Healthy Homes of Rochester

Even if you don’t use hot water to wash your clothes, your water heater still gets plenty of use but there are a couple of easy ways you can reduce energy consumption here. First, lower the heaters thermostat down to say a 120 degrees or the “vacation” setting.  Then, wherever you have access, insulate the hot water pipes that are going to your faucets inside the house with foam pipe insulation.  The foam pipe insulation is very reasonably priced. The pipe insulation also adds comfort to you when you need hot water in your shower or faucet, it will be available quickly.

Now these things alone can reduce your energy bill as much as 5% or more.  To make your water heater a little more efficient, two or three times a year, drain a bucket full of water from the drain valve at the bottom of the heater. You will be removing all of the sediment and hard water deposits that build up in the bottom of the tank which reduce the water heater’s efficiency and capacity.

just another simple DIY tip on saving energy and money by The Fixie Chick

Recycling is great, but precycling is even better! Pre-thinking our purchases is a great way to get one-step-ahead on the road to reducing our impact on the environment.

The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) estimates that in 1996, New Yorkers disposed of more than 17.7 million tons of solid waste? And the DEC warns that it is becoming more expensive to dispose of our wastes. Recycling helps, but it is only part of the solution. Consider the amount of energy that is used to transport the materials, melt them down and then re-manufacture items.

The idea behind precycling is trying to avoid the amount of material that winds up in landfills and the recycling bin to begin with.

Some of the common steps we are all taking, like re-using cloth grocery bags instead of paper or plastic, has certainly had an impact. For every bag that’s used just twice, the number of bags used per year is cut in half. That amounts to half the trash right?

Same goes for packaging and reusing other products. Choosing consciousness over convenience is always the way to go when it comes to our environment.

My favorite precycling practices include:

Using cloth napkins instead of paper ones and using microfiber cleaning towels instead of paper ones. BONUS: I never run out!

Purchasing items like hand soap in bulk and using refillable soap containers.

Buying concentrated laundry detergent in bulk (and using less then recommended).

When I need to make a new purchase, I look for “long-life” items like batteries and light bulbs.

What about you? I’d love to hear your thoughts and tips on precycling. Give me a call on Property Source Radio, 585-222-6397 Saturday from 9-10am.

Thanks for reading,

-The Fixie Chick

Did you know that an American home can waste, on average, 11,000 gallons of water every year due to running toilets, dripping faucets, and other household leaks? Nationwide, more than 1 trillion gallons of water leak from U.S. homes each year.
FACT: According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), indoors, 3/4 of all water is used in the bathroom.

One easy and inexpensive way to green your bathroom is to simply save water. Reducing your personal water usage has a tremendous positive impact on the environment and on your wallet. The first step is being mindful of your habits. Do you leave the water running while brushing your teeth? Does your husband shave with a constant stream of hot water running from the faucet? Do you let warm-up water go down the drain while drawing a bubble bath? Changing one of these costly habits will result in immediate savings to you and your planet.

To save even more money by conserving water, consider installing an aerator on your faucet. Without an aerator, water usually flows out of a faucet as one big stream. An aerator spreads this stream into many little droplets. This helps save water and reduces splashing.

Showering represents approximately 17 percent of residential indoor water use in the United States—more than 1.2 trillion gallons of water consumed each year. Inexpensive and simple to install, low-flow shower heads can reduce your home water consumption as much as 50%, and reduce your energy cost of heating the water also by as much as 50%

To cut down on water waste, put an inch or two of sand or pebbles inside each of two plastic bottles to weigh them down. Fill the bottles with water, screw the lids on, and put them in your toilet tank, safely away from the operating mechanisms. You can also purchase an inexpensive “tank bank”. This may save ten or more gallons of water per day.

TIP: Be sure at least 3 gallons of water remain in the tank so it will flush properly.

If you are in the market for a new toilet, consider a “low flush” model, which use 1 to 2 gallons per flush instead of the usual 3 to 5 gallons.

Replacing an 18-liter per flush toilet with an ultra-low volume (ULV) 6-liter flush model represents a 70% savings in water flushed and will cut indoor water use by about 30%.

No matter what model toilet you use, never flush garbage of any kind. Every time you flush a cigarette butt, facial tissue or other small bit of trash, five to seven gallons of water is wasted.

Overall water is our least costly utility, but continued wastefulness will likely drive it’s cost up too.

WaterSense, a partnership program sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, makes it easy for Americans to save water and protect the environment. Look for the WaterSense label to choose quality, water-efficient products. Many products are available, and don’t require a change in your lifestyle. WaterSense is promoting Fix a Leak Week from March 16 to 20, 2009, to remind Americans to check their plumbing fixtures and irrigation systems for leaks. To learn how you can fix a leak, go HomeAndYardRadio.com-Living Greener and click on the WaterSense link.

FACT: Recycling just one ton of aluminum cans saves the energy equivalent of 36 barrels of oil or 1,655 gallons of gasoline.

TIP: Reduce, reuse, recycle! Recycling offers opportunities for everyone to help reduce climate change, save energy, and conserve natural resources. We can recycle much more than than what goes in the blue box. Consider purchasing items that have been gently used. And before you throw that jar in the box, think about an alternate use for it. Sauce & baby food jars make great reusable containers.

Thanks for reading A Greener Life!
-The Fixie Chick
Here is a nice choice for a low cost outdoor composter – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!