Nobody likes paying through the teeth every month when the energy bill comes around. And while everyone likes to leave their mark on this planet, few like to do it in the form of a landfill or oil stain. There is no need renovate or remodel your home if you consider these “green” supplies and technologies that will not only help to save your wallet, but the planet as well.
Easy Steps Towards Going Green
If you grew up loving the Muppets (and who didn’t?) you might think that it is difficult to go green, but in fact it has never been easier. The Global Warming scare has sparked a huge boom in technology for environmentally friendly and efficient technologies, many of which can be used by homeowners.
- Nest Thermostat: A team of ex Apple designers and other developers have gotten together and come up with a revolutionary thermostat. The Nest Thermostat learns and automatically stores patterns within the home and attempts to save you money when you are gone or sleeping. It is also connected to Wi-Fi and gets weather updates so that it can automatically adjust to cooler or warmer temperature fluctuations. Nest retails for $250, but it can end up paying for itself in as little as a year in electrical savings.
- Smart Power Adapters: While it garnered some media attention within the past few years, many people still have not heard about Vampire Power. This is power that your electronics and appliances use while they are plugged in, even though you turned them off. Smart power adapters are able to recognize when devices are not being used and will disconnect themselves from the power source, saving you money.
- Energy Star Appliances and Refurbished Electronics: The Energy Star rating is the international standard on which appliances are based for energy efficiency. Replacing old appliances with Energy Star rated appliances can be anywhere from 15-30% more efficient than the models they replaced, or competing products without the Energy Star rating. Manufacturers use more energy to produce a new product, like phones, instead of being something new reuse and buy refurbished.
- Changing Out Light Bulbs: Incandescent bulbs do not last very long and are incredibly inefficient when compared to the newer light bulbs available in today’s market. Compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs have come way down in price and use one fourth of the energy that incandescent bulbs do while maintaining the same light output. Meaning that a 25 watt CFL bulb is just as bright as a 100 watt incandescent; the costs savings are easy to see. Light emitting diodes have been around for years, but using them in light bulbs is only becoming more popular. They are still a bit pricey, but have a much longer life than incandescent or CFL bulbs and do not have the harmful mercury that CFL bulbs do.
There are many other steps to take to make your home more energy efficient. Doing so will not only help the environment, but will also save you hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars a year on electrical bills and other utilities.