We have been using the Berkeley Institute of the Environment carbon footprint calculator to track our average ecological impact and our progress is shown below. When we started tracking our carbon footprint back in March 2009 we assessed that our household produced a shocking 68 tons of CO2 per year, this is equivalent to 158 barrels of oil in energy and would require managing 13 acres of forest to offset!

This was simply un-acceptable in our eyes. We purchased our current home 2 years ago, it is an older home and needed lots of upgrades to make it more energy efficient.

Our Carbon Footprint Back in March 2009 shown below…

Our Carbon Footprint in March 2009

Back in March when I saw these results I decided to really commit to reducing our household energy consumption and check our progress at the end of the year… (more…)

Did you know that a whopping 46 percent of home energy use is actually energy loss! In other words, there is no productive energy use at all! Here are 10 simple ways of reversing this energy lose, by changing some old habit and starting some new ones! Check out this list, these are some very simple solutions to save energy and reduce carbon emissions for the planet. Some of them will even save you money!
Thanks to climatecrisis.net and The Home Energy Diet (New Society Publishers, 2005), for many of the carbon savings figures.

10 Tips to Save Energy (and Money) in Your Home

1. Each degree you turn down the heat saves 3 percent of heating costs, while each degree you raise the temperature of your air conditioner saves 3-4 percent of cooling costs. By changing the temperature by 2 degrees all year, you can save about 2,000 pounds of C02 a year.

2. Cook with a slow cooker or a toaster oven (or even a solar oven!) to reduce electrical use from kitchen appliances. For a meal that requires one hour to cook in an electric oven, and which uses 2.7 pounds of C02, a crockpot uses 0.9 pounds of C02 for seven hours, a toaster oven takes 1.3 pounds of C02 for 50 minutes, and a microwave only 0.5 pounds of C02 for 15 minutes of cooking. A solar cooker requires NO C02!

3. Switch to a laptop instead of using a desktop computer and cut three-quarters off your electrical use. Turn off the laptop at the end of the day.

4. Switch to cold water washing and save 80 percent on energy used for laundry and save an estimated $60 a year. Hang dry your clothes instead of using the dryer and save 700 pounds of C02 a year.

5. Plug anything that can be powered by a remote control or that has a power cube transformer (little black box) into a power strip, and turn it off, and/or unplug, when not in use. (Power cubes are 60-80 percent inefficient.)

6. Turn off the lights when you aren’t using them and reduce your direct lighting energy use by 45 percent. Stop using heat-producing halogen lamps (they can also be fire hazards). Install occupancy or motion sensors on outdoor lights.

7. Switch to compact fluorescent from regular incandescent bulbs and use 60 percent less energy per bulb and save 300 pounds of C02 a year.

8. Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket and save 1,000 pounds of C02 a year. Insulate your hot water pipes.

9. Use public transportation whenever possible, carpool, shop locally, and ideally switch to a hybrid or energy-efficient car (if you haven’t already).

10. Keep your tires inflated to improve gas mileage by 3 percent. Every gallon you save also saves 20 pounds of C02 emissions.

After several years of debating this issue with my wife, I finally searched the web for answers. Not that I need to prove my side, because once again, I think I am right, but to prove my point, I needed some supporting facts.
So, here goes: Are ceiling fans worth buying and running and do they save you money? Well the answer is Yes, and No. Simple huh? Once again there is always the fine print that you are supposed to read, that small bit of information they never tell you. So here it is;

Yes, ceiling fans do work and save you money if…. and that’s a big IF, you turn up your thermostat in the summertime, and down in the winter time. It works because we feel cooler, in the summertime, when we feel a breeze. Therefore if you turn your thermostat up about 5 degrees you’ll notice a difference in your electric bill. (5 degrees, appears to be what is considered a breeze). However, if you are not in the room when your fan is running, it doesn’t do you any good. You see, inanimate objects don’t have feelings, your sofa, chair, carpet, not even your rock collection, notices a temperature difference if the fan is running. So get in the habit of turning off your fan when you leave the room. Just like you are supposed to do with lights, Sharen. I know your parents taught you that, (ha, ha) mine did.

Do Ceiling Fans Cut Costs?

image by tamaradulva

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I’m on a quest to stop “Phantom Power Loss” in our home and become a smart electric saver! You may well ask, what is “Phantom Power Loss”, so here goes…

• Every household appliance uses electricity even when not in use, the biggest consumers are items like televisions and satellite or cable boxes.
• Electricity consumed by these everyday appliances whilst not in use is known as Phantom Power Loss.
• By implementing some easy household practices you can easily cut this power loss in half.

Reducing Phantom Power Loss

I recently read an article on “phantom power” used by household appliances such as televisions, satellite boxes and DVD players etc, and was astonished by how much electricity is used even when you aren’t using them! This started me on my “Smart Electric” quest to cut down the amount of power we waste…

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