This is sponsored content from BlogHer and GE.
The theme of GE's ecomagination Challenge is that improving our energy use starts in the home, and they want you to submit your breakthrough big ideas for home energy creation, management, and use. I have to admit, I've had a lot of ideas recently for how we can green our home in smaller ways — some I've put into use, and some I really want to. Here are my ideas, and I welcome yours in the comments! If you tell me your idea, you'll also be entered to win a $50 GE energy smart LED light bulb that lives 20 years and saves you $85 in energy costs. See more details at the end!And if you want to enter the ecomagination Challenge, some thoughtful inventors, entrepreneurs, and businesses will garner investment, commercial relationships and other partnership opportunities, as well as five “Innovation Award” winners whose ideas represent pioneering entrepreneurship and innovation and will be granted $100,000. If that's you, submit your Big Ideas for how to reinvent energy use by March 15.
I have to say, I don't know that I have any Big Ideas, but here are some smaller ones. If you have smaller ones, go ahead and share them with me for the chance to win the sweet new lightbulb!
We moved to our current condo a little over a year ago. Fortunately, our 1980s building already has several advantages over our old 1920s rental: actual insulation (a marvel!), new vinyl windows that keep in the heat, and close neighbors, which can be a mixed blessing of course, but the good news is our being sandwiched between them means extra insulation for us!
However, 1980s styles and functions, while leaps ahead of the 1920s, are not up to twenty-teen standards (how are we describing this decade?). So we've already done some energy upgrading of our place, and hope to do more.
Changes we've made
Greening the dishes
Sam and I hadn't had a dishwasher for eight years, but I really wanted one. For one thing, I'd read that a modern, efficient dishwasher uses less hot water than hand dish washing. (Some of this depends on how efficiently you hand wash, of course — basin vs. running water, for example.) But our rentals didn't have one and didn't have a place for one.Then we moved to our condo, and I was all, Hooray, we have a dishwasher! Until we tried to, you know, wash dishes in it. And it turned out it just threw a bunch of hot water around to fool you, and then you took your dirty, hot dishes out at the end. Wonderful.
Out with the old, in with the new!
Ah, faux-wood paneling, how I will miss thee … not really.
Note, too, the drying rack full of hand-washed dishes.
And I swear I did not plan on this to kiss up to GE, but we did in fact choose a GE model for our new dishwasher. We liked the U.S. brands for various familiar features, and the GE one was in the right price range and had the right options for us. So now we have an up-to-date dishwasher instead of our old hot-water-guzzler.
Oh, my goodness — clean dishes from a machine?! I've never seen the like.
Now, when I was reading through copious dishwasher reviews, one complaint I noticed was that new dishwashers take a long time to run. They sure do! However, it's because they take so long that they use less hot water — they're very particular about how they wash now, heating the water more deliberately and letting the dishes soak and steam rather than blasting them with continuous and wasteful jets. I actually think it's fascinating!
One way to keep your dishwashing energy waste down, by the way, is to skip the heated dry. Just pop it open at the end, and let the air do its work!
Cooling off the icebox
Along the same lines, our fabulous 1980s fridge was neglecting to, um, refrigerate. So we replaced it with a new model. Newer fridges, too, use less energy than older ones. This is actually true for most any major appliance.So while I don't recommend tossing out appliances left and right, it can certainly be an eco-friendly choices to replace the oldest and least efficient appliances in your home, and dispose of or pass on the older models responsibly.
Replacing light bulbs
An easy change we've made in our energy use is replacing incandescent bulbs with CFLs, LEDs, and similar new technology. When we've needed to replace a light fixture or lamp, we've bought the new one with that feature in mind: Can we use energy-efficient bulbs in it or not?There are a lot of incentives out there to buy CFLs, so in Seattle, for instance, we can find a small selection of super cheap eco-friendly bulbs wherever bulbs are sold, the cost subsidized by the government to encourage the switch.
