energy conservation Category
January 18th, 2010 by ecojoe in energy conservation, event, green living, health, plastic, reusing, transportation
Holy moly, it doesn’t seem that long ago that I last hosted the Carnival of the Green, but it’s been almost a year! Truly, time waits for no man. Just last week, Eco New Mexico hosted the Carnival, and next week it is moving on to good ol’ Enviroblog.
But enough talk of time and such; let’s take a look-see at this week’s Carnival of the Green submissions:
Health
Surbhi brings the ruckus with this in-depth look at natural ways to stay healthy.
The venerable Fake Plastic Fish continues her one-woman war against plastic with a shocking exposé on a nasty chewing gum ingredient: plastic. After reading that, I think I’ll steer clear of gum for awhile and maybe check out Glee gum, made from natural chicle.
Gracy Queen wins the award for best blog post title, with her piece on vegan food choices entitled, I Can’t Has Cheezburger. I, myself, am not a vegan, but if you’re gonna be, here’s some good tips on what to eat.
Jourdan asks if being “green” makes you feel stressed out, and breaks it down to the basics to show that you can make some small, simple changes to be greener.
Climate Change
Dr. Kneidel exposes the plight of the noble trees, brought about by recent climate change.
Green Linguistics
Colin Doyle is trying to export a linguistic gem from Australia; calling fossil fuel energy “black energy“. It might make it a lil’ easier to have talks about green vs. black energy.
Beverly decides to make a New Year’s resolution to “grab a tiger by the tail” and go green. However, she then delves into what exactly this mysterious saying means.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
The aptly named Mrs. Green contributes 11 ideas on how to reuse coffee grounds. I’ll be using some of her tips, since I do enjoy the occasional coffee.
Stuff With A Purpose has some good tips on how to reuse plastic bags. The best thing to do is avoid them altogether, but barring that, he has some good ways to reuse them.
A shorty named Renee that I met one day has some good tips for how to compost during these frigid winter months. Since my current compost bin is overflowing, I plan on using some of her advice to figure out what to do.
Do It Yourself
Emily Moser, of the strangely named Becoming A Radiologist website, has listed some good resources for making some homemade soap.
Around the House
Brenda Pike got herself a Kill-A-Watt (I got one of these a year ago and it’s great!) and ran around her house measuring how much electricity various appliances used. Very interesting, and it convinced me to fully turn off my Wii instead of putting it into standby with the Wiimote.
Stacey Doyle decides to look at some easy ways to live in a more eco-friendly way.
Case examines the pros and cons of compact fluorescent light bulbs, including examining just how green these CFLs are.
Mark Donovan show us some easy yet effective ways to reduce your home’s ecological footprint while also saving money. Sounds like my kind of post, if you know what I mean.
Pure Natural Diva has some general tips on how to go green for today’s on-the-go diva.
Transportation
Vihar tells the world of how St. Louis has opted for a tiny tax increase to help fund its public transportation system. Kudos to Vihar for breaking this story.
Phew! Welp, that about does it for this week’s Carnival of the Green. Hopefully we all laughed a little, cried a little, and, just maybe, learned a little. I leave you with the Top 5 EcoJoes Posts of 2009:
Happy Carnival!
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January 9th, 2010 by ecojoe in electric, energy conservation, save money
Have you ever wanted to save money on your heating and cooling bills without sacrificing your precious comfort? What to do?? I, too, was in the same boat as you, until last weekend when I installed a programmable thermostat.
“What’s the big deal about a programmable thermostat, anyhoo?”, I hear you ask. Well, I’ll let the good ol’ U.S. Department o’ Energy tell you:
[During winter], by turning your thermostat back 10°–15° for 8 hours, you can save about 5%–15% a year on your heating bill—a savings of as much as 1% for each degree if the setback period is eight hours long.
Gadzooks. If your average power bill is $70 a month during the 4 coldest months of the year, a programmable thermostat can save you between $14 and $42 during those 4 months! Not to mention the painless energy savings.
But it doesn’t only conserve energy and save money during the winter, oh no. During those hot months, you can set the temperature higher while you’re gone, and have it cool down more when you’re actually at your house. Voíla, even more energy and monetary savings!
Read instructions carefully when installing a programmable thermostat
Me and some friends tried to install my thermostat on one of the coldest days of the year. We wired everything up perfectly, but the heat wouldn’t come on. A day later, my friendly neighborhood electrician fixed the problem by reading the manual and figuring out that you had to tell the programmable thermostat that we had a heat pump. Dang, that one night without heat was a cold night
indeed, but I learnt a valuable lesson about reading instructions.
