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Getting Air Tight
You say the word “Audit” during tax season and folks are a little skittish but a Home Energy Audit can turn your home into a smooth running machine. During an Audit your home is tested to see how airtight it is which will lower your energy consumption, prevent moisture condensation and help maintain indoor air […]
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People Power: Are You Taking the Stairs?
Seems like a simple energy equation, right? Using fossil fuels to move a heavy elevator up and down a building has got to take more energy (and create more greenhouse gas emissions) than a human climbing the stairs. As it turns out, the energy equation gets very complicated, and depends on the specific situation. However, […]
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Improving Air and Water by Digging up a Little Lawn
Lawns have their place, but in general they have now taken too much place. Aside from the matters of fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, irrigation, and fossil-fuel consuming mowers, there is the fundamental matter of carbon. Look at this image of prairie plants and their root systems (created by Heidi Natura of Living Habitats). The root systems of […]
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Shipping: On the Ground
Every well run office has an organized shipping center. Your home can have one too but let’s give it a “green” make over. In the age of Fed-Ex and Amazon, we receive countless packages at home. All of those materials can be reused a time or two before recycling them. No need to buy new […]
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Composting Part 2: Even the Big Boys are Doing It
Keeping food out of the landfill, and recycling food waste, is not just for back yard scrappers. Restaurants and big institutions are getting into it too. Finley’s cousin Girard gets his exercise once a week by bicycling to Madison, WI restaurants to pick up their kitchen scraps and take them to a community garden for […]
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Under Pressure
Rolling along you may not notice a change in tire pressure but your car does. Proper tire pressure can improve gas mileage by 3%, not to mention the crucial safety issue. Did you know drivers lose from 10% to as much as 50% of tire tread life due to under inflation. Now consider how many […]
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Composting: Nature’s Way to Recycle
Food scraps are too good to waste – why send them to the dump? Finley could give some of hers to her chickens to recycle into eggs, but even chicken-owning households will have food scraps which are chock full of nutrients and organic matter that are too good to waste. Besides, why expend fossil fuels […]
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Getting Clean
The verdict is in: Dishwashers better than hand washing. Hand washing one load of dishes can use 20 gallons of water, whereas water- and energy-efficient dishwashers use as little as 4.5 gallons. Make sure you run a load only when full and over time, that’s a big difference! Also, try experimenting with not rinsing before […]
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Eating on the Go: Ditch the Plastic
Eating on the go is an inevitable fact of life for most of us, but there is no reason to make it worse with single-use plastic spoons and forks that just pile up in a landfill. One simple step that you can take today will save bundles of plastic for the year to come: Pack […]
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In Hot Water
Ready to save some energy and $? Water heating accounts for roughly 19 percent of home energy bills so let’s make sure our water heaters are as efficient as possible with this easy checklist. Turn your water heater off or down when you’re on vacation. Set temperature to no higher than 120ºF. Insulate your heater. […]
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