We've been glad to see the market expanding as well, so that we can now find different sizes and styles of energy-saving bulbs to fit almost any lighting need — such as frosted if the bulb will show, or a candle shape for a chandelier.
When we put up our ceiling fan, we were pleased to find ceiling-fan-friendly and energy-friendly CFLs.
A bonus? Ceiling fans save on heating and cooling costs as well!
Changes we hope to make
Trading in our taps
As we renovate our bathrooms, we hope to replace the water-wasting fixtures in there right now. One way to save on hot water is to swap our your showerhead and tub and sink taps with lower-flow faucets or adapters.
As captivating as mid-1980s style is … they've gotta go.
Downsizing the oven
When we trade in our current oven/range for a new one (somewhere down the road), we're really attracted to the new double ovens. If you haven't seen them, they're the size of a regular oven, but they're divided in two, with roughly 1/3 at top and 2/3 at the bottom. When we bake, we almost never need more than one shelf — so why are we heating the whole oven every time? I think we'll use the top area nearly exclusively. The one downside to a divided oven would be if you like to bake, say, whole huge turkeys or something. But we don't, so we're good to go.
Ok, now I am kissing up, because this is a GE model photo from their appliances site. Basically, this is the sort of double oven we want … filled with four times the amount of food we would ever be baking at one time.
Cold water washing
Besides trading in your washer/dryer for a higher efficiency model, an easy way to save on hot water is simply not to use it. I'm trying to wash more loads in cold water, and I always use a cold water rinse.The only times I use warm water (never hot) to wash clothes is when (a) someone's peed or pooped on the clothing (ahem, Mikko, cough) or (b) someone's been sick or (c) someone's been sick on the clothing. This means that I use warm water … ohhh … about 95% of the time. Oh, well.
I'm hoping that as our children grow and become more reliably continent that we can switch that percentage over to cold water washing.
As for drying, we use low heat and the energy-saving automated moisture-detecting feature. I used to hand wash and hang dry a lot when we didn't have a washer/dryer, but I have to admit I'm loving the convenience of a dryer now. However, if we had a yard or a big balcony (we have neither), I would love to set up a clothesline and do more drying that way!
This is what our whole apartment used to look like on laundry day.
At least it's energy-efficient … but hard to step around!
Changes we regretfully have abandoned — for now
Along the same lines, there are some changes I've researched that don't seem workable for our particular situation. Hopefully some of these might be right for you, though!Watering down the heater
Our tank water heater is on its last legs. Or would be, if it had legs. It should have been replaced (gulp) about five years before we moved in. So, yeah. Gotta get on that. We looked into a couple options for replacing it besides the standard "get a new tank":- Tankless water heater
- Solar-powered water heater
I love the idea of doing a full or partial solar-powered heater, but, again, we live in a shared building. Getting permission through our HOA for roof access is a challenge. For now, too big of one. Sigh.
Turning down the heat
I was so hoping we could get one of those cool programmable thermostats that would help us keep our heating regulated. But we have baseboard electric heaters and guess what? No cool programmable thermostats readily available for those.Our heaters have a thermostat on the wall that has numbers on it, as if they translate to degrees or something. No such thing. There are basically two settings: on, and off. We turn it till we hear a click. When we're hot, we turn it down past the click and wait till we're chilled; then we turn it back past the click again. That's the extent of its fanciness. Again, we can't feasibly replace our electric heat with gas in a shared building.
But … I do have a dream for the future. It's called in-floor radiant heat, and it sounds like the awesome. It should help us save quite a bit on heating energy costs, because the heat is under our feet and warms us from the ground up, rather than immediately escaping up to the ceiling the way forced air does. We can't afford to install it now, because we'd have to rip up and then replace all our floors — so that's a future (pipe) dream.
Harnessing the sun
And speaking of solar energy and getting HOA permission, wouldn't it be heavenly if we could pop a couple extra solar panels up on the roof? I would love that, and maybe the HOA would agree if we could demonstrate that everyone would benefit. Well, a girl can dream! Even in the cloudy Pacific Northwest, the sun shines enough to help out. A lot.So those are my changes, my not-so-changes, and my dreams for change. What are yours?
