Posts Tagged ‘green living’

The Top 3 Recycled Products You Can Use In Your Home

Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

It can be seen on the news or even certain television shows. You should strive to keep your home environmentally friendly, according to these sources. In addition, you can also possibly save a lot of money in the process. You may be concerned about how much it might cost to buy products for your home that are energy efficient like solar panels or appliances. It doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg to ensure your home is environmentally friendly though. You can buy a great deal of products that help preserve the environment for your home at relatively inexpensive prices.

A prime example is paper products. There are other options, despite assumptions that paper products consist only of items you eat food off of. Why not make sure you’ve purchased recycled paper if you have to print off a lot of it for work or school projects? Tissues, napkins and, yes, even plates and other tableware products are all included in this list. You’ll be doing your part to keep your home eco-friendly as a result, and the cost is virtually the same as the non-recycled counterparts.

In the same vein, how about office supplies? Many plastic and metal office products can be recycled. While you may not have any say in what products your employer’s office uses, many people also have home offices today. Why not make sure to buy only the recycled variety?

Paper products may be the first recyclable home product that comes to your mind, but did you know that you can purchase recycled glass as well? Drinking glasses and bottles may be the first products that come to mind, but there are other options from which to choose, as well. You may recall that some plates and dishes are composed of glass. Plus, if you’re in the market for installing new windows for your home, you can always insist on recycled glass for the new ones.

A variety of different shapes and sizes are consequently available in which to purchase recycled products. You as an American may most easily recognize paper products, but you can also look into other relatively inexpensive products made from recycled material. Helping the environment doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. People just need to be able to spot office supplies, glass and other products as recyclable in order to make use of them. You just need to be cognizant and constantly on the look-out, and before you know it, you too can be purchasing products that are ready for a second (or even third) use.

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Solar Panels: A Bright Idea and Cool Tax Benefits

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011

Very soon, your electricity bill could take a permanent dip, potentially. In order to save money, homeowners are increasingly turning to solar energy. If you want to be both environmentally friendly and save some money, solar panels could help you achieve both. This could include tax rebates, avoiding sales tax on solar panel installation expenses and more. You’ve got to love it, right?

Even the federal government is getting on board, trying to create tax incentives to people who use energy more responsibility in the past five years. A prime example and the first of its kind was the Energy Policy Act in 2005. You could earn it simply by choosing renewable over non-renewable energy. If you’ve been a homeowner long enough, you’ll realize that some big changes have gone into effect, as there used to be very few incentives for homeowners to make the switch to renewable energy.

You as a homeowner can now cash in a tax credit of up to $2000 or 30% of what you’ve invested in solar panel installation and equipment costs as a result of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 alone. While only homes that primarily made use of solar energy that were in existence from 2005-2007 were eligible to be covered, it was extended in 2008. You’re good to go if your home was built up through January 2009.

In addition to this act, in 2008 the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act was passed. It provides even more tax incentives for using solar energy, including panels. While it extends the Energy Policy Act of 2005, it also adds more credit for people who intend to do home improvements in 2009 or beyond. This bill removes the $2000 tax credit maximum in favor of the 30% rebate on investments in solar energy. In some instances, it is even retroactive.

Individual states also may have state tax incentives for using solar panels on your home. Some of these states include New Mexico, Florida, Vermont, Minnesota, Washington, New York, Texas, Virginia, Arizona and California. While some states have tax rebates, others carry no sales tax on solar panel equipment costs. It is certainly worth looking into, if you’re considering going the environmentally friendly route. Solar panels can be installed by professionals or can be purchased in do-it-yourself kits. Either way, the tax incentives are well worth the switch.

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Energy Efficiency by Means of Water Heating

Monday, June 13th, 2011

There are a lot of different ways to make your home more environmentally friendly. Some people purchase tinted windows to reduce the amount of air conditioning they need to use on hot, sunny days. Others purchase only recycled household items like glass and paper products. Others still consider installing solar panels on their home’s roof to take advantage of the free energy available to them.

Water heating is also a superb way to make your home more environmentally friendly. There is a lot to consider when choosing between your myriad of water heater options, as well. Not only do you need to choose an option that provides enough water for your household’s needs, but you also need to find one that will make such provisions in an efficient manner so you can save money. This includes choosing the right size and fuel source for your personal needs.

First, you need to know the difference between water heater types. Conventional storage water heaters are the large, bulkier kind that offers a storage tank of hot water. Demand water heaters are also known as tankless or instantaneous water heaters, because they heat your water directly without use of a tank. Instead of creating heat directly for handing out hot water, heat pump water heaters move the heat from one spot to another in your home. Solar water heaters simply use solar heat to create hot water. And tankless coil and indirect water heaters make use of your home’s own space heating system to achieve the same effect.

