| isn't in any order, but the first few I listed may be the ones that will have the biggest impact.
Personally, in the past year I have helped my family save about $900 on our electric bills and a bit on our water bills (although we don't have natural gas so our savings might be on the high end and we did get a new, more efficient TV and washing machine). Other than the new appliances, we haven't spent any money on it - and we were going to buy those anyway, so saving on our utility bills was just a collateral benefit.
I'll try to keep these easy and simple. If I'm not clear or make a mistake or you just have a question, go ahead and say so in the comments. And if you have another suggestion I'll add it to the list.
Here's the list (that you will hopefully help me constantly update):
Turn your heat down and your A/C up
This is the single biggest step my family has taken to save energy. We used to keep our heat at about 69 or 70 during the winter, but now we usually keep it at 66. It's kind of cold, but if we put another layer of clothes on, it's fine. Our air conditioning doesn't use as much electricity, but it's still a big part of our utility bills in the summer - so we keep that a few degrees hotter than we used to.
Turn off lights and electronics when you're not using them
This is not as simple as it sounds. For example, computers frequently stay on all night - you should make sure to either shut yours off when not using it, or just set it to turn off automatically when it's not in use. You can also set it to go into "hibernate" mode, which is essentially turning off, but uses slightly more power and saves whatever you were doing on the computer before it turned off.
Another example is that with cable boxes, sometimes a remote will be pointed in the wrong direction or something like that and the TV will shut off but the box won't or vice versa. So after you turn off your set, just make sure that everything is off.
Stop vampire power
"Vampire power" is another name for the way that electronics use power even when they're supposedly off. Most electronics don't ever actually turn completely off - they just go into "standby" mode or they still use some electricity when off. This can really add up to a lot of electricity wasted, and money wasted, over a long time.
The solution for this that costs no money is just unplugging any electronics when you're not using them, and this goes hand-in-hand with the last suggestion. You could get a power strip (or even a smart power strip, like one I got last week) but that would require some mulah to be invested.
Go to the library
Before you go to Barnes and Noble, before you go to Blockbuster, just go to your local library. If they're any good they'll have just as many books and nearly as many movies as either of those stores, but they'll cost $0 if you have a library card. Plus, you'll be saving resources by not buying these things new and making sure that they are shared once you don't need them anymore. And you'll be lessening your contribution to sprawl and waste by not supporting soulless big box stores. (h/t to uc booker)
Don't be afraid of hand me downs
This may sound stupidly obvious to some of you, but there are people out there who are just not willing to wear clothes that someone else has already worn. To that I say - get over your prejudices and preconceived notions of what is acceptable! If we're going to battle consumerism and save ourselves some cash in the process, we're going to have to suck it up and wear some inherited (vintage???) clothes. I'm wearing my older brother's shirt as I write this. I know that's not an option for most of you, but it can be for your kids, and you always have neighbors or close friends to ask if you need some new clothes.
Join Freecycle
Freecycle is one of the greatest ideas I have come across in my environmental expeditions across the interwebs. It is a worldwide network of people (over 6.5 million people total) who email each other to tell each other if they have things they are giving away or things they want.
Basically, this is how it works: You join the Yahoo group of the nearest Freecycle group(s). They send you emails (or one email a day or you just check the Yahoo group, depending on what you want) if anyone has posted anything they have offered or would like. If you have anything to give away or want, you just email the group. Then if you see something you want (or someone sees something they want from you, or someone has something to offer you) it is just set up through an email or call between you and that other person. Here's a video to help explain it: http://www.freecycle.org/thefr...
This is a great thing. It keeps stuff out of the landfill, it helps to build a community a bit, and it keeps people from buying new junk. Personally, I've joined three networks near me totaling about 5,000 people. I have never gotten anything from Freecycle, but just this week I cleaned out my garage and gave away part of a desk, a wine rack, and a couple of miscellaneous garage items. I probably cut the amount of stuff getting thrown out from that garage by a third.
Forage for your food
Of course you're not going to get all of your food by just going out into the wilderness (or simply your backyard or a park) and searching for it, but it's fun and it could be a good way to spend time, especially if you've suddenly found yourself with a lot of time on your hands. Not to mention, it will help a little bit to feed you! Wide eyed lib has some great, detailed diaries about looking for your own food that will be very helpful to anyone who wants to do so:
Free Food 1
Free Food 2
Free Food 3
Marthature offers a warning to any burgeoning foragers to be careful and know what you're doing:
I can not remember how many people I've told to avoid the poison oak, avoid touching this or that fungus or mushroom, don't try to eat that it is poisonous hemlock, etc. Those little wild strawberries are not edible, but another kind is.
And remember, there's a difference between just picking some dandelion leaves from your backyard and going into the wilderness and hunting for mushrooms or anything like that! Know what you're doing before you do it.
Something else for you amateur foragers to consider: do not steal other peoples' food from their gardens and make sure not to damage sensitive habitats! (h/t to Bluehawk)
See if you can get there without a car
If you can get somewhere without a car, do it. If you have a bike, that could be your best option - it is, after all, the most efficient mode of transportation ever devised. If not, just walk. It's good for you, you save on gas money and wear-and-tear, and it's good for the environment.