Share your energy-saving tips and win!
- Share with me what your home energy use challenges and optimization efforts are, for a chance to win a $50 GE energy smart LED light bulb that lasts 20 years and saves you $85 in energy costs.
Just let me know in the comments what challenges and advice you have for saving energy at home — Carpooling? Unplugging appliances? Organic gardening? Insulated window treatments? Share your ideas, struggles, or dreams with the community, and you'll be entered to win!
The GE energy smart LED is the world’s first omnidirectional LED bulb designed to replace a standard 40-watt incandescent bulb and will save $85 in energy savings over the life of the bulb.
The contest runs till February 28, and one light bulb will be given away each of the two weeks across all the blogs participating. Visit the Exclusive Offers section and the Official Rules at BlogHer for more information.
Here be the basic rules:
- No duplicate comments.
- You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
- Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post.
- Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post. You can use this text if you'd like: Enter to #win a $50 LED bulb that lasts 20 yrs in a GE/BlogHer #green home #giveaway at @Hobo_Mama! http://bit.ly/hKLw2H {2.28; US}
- Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post.
- For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.
- This giveaway is open to US residents age 18 or older.
- Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail.
- You have 72 hours to get back to me; otherwise a new winner will be selected.
- The Official Rules are available here.
ecomagination Challenge
Remember — the ecomagination Challenge is GE’s global commitment to accelerate the clean energy economy with a goal to bring innovative technologies to market today from the smart grid down to household appliances. The ecomagination Challenge: Powering Your Home is an open call for fresh thinking on eco-home technology and innovations that can effectively harness renewable energy for the home. To submit your big ideas for energy use, visit challenge.ecomagination.com by March 15.Feel free to connect with our sponsor on the ecomagination blog, Facebook, Foursquare, and YouTube.
Contest closes February 28 at 5:00 p.m. PST.
Disclosure: BlogHer and GE are sponsoring this post.
See my full disclosure policy here.
See my full disclosure policy here.
Posts
83 comments:
We grow a lot of our own produce, and use gray water to water it.
lovelydomesticdiva (at) gmail (dot) com
http://twitter.com/TheGreenGrandma/status/37707794287169536
We just installed a programmable thermostat so we can turn the heat down to 55 during the night and still wake up to a warm house.
I take baths with my toddler to save water. When I do take a shower, i turn the water off when I lather ('Navy shower'), and keep a bucket with me to collect water for our patio garden. We're going to give composting a shot, use cloth diapers, and everyone but my inlaws has their clothes line dried. We reuse all plastic bags and baggies (unless they've been in contact with something like raw meat), usually buy used, and freecycle.
Crass.trash.class at gmail dot com
I tweeted. :)
www.twitter.com/crunchtastrophe/status/37722006182957056
Your kitchen appears to be about the same size as mine. Our dishwasher SUCKS. In our old apartment I got them to replace the old hunk o' junk because the bottom rusted out. Trouble is, the new dishwasher didn't perform any better. Then we moved across the courtyard and got another old, rusted out piece of crap.
My husband hates having the maintenance men in all the time, so I have decided to hand wash. New is obviously not the solution here, where I can't choose the unit. So I run a sink of water (rather than run water) and wash. Then I use the dishwasher to air dry the dishes! I don't even leave it open! I close it up and ask hubby to empty it the next day.
I've recently switched from dryer sheets to tennis balls. The laundry is a little static-y at first, but it hasn't been a big deal at all.
Our vanity has 3 lights above it, I loosened 2 of the bulbs because we just do not need THAT much light!
I would really love to get into a travel trailer running on solar energy pulled by a vehicle running on compressed natural gas or waste vegetable oil!
BTW - that oven totally looks like it could hold a big turkey!
Oh! And I don't wash unless I have a full load of clothes. We only wash once per week, but if we haven't filled the bag for that load, we skip it. (We sort into 3 loads.)