You should also have several selection criteria in place to help you decide which heater is most appropriate for you. You should look into the fuel type or energy source the water heater uses. Its availability and cost are also important factors. Size must also be taken into account, if you have limited space for your water heater. Lastly, you will want to know how much more energy efficient your new water heater will be compared to your current one.

Your household’s needs should come first when deciding what type of water heater to purchase. You should also create criteria specific to your own needs before buying anything. As a result, there should be no reason not to be able to purchase a water heater that’s both energy efficient and meets your own personal housing needs.

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What It Takes to Make a Home Green

Saturday, June 11th, 2011

What does it take to make a home green? For some people, the answer is simple. Using recycled materials and finding ways to lower your energy bill are all ways people assume get their house the green label.

Some things aren’t that simple. USGBC, also known as the United States Green Building Council consists of the nation’s leaders in various industries and also controls different practices that are considered sustainable throughout the country. Encouraging environmentally friendly building projects for people to live and work in is its main goal. Performing a few sustainable practices in your home is just the beginning to getting your home considered green, according to USGBC.

Instead, the nationally accepted benchmark for buildings that are considered green is LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It originally launched in 1998 and is a home rating system that encourages the design and construction of green homes. There are eight different categories used in its rating system. Each category has a certain number of credits which, in turn, are worth one or more points. United States homes are given a certification rating by LEED based on the number of points they scored.

What are the categories, you might ask? Innovation and design process are where points can first be awarded. Points can also be obtained for the home’s location as it relates to a surrounding community. There are points for sites that are sustainable and being fully used, additionally. Water efficiency, materials and resources and energy and atmosphere are all ways your house can gain more points. The level of energy efficiency in a particular home in the latter category is also a way for points to be awarded. The relevant education given to a homeowner or any other resident living in the building is also a final way points can be awarded.

You now have a basis from which to judge the accuracy of statements made when someone tells you their home is green. Maintaining a few sustainable practices is not enough to make a home green. The more balanced and impartial set of standards, in particular, come from the USGBC and LEED ratings to ensure just that.

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3 Simple Advantages to Home Window Tinting

Monday, June 6th, 2011

You’ve probably seen it on some cars. Window tinting is a popular method of maintaining privacy while driving around town, to be sure. Did you know that it can also be done to the windows on your home, though? There are quite a few advantages to opting to tint your home’s windows, actually.

First, while it certainly does protect your privacy from nosy neighbors and passersby, it’s also a healthy option. Excessive exposure to the sun’s rays is not good for you. It’s why health professionals advise you to apply sunscreen before going outside. Along the same line of reasoning, those harmful rays can reach you and your family within your home. All you need to do is sit and watch television near a window on a particularly sunny day to be affected. By tinting your home’s windows, you can block harmful ultraviolet rays and add to the comfort of your family during times of relaxation.

You can protect the interior of your home by tinting your house’s windows as a second advantage. All colored objects are known to fade in sunlight. Just a few examples of things that can be faded are wallpaper, carpet, drapes and furniture. Sunlight can negatively affect your electronics, and it can cause wooden furniture to warp. The heat the sun generates is also a causal factor, in addition to its light. You can reduce the sunlight’s harmful effects on your home’s items, as well as its heat, just by virtue of home window tinting.

Lastly, it is an environmentally friendly option to choose. Tinted windows decrease the need to turn on your air conditioner on a hot summer day. That, in turn, will end up reducing your monthly heating and cooling costs. In time, what you save on air conditioning even might just pay for the window tinting itself.

A superb option to choose is home window tinting for a number of different reasons as a consequence. Your family’s discomfort will decrease. Your home’s interior will be protected. You will also save money in a way that is eco-friendly. You should also note that home window tinting might be a disadvantage in that is may void any original installer’s window warranty. It is wise to make sure you’ve read the terms of your contract and make note of the consequences before you try to benefit by window tinting your home.

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Energy Efficient Appliances and You

Thursday, June 2nd, 2011

Lately, advertisements for energy efficient appliances have been coming out a lot lately in commercials. A lot of these appliances have a hefty price tag, despite how much they talk about the money you can save from them. It’s prudent to start at the beginning of understanding what energy efficient appliances really are at all, if you’re interest in purchasing one.

The Energy Star label probably rings a bell to anyone who’s done even a little research on appliances that are energy efficient. Energy Star is internationally known to be the standard for rating energy efficient consumer products. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and the U.S. Department of Energy created it as a join program in the United States. The early 1990s saw its creation in the United States, but since then, other countries have been quick to use it in their own energy efficiency plans, as well.

In general, federal standards require appliances to use about 20-30% more energy than what appliances listed with the Energy Star logo actually use. Without sacrificing other features that have been deemed important to Americans like the style of the product itself, this can save families in the United States about one-third off their energy bill.

The EPA and the U.S. Department of Energy set strict guidelines that appliances need to meet in order to be Energy Star approved. All appliances labeled with the Energy Star label have consequently been very thoroughly tested to ensure compliance with these standards. Energy efficient appliances are available in the form of stoves, dishwashers, refrigerators, microwaves and other related products.

