that’s warm to the touch needs additional insulation. Be sure to check the owner’s manual for your water heater. Some newer models specifically recommend that you do NOT use a heater blanket. If your manual doesn’t mention blankets (or you’ve lost the manual) and you can feel heat on the outside of the heater it can probably use a blanket.

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A recent survey conducted for the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) confirms that a desire for greater energy efficiency drives consumers to buy green.

The survey sample population was asked how important certain items would be in their green building decisions.

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Not only is greenHo.ws is a great place to find tips, projects, and general green info, but it’s also closely related to GreenProductsNews. Greenman has been pulling double duty and writing on GreenProductsNews about products that improve the greenliness of your house.

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This week we’ve told you about three easy home projects and some quick hit actions to increase your green-ness. All of these are very much in line with our philosophy of “being green doesn’t have to be hard.” Keeping with the theme of the week, here’s another area to consider: don’t buy software in a physical package.

Most software is sold to corporations, who get software electronically. In other words, they download it directly from the source and distribute to employees over their local networks. Consumers buy less software, but most software sold to consumers comes off the shelf in a box wrapped in plastic and delivered in a truck.

Basically, this is one area where big corporations are doing a better job at being green than the average person. Not that big business is perfect in this area, but they are ahead of the typical home user. Let’s change that.

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I’m not sure if there is any product or item that is the ultimate “green” one but baking soda probably comes close baking soda is a naturally occurring substance and using it for everyday tasks such as; baking, cleaning, and deodorizing will not harm you or the environment.

Here is a list of a few uses for “super green” baking soda.

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If you do any type of work around the house I’m sure you have a drill/driver or other battery powered tool. In addition to your tools, you probably also have a number of other cord-less items that use rechargeable batteries. Just like death and taxes rechargeable batteries going bad is one of life’s certainties.

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There is so much news about how to save energy, be green, and use fewer resources in general, it’s hard to know where to start. So, to pull a few tips together, I perused a few green sites, racked my brains, pinged a few friends, then finally asked my wife for a few good and relatively new ideas.

I got lots of ideas. Before I share the new ones, here are three popular ideas that are not new, but always worth repeating. Hopefully you’ve heard them before:

1. Swap your old technology, incandescent light bulbs out for new CFL light bulbs. There is lots of information about CFLs on Wikipedia and a nice writeup on Consumer Reports.
2. Minimize shower time. We’ve all heard the jokes about “shower with a friend,” which never gets old. Reality is that even with low flow showerheads, showering still uses a lot of water. So, keep it short or share it with a friend.
3. Get a ride from someone or offer to drive. This is especially true in bigger cities where traffic is insane (Atlanta), but holds true everywhere. Even if you live in a smaller town, remember that pollution adds up.

These first few are a nice start with lots of information widely available. Here are five more ideas that are much less publicized:

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This is the final piece of our three quick and easy energy saving projects. We have already covered air infiltration and energy saving lighting, now we are going to address high efficiency (low flow) toilets. Because toilet use is the largest proportion of indoor water used in a household, high-efficiency toilets achieve real water savings. Since 1992 all toilets sold in the US have had to meet the water conservation standard of 1.6 gallons per flush (gpf). A change to low flow toilets alone, reduces toilet water use by over 50% and indoor water use by an average of 16%. This translates into a savings of up to 20,000 gallons per year for a family of four. So if you have a toilet that was manufactured prior to 1992 it would be very worthwhile to install one of the new low flow toilets.

This is a fairly easy and straightforward project. There are a number of sites that detail the step required for this project, some of the better ones are listed below.

This Old House - Toilet Install

Lowe’s - Toilet Install

Window shades usually are not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of green behavior. There are a couple of areas where shades can directly impact the green rating of your house, they two areas are off-gassing and energy efficiency. The biggest impact from shades can be their energy savings. There are a couple of ways the shades help, keeping the heat out or keeping the heat in your house. Light colored fabrics will reflect the sun’s rays which reduces solar gain and help keep the indoor temperature lower. In addition to reflecting heat insulating shades can also keep the heat (or cool) in the house. Insulating shades have R ratings of up to 5.0 or higher, these factors along can save a considerable amount on your energy bills.

In addition the the energy savings there are indoor air quality issues with some shades. The majority of shades have a thin coating of PVC to increase the durability of the shade. Now more manufactures are also creating PVC-free shades that use other, more environmentally friendly, coatings to provide the durability. You still need to be careful since the replacement coatings are not always harmless, be sure to check with the manufacture for details.

Draper Shades

Lutron

North Solar Screen

Hunter Douglas GreenScreen

Welcome to greenHo.ws.

It wasn’t long ago that a group of us were talking about how we would like to make a difference in our impact on the environment. We talked about simple things like using less water, planting the right plants, fixing our roofs, and generally creating less waste. Then we talked about how we could actually do these things.

Our conclusion, simply put: it is not always easy or obvious how to make a small difference.

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There is a new line of paints from ICI called the Freshaire Choice that are VOC-free in both the base and the tint colors. The reason this is noteworthy is that in many paints the base color may be VOC-free but the tint can add a large amount of VOCs back into the paint. The neat thing about the tint system for the Freshaire paint is that it uses a solid colorant instead of a liquid tint. The colorant comes in a package and it is placed in the base, bag included. A quick, easy, precise, and environmentally friendly way to color paint. The paint ranges from around $35 to $38 per gallon and it will be available exclusively at the Home Depot starting in April. The Freshaire Choice Paint product assortment consists of flat, eggshell and semi-gloss finishes, as well as drywall interior primer and ceiling paint.

The FreshAire Choice

There is nothing quite like the image of a warm fire burning in the fireplace on a cold winter night. Unfortunately the reality is that while it looks very nice it is not very efficient for providing heat or all that green. Testing conducted by a major laboratory revealed that between 80 percent and 90 percent of the heat produced by wood burned in an open fireplace is lost up the chimney. This means that for every $100 you spend for firewood, you get only $10 to $20 worth of heat. The rest goes up in smoke.

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After eliminating credit card applications and financial come-ons, the second biggest paper waste in the mailbox is catalogs.

Many catalogs are from companies we have never done business with and never will. More are from companies we bought something from just once, while fewer still are from companies we do business with occasionally. Most important though, all of these companies have websites or sell their products through other companies’ websites like Amazon.

The question becomes: how can we reduce the number of catalogs we receive in the mail? The answer is that there are several ways to do this.

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If your mailbox is anything like mine, it holds several credit card offers or cash advance checks every day. I don’t sign up for credit card offers from random mailings, nor do I ever use the checks that come with usually outrageous interest rates. Instead, they go right to the shredder, into a garbage bag, and out to the dumpster.

What’s that you say? Isn’t that a huge waste of paper? Exactly what I was thinking! So now, what to do about it . . .

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There recently was a interesting article written by Jeff Tucker of the Pueblo Chieftain - Architects differ on green building savings. In the article they discuss whether building green is really cost effective. The town of Pueblo is building two new green public buildings, the Pueblo Police Department and the City-County Health Building. The architectural firm designing the two building contends that building the two buildings to LEED silver standard could cost as much as 22% more than a standard built building. They said:

“The main argument for the added expense is that it’s paid for in the long run because the buildings use less electricity, gas and water, and pay less utilities.

But he said he couldn’t provide any estimates on how much the city and county will save in utilities. The concept of green building is just too new”

Other architects don’t necessarily agree with the assessment, saying:

“It shouldn’t cost more than a 5 percent increase, and it should give you a five-year pay-out.”

Take a look at the article and let us know what you think.