Lisa Julien-Hayes We have greened out our home by using insulated curtains, cfls in every fixture (hope to start using LEDs), caulking and sealing leaks, caulking cracks and keeping the thermostat at least four degrees below room temp. We also use no or low voc paints and recycle down to the gum wrapper. We wash in cold water in an He front loader and only dry our clothes on low. The rest of the clothes go on a drying rack ( we are not allowed to hang laundry outside). We lived in a condo complex so the buildings are set up to get full sun in the winter and shade in the summer. We have low flow fixtures and almost all newer appliances. That is just a small amount of what we do to live green!
17 minutes ago · Like
I cloth diaper my daughter full time. We also have CFLs in nearly every fixture in our home. I upcycle some of my old clothes that I don't fit in to anymore (yay post partum body) into cute clothes for my daughter. We garden, can, buy local meat, eggs, milk, etc whenever possible. I make my daughter's baby food. I can ir freeze whatever we can't eat or can't get in the off months. I make my own cleaning solutions including laundry detergent. I buy used clothes at consignment sales or thrift stores. I can't afford a new fuel efficient car, however, I keep mine well maintained and learned to drive it to conserve as much fuel as possible. :)
I leave the curtains/blinds open in order to let in as much natural light as possible instead of using electricity. This works for me becase I live in temperature consistent climate where I rarely have to use heat/air conditioning.
My energy use challenge is our dryer. I LOVE our dryer...we had a clothesline, but let's face it, it's useless with the cold Winter and Falls that we have and our troublesome dog. I'm trying to research how to have someone build a solar panel dedicated to our dryer, or maybe even our washer and dryer. We can't afford solar for our entire house, but maybe we could afford to do at least some solar here and there to help cut our energy costs.
You took all my good ideas about energy savings, washing in cold water & turning off the heated drying in the dishwasher. :-) We are remodeling and replacing/installing new insulation everywhere, so hopefully that'll make our home more efficient.
hotpepper71 at bell south dot Net
tweeted: http://twitter.com/#!/SnowflakeDay/statuses/37970692238483456
hotpepper71 at bell south dot Net
I wash clothes in cold water. I usually hang clothes to dry and the kids help by turning lights off when not being used.
MCantu1019 at aol dot com
Tweeted at https://twitter.com/kyrielle/status/37982683376254976
We used cloth diapers until my son outgrew the BG's - sadly I haven't found a good alternate and there is a limit to how many I can afford to try one of only to have bad fit or other troubles.
We use cfl's, have a heat pump, and I try to green our laundry. High efficiency washer. I wash on cold unless dealing with body fluids too - but gather all the "body fluids" items for a week in a wet bag. Unless it's a VERY bad week, only one load requires warm water.
I can't have drying lines outside (hoa rules) but I dry some of the laundry on drying racks set up in the bathtub.
We turn down the heat at night in winter! Thanks!
kmassmanATgmailDOTcom
to save energy and water, we never run our dishwasher unless it is FULL. Because I cook most everything from scratch, this is usually not a problem, but occasionally I'll go scrounging around the house for items to fill the dishwasher if it's not full. After cleaning out all hair, hairbrushes can go on the top shelf. I've also used the dishwasher to clean light fixtures and drawers/shelves from the fridge. Anything to fill it up!
With an 11-mo-old, I'd say the easiest way to be 'green' is too not have kids! The laundry, the extra baths (for everyone that gets spit upon) the dishes. Everything just increased by so much. It took awhile to settle down and now we sort of have our green groove back.
The best thing that we recently did was replace our shower head with an low flow - Kohler has one that is less than the standard low flow heads (i don't remember the numbers). It is in the works to replace our old bathroom sink and toilet with water wise ones too, I am really hoping to get a dual flush.
We have an old house, and did a lot of weather stripping, foam piping, and insulating. That has helped, along with the programmable thermostat. But with the babe, we have had to keep the house two degrees warmer than we used to!
Natural light is also a big plus. I try not to turn the lights on unless I really need them!