Quite a lot of energy was saved by Americans in 2009 alone, equating to 30 million cars’ greenhouse gas emissions. Nearly $17 billion was additionally the amount Americans saved on their utility bills. You can probably see how these statistics make a good case for purchasing energy efficient appliances. Even if you note that your individual savings might take awhile to add up and make the cost of purchasing a more expensive but energy efficient product worthwhile, the overall savings of United States consumers in general, coupled with the eco-friendly statistics listed above, should be enough to convince you the purchase is a good idea.

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A Bright Idea to Save on Your Electricity Bill: Energy Efficient Lighting

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

Lighting is one of the most essential functions of a modern day home. It is also one of the most overlooked. It is crucial to completing basic, everyday tasks after the sun goes down. It also gives us a sense of safety and security. On top of this, it has the ability to affect moods and our own, personal comfort.

In terms of consumption, lighting also affects our budgets. Anywhere from 5% to 25% of annual lighting bills in the United States are spent in the homes of Americans. If only a way to more efficiently use light could be found, there’s a great deal of money you could be saving for use elsewhere. You can achieve energy efficiency in your own home by implementing these basic and simple tips.

There are two ways to save energy used to light your homes. One is to reduce the amount of electricity consumed by light bulbs and fixtures throughout your home. You can do this by lowering the wattage in the light bulbs you purchase, for one. This involves replacing existing bulbs or, in some cases, entire fixtures with those that provide similar or even increased amounts of light but that ultimately reduce the amount of electricity actually used. Replacing incandescent bulbs that are inefficient with incandescent halogen or compact fluorescent bulbs is a good start in the right direction.

Reducing the length of time that lights are on in your home is a second way to save energy in your lighting system. By lessening the amount of time that lights are actually turned on in your home, this can be easily accomplished. Consider purchasing dimmers or other related lighting controls. When it’s not completely necessary to have lights on in the first place, set a good example for other members of your family by explaining the importance of turning off lights.

There you have it. You were probably aware of these methods of energy conservation already. Light bulbs are also relatively cheap, and the increase in cost of purchasing more energy efficient light bulbs is almost certainly made up by their longer life spans. In addition, any hardware store employee should be able to explain the more intricate differences between certain types of energy efficient light bulbs and fixtures. There’s no excuse not to implement a more efficient lighting plan now in your home. Plus, the extra money you save on your electricity can always come in handy.

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Directing Some Lights Towards The Solar Panel Technology Choice

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

Without a doubt, solar technology is the wave of the forthcoming future. Solar Energy development can be an extremely simple method to fully understand. The solar, or photo voltaic or pv, cell collects power right from the suns rays. A photo voltaic cell is a semiconductor unit which is created utilizing photo voltaic materials. It contains absolutely no liquids or chemical substances, with no moving pieces. Pv cells change sun energy straight into source of electricity.

The solar panel commonly includes a group of individual cells, that are sustained by a system that allows the individual cells to operate together. The energy that is captured with the solar panel is usually stored in a battery. Solar panel products create direct current (DC) electricity. Numerous solar panel technology systems come with inverters within them which in turn will allow for direct current (DC) electrical energy to be transformed into alternating electric current (AC). Nearly all consumer products including appliances as well as electronic devices run on Alternating current.

Unless of course you have a huge field of property to house a large selection of solar power panels, it really is extremely unlikely that you will be able to power your entire house by using solar power. Nonetheless, it is possible to power one particular room at your house using a little assortment of solar panels mounted to the roof of your home. Simply multiply the particular wattage of each particular electrical gadget by the number of hours you plan to make use of them on a daily basis. That combined number will be your goal, or maybe the bare minimum your solar system needs to be able to generate.

There are a variety of possibilities to individuals who are looking at changing over to solar panel technology. A common set up that can be used to power your personal computer and a few various other smaller things are offered for about $1000.00. Needless to say, the cost increases depending on the actual generating capability of your structure. In many regions, the price of a set up structure costs somewhere within the area of $10.00-$12.00 per watt.

Solar Energy is one of a few genuinely environmentally friendly solutions which can be employed when it comes to electric as well as power generating. Every hour of each and every day, sunlight blankets our world with more than enough strength to support our global electricity requirements for a calendar year. When the technology driving solar power increases, individuals are going to be unable to refrain from the urge to transfer.

Plenty of resources are now being dedicated to the actual continuing development of solar energy technology. A lot of the main oil and energy organizations currently have entire sections dedicated to solar technology. Research workers and technicians are spending countless hours attempting to cultivate the technological innovation right now that may greatly improve conditions on the planet tomorrow. It is no hidden secret that individuals cannot continue on down the path we are on. Classic fuels shall no longer be any kind of viable choice with regard to power production.

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