We CAN Be Green

Green Tips: paper products

Purchase recycled toilet paper, paper towels and other paper products for your home.

If every household in the United States replaced just one four-pack of 400-sheet virgin fiber toilet paper with 100 percent recycled ones, we could save:

• 1,450,000 trees
• 3.7 million cubic feet of landfill space, equal to 5,500 full garbage trucks
• 523 million gallons of water, a year’s supply for 4,100 families of four, and avoid 89,000 pounds of pollution!

An added benefit of switching to recycled content toilet paper is that you could save $39.53 per year! (Seventh Generation brand vs. Charmin) Go Green, Live Rich by David Bach

We use Marcal Sunrise napkins; not only are they made from recycled paper but they are a local NJ company.  However, their paper towels are just not strong enough for our needs (2 kids under 2...do I need to say more?).  What have your experiences been with recycled paper products?

THE AGENDA • ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT

Have you seen the makeover at the White House website?  I took note of the Energy & Environment Agenda.

Some highlights along with my comments:

• Help create five million new jobs by strategically investing $150 billion over the next ten years to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future. 

   It's too bad that they can't throw the kind of money at this like the government has for the financial and auto industries.  $150 billion over ten years....that's a drop in the bucket.  How about $150 billion every year for 10 years?

• Put 1 million Plug-In Hybrid cars -- cars that can get up to 150 miles per gallon -- on the road by 2015, cars that we will work to make sure are built here in America.

With the bailout of the Big 3 and the U.S. government the largest shareholder, one would think the administration can force the Big 3 to comply using their financial leverage.

• Weatherize One Million Homes Annually.

This is a great idea.  Right now they are weatherizing homes for only low income families to help lower their monthly heating & electricity bills.  Much better than subsidizing and will be a long term solution.  Imagine if we all weatherized our homes?  See my previous post for some ideas.

I look forward to seeing these and the rest of the new administration's green agenda put into action.

What do you think?  Does Obama's green agenda go for enough?

Lower Your Heating Bill

It was very nice of my gas company, Elizabethtown Gas, to include a little brochure on lowering our heating bill after hitting us with a $330 bill.  But I am not bitter and I want to share their tips with you.

• Watch the thermostat - Heating and cooling costs can make up more than half of your energy costs.  For every degree you lower the thermostat, you can expect to save between one and three percent on your heating bill.  Consider a Programmable Thermostat.

• Tune Up or Upgrade Your Furnace - Have your HVAC system serviced by a professional twice a year and if it's time to replace it choose Energy Star rated equipment.

• Change Furnace Filters - A clean filter is one of the most essential factors to efficient operation of your heating system.  Replace it at least once every three months.

• Insulate, Insulate, Insulate - Insulation is one of the best ways to save energy and money in your home.  Add more insulation between walls, and, since warm air rises, make sure your attic floor is well covered.  Choose insulation with the highest R-value practical, which is a measure of its heat-blocking power.

• Do Away with Drafts-  Drafts can reduce a home's energy efficiency by 5 to 30 percent a year, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.  It pays to seal gaps with caulking and weather stripping.

What have you done to lower your heating bill and make your home more energy efficient?

Passive Houses

In this New York Times article, the concept of passive houses is discussed. 

First, what are passive houses?  According to Wikipedia, The term passive house (Passivhaus in German) refers to the rigorous, voluntary, Passivhaus standard for energy efficiency in buildings. It results in ultra-low energy buildings that require little energy for space heating or cooling.

The New York Times article reports that passive houses "get all the heat and hot water they need from the amount of energy that would be needed to run a hair dryer"  This is possible by "Using ultrathick insulation and complex doors and windows, the architect engineers a home encased in an airtight shell, so that barely any heat escapes and barely any cold seeps in. That means a passive house can be warmed not only by the sun, but also by the heat from appliances and even from occupants’ bodies."

Right now, passive houses are best suited for cooler climates.  However, "Researchers are looking into whether the concept will work in warmer climates — where a heat exchanger could be used in reverse, to keep cool air in and warm air out."  In addition, they are not popular yet in the U.S. as "the sophisticated windows and heat-exchange ventilation systems needed to make passive houses work properly are not readily available in the United States. So the construction of passive houses in the United States, at least initially, is likely to entail a higher price differential."

One drawback is that a passive house only allows for 500 sq ft per person....so for us Americans who are used to our 3,000 sq ft homes, we would have to adjust a bit to a smaller living space.

Hopefully, we'll see more passive houses or something similar in the U.S. over the next decade.