I removed some overgrown yews from the front of the house and ripped up most of the grass in the back and made both areas into veggie gardens.
It's not easier, but small changes do make a difference. I'd like to build a sustainably designed house on a vacant city lot. That's my dream! With lots of veggie gardens.
We have a programmable thermostat, it is awesome! It's nice to save money at night and during the day and only heat the house to a comfortable level when we're home! We started recycling this year, it was so easy I just called the garbage company and set up curbside pickup of our recycling!
Tweeted:
http://twitter.com/#!/corgipants/status/38303353402298368
we do lots of little things such as garden, compost, cloth diaper, unplug appliances, wash clothing with cold water... our dream is to install solar panels since our roof gets tons of southern light but we can't afford it at the moment especially because we are unsure of how long we'll be in this house.
heatheranya at hotmail dot com
I have been trying to walk a lot more and use the car a lot less
We have a programmable thermostat, and I only do full loads of laundry or dishes. I turn off lights religiously when we're not using them.
maddiemb {at} comcast (dot) net
Here's my tweet - http://twitter.com/#!/shala_darkstone/status/38762384973762560
maddiemb {at} comcast (dot) net
I would like to try these light bulbs to help save money on my electric bill.
pegasus_aprilof84@yahoo.com
We buy locally-grown food at our farmers market, and use LED light bulbs in our bathrooms.
Cassie
cjm92995@yahoo.com
We unplug recharger cords when not in use.
rhoneygtn at yahoo dot com
Tweeted: http://twitter.com/#!/rhoneygee/status/39594744833257472
rhoneygtn at yahoo dot com
we unplug everything that we can that is not in use...also seal and weatherstrip the windows and use the sun to heat during the day and clothes the drapes- insulated at night. Heat is off - yep off and we use a heater in the lr/family room....and house is beyond hot- down comfortors are what keep us warm at night
We put our cloth diapers on an inside drying rack for a day or two, the throw em into the dryer for 10 mins to soften them up. Its winter here - so no line drying. But, the inside rack does well - I think the dry winter air helps a lot! It saves us about 3 hours of dryer time/week.
=)
ssqueakert at aol dot com
tweeted:
http://twitter.com/ssqueakert/status/39711853047189504
ssqueakert at aol dot com
We are trying to get our electric bill costs down so we try to make sure everything is off when we leave a room. We are also replacing our bulbs with EF bulbs as the other ones go out so it’s not so expensive!
hebert024 at aoldot com
We are going to purchase a rain barrel this year to save on our water bill. We have replaced most of our light bulbs with energy saving ones. All of our appliances are energy efficient and we put in a new energy saving heaating and air unit.
ddrumball@yahoo.com
Our problem: having the most energy efficient appliances. We live in an apartment so we can’t buy and replace them. So I make them as efficient as possible. I use only cold water in the washer. Clean the lint filter and the back of the dryer regularly. We open the curtains wide on sunny days for light and close heavy curtains to keep cold out.
My tip is to buy lots of extra underwear and socks so you can extend time between laundry loads. I also remind my kids that they don't need to wash outer clothing like jeans every time they wear them.
Tweet:
http://twitter.com/clc408/status/40039345561796608
I dont have an idea that hasnt been mentioned already :( I am conserving and using ideas I have gotten her
whit196@gmail.com
I've had solar panels on my roof for 10 years -- I bought my system but now you can lease panels for zero-down from sungevity.com. Big electricity savings! Also, your school can raise money through the sungevity.org Beyond the Bake Sale solar fundraising program.
Our biggest challenge is we have single pane windows. We don't want to replace them since we don't want to stay in our house longterm.
We have updated our windows, doors, doors, and garage doors in the past two years to take advantage of the Energy Star tax rebate.
Also, since I enjoy tea and my husband likes hot chocolate, we invested in an electric kettle. It is much more energy efficient than a traditional stove-top kettle.