If you can't ditch the car, carpool
If someone who lives near you is going to the same place, or just in the same direction, get in the car with them! If it's a regularly made trip, you can take turns driving. This also saves on gas money, prevents congestion on the roads, and prevents wear-and-tear on your cars. Plus, you might get to make some new friends in the process.
Eat less meat
Meat is expensive. It is expensive in terms of price and in terms of an environmental toll. The worst industrial-style meat, grown in huge factories where animals are so confined they can't even turn around and more than half of the pigs slaughtered have pneumonia, is awful. The feed is generally corn that is grown with a lot of oil-based pesticides and fertilizers which deplete the soil and have caused dead zones to be created in the ocean. And that is most of the meat made in this country - everything from any fast food chain, almost anything from a grocery chain.
But don't despair. Just eat less meat. Beef is the worst because it takes the most resources to grow and cow farts give off the most climate change-causing methane. Personally, I've gone from eating it a few times a week to eating it once or twice a month, and all of the beef I eat is from a farm down the road. Pig is pretty bad as well - any kind of animal is "bad," because it requires more food to grow it than it produces in the end.
Now, meat isn't all bad. There are some very good farms out there, but they are rare. And with them, it's expensive so it's a treat that should not be taken for granted. If you eat less meat, you'll be healthier, your wallet will be fatter, and the planet will be grateful.
Shift your load
Don't get the wrong idea, this tip is all about electricity usage. Dailykos user BobTrips has the great idea of changing when you use the most electricity in order to save money and indirectly conserve fuel. He explains it (better than I could):
You might want to include something about load shifting.
While it's not "overall" conservation, load shifting can reduce our peak power needs which means that we need to build less production capacity and need to burn less natural gas in peaker plants...
Off peak can be significantly less expensive than peak hour power.
During peak hours we often have to resort to very expensive ways to generate the power we need, typically natural gas burned to run turbines in what are called "peaker" plants. The plants are not expensive to build, but the fuel to run them is and is getting more so.
Additionally the wind blows harder at night than during the day in some sites. That means that as we build more wind farms to meet our higher daytime (peek) needs we create even more off-peak power.
If you don't understand, the diary which we were commenting on (by Stranded Wind) is a great explanation of the basics of peak electricity and base load and all of that fun stuff that will help you understand it.
Actually acting on this would mean doing things like waiting to run the dishwasher until before you go to sleep or waiting to charge your phone until you go to sleep, for instance.
Wait until you have a full load
Now, I'm talking about a different kind of load (still nothing dirty!), a much simpler one. I'm suggesting that you wait until your dishwasher and washing machine are full until you run them. This saves water and energy by getting as much done at once as possible.
Ditch the dryer
Unless you live in northern Yukon, there are times of the year when the weather is above freezing and you can put up a clothes line outside. A dryer uses a huge amount of electricity or natural gas, so this simple step can save you a lot of money and help the environment a lot. Of course, for some this might take the initial investment of buying some line, but if you just have a rope or wire lying around the house, you can use that.
A CNN story talks about how taking this step made a bigger difference than getting solar panels for one family:
The biggest lifestyle change is as low-tech as the solar panels are high-tech -- the family uses a clothesline to dry its laundry.
"It's OK just to simply hang your lines ... and not use your dryer," says Redmond, who cut his electric bill by 15 to 20 percent by ditching the dryer. "That to me would be the very first thing anybody should do in terms of conserving electricity for their home."
Grow your own food
Usually growing your own food takes at least a bit of an initial investment, but there are ways to do it for free. One way to do it is to take seeds from food you would have bought after you eat them, and plant the seeds. Mother Earth News has this great article on how to get a fruit tree out of some everyday fruit:
Most fruit trees are best grown from grafted trees that cost $25 to $35 each. But with peaches, nectarines and apricots, you can cut your cost to zero by growing trees from seeds.
Save water and energy in the shower
There are various ways to do this. You can just take shorter showers, which is probably the most effective thing to do. You can also take cooler showers, which takes less hot water. You can limit your shower to just showering - shaving or brushing your teeth or doing anything like that in the shower is a huge waste of water.
Don't buy bottled water
Inspired by Asinus Asinum Fricat, I'm adding this one to the list. I've given up bottled water and I think everyone should. It's a waste - if you filled a bottle up about a quarter of the way, that's how much oil it takes to make and transport it. And you can just get it from the tap! Not to mention, it can cost upwards of four dollars a gallon (more than milk or gas!) when it probably costs far less than a cent a gallon out of the sink.
Shut off your computer monitor
From wide eyed lib on La Vida Locavore:
I also have a tip to add to your list. If you are going to be away from your computer for more than a minute, turn off the monitor. The monitor draws the majority of the energy used to run your computer, and (unlike using the sleep function) there's no waiting for your computer to wake back up, just turn the monitor back on. I use these basic rules:
1. Getting up for anything that might take more than 5 minutes, turn off monitor.
2. Leaving computer for an hour, put it to sleep.
3. Leaving computer for 4 hours or more, shut it down. |