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May 2nd, 2009 by ecojoe in computers, energy conservation, excuses
Perhaps you’ve wanted one of those snazzy LCD TVs or monitors for awhile, but you haven’t quite been able to justify it. Maybe now you can. Read the rest of this entry »
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March 30th, 2009 by ecojoe in eco footprint, eco hero, energy conservation, event, green living, organic, save money, solar power
Bienvenidos al Carnival o’ the Green!. Last week Evangelical Ecologist did a fine job hosting it, and next week GreenDealsDaily is ‘posed to host it.
But enough idle chit-chat; let’s get this show on the road.
Organic Mess
Have you ever wanted to compost, but it just seemed too dang complicated? Then you’re in luck, for Talia has provided some tips on simple composting.
Neighbor Nancy shows y’all how to get some free vegetable seeds and how you can grow a ton in small containers. I’m about to go plant even more plants in old containers now.
Julie has ten reasons why organic lipstick is the way to go, to get that special bee-stung look that’s all the rage.
Jennifer took composting to the extreme and even composted her finger! What a true eco hero!
Ed Biado spouts off about organic this and that. While I approve of most organics, I don’t think they’re always the best option.
Go Green and Save Green
Ah, helping the environment whilst helping your wallet. That’s what EcoJoes is all about.
ishan is all about that, too. He dared to ask the question “Do hybrid cars really save you money?“. His conclusion is much the same as mine.
JT has some leftover stuff, but doesn’t want to throw it away. Here’s how he makes money by selling used mess.
Energy
FreeOrganicNews ponders what exactly is solar energy? His findings may shock you; then again, they may not.
Big Mack has found some zany CFL designs, and he brought them for show-and-tell.
Nancy Miller has found 50 blogs that have good info on energy. Not to be one to judge, but her site is kinda weird and spammy.
Getting out and Enjoying the World
TravelCat4 has some handy eco-tips for how to travel in an Earth-friendly manner. My favorite tip was the ‘grow a beard’ one; zero effort required, plus you get that rugged look that draws all the ladies in!
The Barefoot Badger proclaims, “Ain’t nothing like the real thing baby“, and I wholeheartedly agree. All our new-fangled technology is no substitute for the real world and real life. Get out and enjoy the real world now, people!
Global Warming
Not content with one submission to the Carnival, Mack also wrote this Debbie Downer article about global warming. Heed his warnings, people.
Sally decides to go all the way to the top, and ask Mr. Barack Obama to help prevent future extinctions.
Other Green Mess
Another post by Ed Biado gives some tips for living a greener life.
The aptly-named Mesquite Pete is all about some DEET. He has had enough mosquito bites, and decided it’s time to fight back.
Earth Day is right around the corner (April 22). Astrid Lee has provided this handy chart of ways to celebrate this planet we live on.
Beth Terry contemplates the pros and cons of recycling plastic into oil. I think it’s great that they’ve found a way to do this, but I do understand Ms. Beth’s concerns.
Ryan and Leslie help us visualize the huge number of plastic bottles used in the U.S. in just five minutes.
Alex has some easy ways to save car fuel, and it looks like he’s from England, talking about “tyres” and “boots”.
Scott is eager to let you know that this recession is a great time to start a green business.
Dang, that about wraps it up for this Carnival. Thanks for all the submissions; hopefully I didn’t forget anyone or mess up a link. Until next time, this is EcoJoe, signing off.
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March 28th, 2009 by ecojoe in energy conservation, event
I shall make this short but oh so sweet. Today, dozens (if not hundreds!!) of people will be celebrating Earth Hour the way it has been celebrated since way back three years ago. If you want to join them, here’s how…
From 8:30PM to 9:30PM, local time, turn off all your lights and appliances (unless you work in a hospital or something). Apparently, this is how you “Vote Earth” (I’m not quite sure who Earth is running against). Also, feel free to sign up for this event at this site.
Will turning off your lights for one hour make a huge difference? No. But, it’ll be interesting to see how many people do this as symbolic support of a greener future.
P.S. I wonder if Google will show their support for Earth Hour again this year. Last year they went black, but then they went back, thus disproving the popular adage.
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March 22nd, 2009 by ecojoe in energy conservation, paper
It’s always good to have a paper shredder, to get rid of all that “sensitive” information on bills and credit card offers. But how to do it without using precious electricity?
This hand-powered paper shredder takes care of that. I got it for free from BCBS, and it’s been useful for shredding paper, which can then be used to make some homemade paper. It works really easily too, and shreds CDs and credit cards.
So if you’re thinking about getting a paper shredder and don’t want to use electricity for it, go for the hand-powered kind. They work good, save money, and help conserve energy AND your identification. Truly a win-win situation.
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March 17th, 2009 by ecojoe in electric, energy conservation, free, save money
I’ll keep this short and sweet… you can get a FREE Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb this week. How, you might ask?
I might answer, the GE Energy-saving light bulbs are on sale at Target for $1. Use this $1 off coupon and ka-chow, you can be saving electricity with your new free CFL bulb.
No money down, no excuses. Just do it and start saving energy and money today.
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