My energy challenge is my teen daughter! She doesn’t turn stuff off… lights, tv, stereo, chargers, water…. the only thing that’s seemed to help with tv/stereo is that if she leaves it on and leaves the room, it’s OFF for the rest of the night! She doesn’t like that, and is a bit better about turning off, but so far to go! You'd think, since she's doing a class project on saving water that she'd bring it home, but no luck so far!
sksweeps (at) earthlink (dot) net
My biggest challenge is the three kids who won't shut a door or turn off lights. I am queenesperfect at yahoo.com
I unplug appliances, use curly lightbulbs, keep the thermostat low, use a heat pump, wear warm clothes, recycle and repurpose. However, it wasn’t until I found a triple window leaking cold air that I was able to lower our out-of-control heating bill. I covered the windows in plastic, and the bill dropped dramatically. I’m still amazed at how much money and warmth one sheet of plastic managed to save.
Thanks for the chance to win even more energy savings!
Tweeted you!
http://twitter.com/Ida_Sessions/status/40879410294964224
Let's see. Cloth diapering, breastfeeding, new bulbs are always CFLs, programmable thermostat.
We're growing our own seedlings for our farm garden, and needed some heat. After looking at lots of space heaters, with minimum 800 watt energy usage, we opted to get a reptile infrared "light" that's only 150.
We live in an older home, and our windows need replacing! But, alas, the funds have not appeared to do so yet, so this year, we installed heavy duty drapes on the worst offenders, and have completely shut off other rooms so as to not heat them. It works for now!
We have a problem remembering to turn off everything we're not using... lights, power strips, etc.. but we're trying to be conscious!
completely turn off the heat in your bedroom and keep the door shut after your done in there in the morning. Open the door a couple of hours before bedtime and buy an electric mattress pad.
Do same thing with the dining room if you can.
Why heat a room you are only in part time?
gandolina(atsign)hotmail(dot)com
Our struggle is the house itself - an 1883 Eastlake Victorian with original windows. Yea - I know.
ky2here at msn dot com
I'll toss in a tweet: http://twitter.com/#!/ky2here1/status/41329935452864512
ky2here at msn dot com
Our challenge is definitely that we live in a crummy apartment. The insulation is terrible-we had to put quilts on all the windows to keep it warm this winter (plus duct tape around windows and towels under doors).
I'm so glad they came up with an alternative to CFL's-the mercury & insane cleanup instructions freak me out (we had one start melting & smoking in a previous apartment while I was pregnant-eek!) and I'd love to try it out!
My only idea/dream is to grow my own food like fruits & veggies & herbs someday when I have my own outdoor space again, maybe using a rainwater collection system to help water it. (my current dream is just to get my neighbor to stop throwing cigarettes into our shared greenspace)
We have been using cold water for washing and keeping our temp inside at one temp. No turning up or down. My challenge is lights. My kids keep lights turned on all the time. I wish I had those lights that dim so that they could just use a little light when they need it instead of switching lights on and off
brewerchickey78@yahoo.com
tweeted
http://twitter.com/#!/s8r8l33/status/41397981462806528
My challenge is getting my family to compost everything that can be composted. I am always taking stuff out of the trash that could be composted
s8r8l33 at yahoo dot com
We have a programmable thermostat (and we use it :)), we recycle, and we turn out lights when not in use to name a few "green" things we do.
Thanks for the giveaway!
misterjimmy at sbcglobal dot net
Hello-
I tweeted:
http://twitter.com/#!/evrywoman/status/41744761006206976
Thank you,
evrywoman at yahoo dot com
Our latest thing is that we are unplugging everything that we aren't using at the moment.
We have a garden, unplug what we dont use, recycle, and instead of having the heat on we bundle up
aj270750@gmail.com
Thanks for the energy saving tips! i like the down sizing oven. really dont need industrial sized appliances.
matthew b
mignusb@hotmail.com
I do almost all my laundry with cold water, keep the thermostat way down, and have started unplugging stuff when it's not in use.
