My Green Initiative
Posted August 7, 2008
There are a few easy things which everyone can do to help preserve our fragile planet. I have listed some of the actions I have taken to do my part.
- Replace light bulbs which are ON for long periods of time with CFL lamps.
- Raise the temperature on the thermostat 3 or 4 degrees and use fan to cool down.
- Turn off AC and open windows when the weather is nice outside.
- Use a laptop rather than regular PC. Power off at night.
- When boiling water, put just the amount you need. No more. If you have an electric stove, turn it off just before the water is boiling. The element stays hot for a while after it is turned off.
- Reduce the amount of time the pool pump runs. Don't blindly accept "8 hours a day." Four hours may do the trick.
- Use a fuel-efficient car.
- Check if devices are consuming power even when off. For example, your cable TV box.
- Don't use disposable chopsticks, plates, forks, etc.
- Take your own bag to the grocery store. "Paper or plastic?" Neither.
- Don't buy drinking water in small bottles.
- Complain about the amount of junk mail.
- If your faucet streams vast volumes of water, open it half-way or install a restrictor.
- Try to buy locally grown, organic produce.
- Eat less in restaurants. You really don't need those huge servings - they are unhealthy.
- Sort your trash into bins provided by your local trash collection company.
- Brag about the amount of money you have saved by taking the above steps.
I use a neat gizmo called Kill-A-Watt to measure how much power my devices are using. It plugs into the outlet and the device plugs into the gizmo. It shows how many watts are being consumed. Other products are starting to appear in the market which show you the amount of energy being used in your whole house. Basically it is a current transformer which measures the current flowing through the mains in your circuit-breaker panel. It broadcasts this information to a display unit.