greenHo.ws

Oh no, not another list!  Yes it is, anytime we can provide ways to save money and energy it is worth talking about.  This was a quick little read in the online version of This Old House Magazine.  It covers everything from plugging your chimney to selling your house (?).  Give it a read and see if you can find some savings.

It’s at This Old House.

The U.S. Green Building Council and the American Society of Interior Designers Foundation have partnered to create the nation’s first green residential remodeling guidelines. The guidelines cover the 10 areas most often updated in a remodel. They are: Kitchen, Bathroom, Bedroom, Living & Working, Finished Basement, Home Performance, Major Addition, Gut Rehab, Deep Energy Retrofit, and Outdoor Living.

The Guidelines are designed to provide people with the information and tools to green their home remodeling projects. With the continued increases in the cost of energy more and more people will be looking for information on how to save energy.

For more information please check out the REGREEN site.

If you compared auto insurance rates, you might think green drivers are safer drivers! The reality is, all* insurance companies offer some form of discount to green drivers, although the discounts are not always labeled as green. It takes just a little research and preparation to ask the right questions when talking to your insurance provider.

I found three green chances to drive my auto insurance costs down.

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This past week was probably the most diverse we’ve had yet in terms of topics covered. 

Since the summer concert season is coming up, music was on my mind.  I found three bands I like who actively minimize or offset the impact of their concerts.  It didn’t take much time to find out about their efforts, so check out your favorite act before logging on to buy some tickets.

With spring and summer comes a long list of projects to complete around the house.  Greenman wrote an entry with tips on a project to save energy and money while staying cooler with ceiling fans.  We have them in most rooms in our house, and they do make a noticeable in both warm and cold weather.

In addition to upgrading with ceiling fans, it’s also becoming the season to paint, inside and out.  With a little planning and follow through, all paints can be greener if you follow through on tips from greenman.

I’m a big fan of online / web2.0 applications.  I believe they save energy, through reduced transportation, packaging, and energy consumption.  See my update on our efforts to reduce wasted catalogs through the mail using one of these new online applications.

Sue Al Gore?!?!?  Greenman stirs us up with a shocker of an entry!

To offset the crazy talk, check out our call to action: save energy and turn off the lights for just one hour!  On March 29, from 8 to 9PM, join with your neighbors, local government, and people around the world making a statement about saving energy by cutting back on power consumption for just one hour on one night.

Concerned about plastics?  So are we.  We found 8 names to look at for PVC free products (5 stores and 3 brands).

Finally, we got things a little mixed up at GreenProductsNews.com this week, but everything should be back to normal some time this week.  Word to the wise:  website upgrades do NOT always go as expected!

Lately, I have been reading about plastics.  More specifically, I have been reading about BPA, PVC, phthalates, and the effects they may or may not have on us.  I have not seen any definitive research that settles the question of how poisonous they are, although some countries have labelled them as carcinogens.  So, there is a strong argument that continued exposure to plastics and associated chemicals has an effect on human health.

Regardless of the argument, here’s how I feel about these:  I do not like the idea of plastic in the food I eat, the drinks I drink, or in the air I breathe.  We did not evolve eating plastic.  Regardless of how little we ingest from one little plastic item, we handle a hundred every day.  Surely the constant exposure accumulates.

So, what to do?

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This week we talked about several project ideas, from world wide to right at home.  On Green Products News we talked about what to use and on greenHo.ws we gave suggestions on how. 

Here are some projects we said talked about last week:

• there is a new and environmentally friendly idea in housing - low cost, pre-built, and simple to assemble Abod homes; intended for overseas markets, they are a good option for church or relief organizations to be good stewards of the environment;
• installing a water heater is a big project and not inexpensive; be educated before deciding how to go green with a solar water heaters;
• if you spend time working in your yard, you understand the importance of fertilizing; try composting with the Tumbleweed compost maker and reuse your yard waste; it takes a while, but the results are worth it;
• ceiling fans are a good investment and help to reduce home heating and cooling costs; take a look at greenman says about the benefits of installing energystar fans from Hunter;
• finally, everyone has a few home electronics; what you may not realize is that many constantly suck power; it’s a quick and easy project to reduce their impact with a few switches.

We covered more than just projects with a few posts with tips, a little education, and more:

• try these quick and easy energy saving tips;
• impress your friends with knowledge of these green terms;
• I was surprised at an un-green action by a “green” website;
• Ecomom is interested in the environment and her family and joined us this week to write about it;
• the demand for green is definitely up!

There often appears to be some confusion about what certain terms mean as they relate to the “green” movement. I thought it would be useful to pull together a short list of some of the more common terms to help clarify things.

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There are a number of things that you can do to save energy that are either free or very low cost. Most are simple, easy to do items that can save a noticeable amount of energy.
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You already own your house and it was built back before people were really aware of “green” building practices (you and about 110 million close friends). With American’s spending over $200 billion dollars on home remodeling there are a lot of people out there making changes to their homes. If you are going to update your home, why not go green. Well, you ask, what are some of the best changes you can make to improve your home’s energy efficiency?

Here is my top 10 list: (from little/easy to big/tougher)

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This week has seen some big developments in politics. Candidates dropped out, feathers got ruffled, and we found out there’s going to be even MORE snow. The good news is that we’ve been working diligently through all of these ups and downs to bring you tips, product information, and online tools to help boost your green!

So here’s a few hitters from our sites, greenHo.ws and GreenProductsNews, plus a couple announcements:

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It’s the middle of the winter, but I’m dreaming about spring. And nothing says spring like azaleas in bloom on a green lawn.

As nice as it is, a 3.4 acre lawn can consume 9,000 gallons of water in a single watering! Add it all up on the east coast and watering lawns is around 30% of total water consumption. It’s worse in the west, where there is much less water to go around.

So instead of watering that lawn, just let it go! Many breeds of grass can go three weeks without watering anyway.

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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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