Tweeted http://twitter.com/#!/kittycardero/status/42010765590396928
We compost, reduce, reuse, reuse again, and recycle! We also reduce heat in winter and unplug items we dont use regularly. I also limit hot water use. OUr biggest energy problem is the a/c in the scorching summer. It HAS to be on.
I need a more energy efficient dishwasher, and my refrigerator is old enough that it probably is not as good as it could be. But the first thing I want to get is one of the new power strips that will leave items like the DVR on while turning off the other electronics plugged into it. I have been replacing my light bulbs as they burn out, and most of them now are CFL bulbs. About the only ones left are the high ceiling ones and a few smaller wattage ones that haven't had appropriate CFL replacements up to now.
cgclynsg0 @ gmail dot com
our challenges are old appliances, we are going to get a new energy efficient washer this year after we get our income tax refund.
susansmoaks at gmail dot com
Simple - turn off lights and TVs when you leave a room!
We have leaky windows that we have covered with plastic sheeting for the winter, and we have installed power strips on computers and TVs so we can turn them off completely when not in use.
dwellenstein at cox dot net
We save money by lowering the hot water heater temp a few degrees. Adds up fast!
ardy22 at earthlink dot net
My biggest challenge is air seeping through the windows and doors that are too thin or not sealed well enough.
lazybones344 at gmail dot com
We conserve energy several ways. I hang dry 90% of our laundry, we do not use the heat dry on the dishwasher, and we unplug things not in use (radio etc). We are also really excited to invest in a solar powered charging station for our ipods and cell phones
We have that oven and you can cook a 22 lb turkey in it! We use the sunlight to heat the house during the day and line dry most of our washables.
Even though we are extremely conservative in our energy usage (all lights are CFLs, turn lights off in all rooms not being used, keep thermostat set to 65 in the winter, etc.), our power bill is still over $100 this month. I would love to see how this new light bulb helps. I can't wait until the price comes down!
Angie
14earth at gmail dot com
I tweeted here: http://twitter.com/#!/FotoMacro/status/42330617786015744
Angie
14earth at gmail dot com
Shut off lights when you leave a room, use daylight rather than turning on lights at all when possible, wash all your laundry in cold water when possible , line dry your clothing when possible, set your thermostat high in the summer and low in the winter, use energy efficient appliances and light bulbs, unplug things that are not in use, etc. We do all of these things and wish the whole planet did! Our power bill is still high to me, but to other people its insanely low. I wish I could afford solar panels for my roof!
Scott
nynekats at gmail dot com
tweet http://twitter.com/#!/RePurrPussed/status/42332282559803393
Scott
nynekats at gmail dot com
keeping house costs to a minimum is important when one is unemployed.
I turn the thermostat down to save on fuel & $$! And I turn it lower when we are not home.
Thanks for the giveaway!
email in blogger profile.
tweet: http://twitter.com/js22222222/status/42339701943828480
email in blogger profile.
Since we don't have a lot of capital to invest (i.e., in new appliances), we focus on the small ways we can conserve energy: turning off lights when the sun's bright enough to light a room; turning off the computer at night; drip drying laundry; low-flow shower heads and sink fixtures; and a woodstove to heat our home (in a cold climate).
A programmable thermostat is great. Keeps temp down when you're asleep or away & warms up when you need it. Thanks for the contest.
http://twitter.com/slehan/status/42371472563519488
My biggest problem is getting the kids to turn off the lights when they leave the room.
donna444444@yahoo.com
My biggest challenge is my husband. He can't turn a light or a TV off, despite loudly proclaiming to the world what an environmentalist he is. I've given up - I just turn them off whenever he leaves a room.
If it makes you feel any beter, I hate hate hate HATE our tankless water heater! It takes a full 30 seconds for the water in the kitchen sink to get warm. So what we save in gas, we waste in water.
Email address is in blogger profile
I tweeted http://twitter.com/bsw529/status/42388379421261824
Email address is in blogger profile
I had not heard about the double ovens, what a great idea!
Would love to win the lightbulb SashaBreeze@gmail.com
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