Going Green In The Kitchen
Going green in the kitchen encompasses everything from what you eat to how you cook it.
There's a ton of things you can do in your kitchen that will help lessen your impact on the environment. From using a water saving faucet, to energy efficient appliances to cleaning with non-toxic cleaners, going green in the kitchen can be great for the environment as well as for your budget.
One little thing you can do is reduce your use of paper towels. The average family uses several rolls of paper towels a week but you can reduce your usage by keeping some cloth towels handy in the kitchen and use those for wiping your hands, spills and other uses that would normally call for a paper towel. You'll save money on paper towels and there will be less of them in the landfill which, in turn, helps the environment. Also, the less paper towels that are manufactured, the less pollution in the air from those manufacturing plants.
Did you realize that some types of cooking are more energy efficient than others? While many cooks love a gas stove, the fact is that the newer model electric stoves are more energy efficient. Not only that, but if you opt for a toaster oven or microwave instead of using your big oven, you can drastically reduce the energy needed for cooking.
Another thing you can do in the kitchen to help the environment is buy local whenever you can. While this might seem like a small thing, transporting food is actually a big drag on the environment. Flying bananas into upstate New York from the tropics can be costly in terms of air pollution. Not to mention that foods from the grocery store can be loaded with pesticides and your local growers probably don't put so much junk on their crops. Plus, it's nice to support the farmers in your own community.
Using reusable cloth grocery bags, reusing jars and composting organic materials are great ways to reduce waste. You can compost your kitchen scraps, paper and even cardboard. This will make great fodder for your garden and does double duty as it acts as an organic fertilizer saving you from buying fertilizer which saves you money and ensures that harmful chemicals don't leach into the environment from commercial fertilizers you might have had to purchase.
Possibly the most important thing you can do to be "greener" in the kitchen is to recycle. Make sure you get a good handle on all the plastic and glass materials you use that can be recycled. Check the rules at your landfill as to what has to be separated out and buy yourself some bins to help you keep things separate.
Lastly, you want to keep the environment in mind when you clean. Cleaners full of chemicals can be bad for the environment and the fumes from these can be harmful to the health of yourself and your family. There are plenty of natural things you can use for cleaning like vinegar, baking soda and tea tree oil that will help keep your kitchen sparkling without harming you or the environment.
Do you want help from the experts?
Please take a minute to read more about this here, I think you will find it useful:
A Guide To Efficient Living!
Home Green Energy Conservation
AMaking Your Home Green Energy Conservation Successful.Every year, interest rates are increasing and the cost of heating is definitely going up. And whether we admit it or not, we sometimes find our selves running out of money. However, if you compare an average house to an energy efficient residence, you'll find out that it is very possible to lessen your annual energy consumption to almost 40 percent.
There are lots of ways to conserve home energy which consequently lower your energy bills. And most of the changes that you can do for making your home green are also helpful to the environment.
Here are some ways to conserve energy in your home:
· Heating and Air Conditioning
1. If you're going out of an air conditioned room for a long time, be sure to turn off the A/C unit.
2. Rooms that are not used often should have sealed vent.
3. You can also install ceiling fans that are remote controlled than have a built-in heater.
4. When the room is occupied, put the thermostat in a comfortable setting.
5. When the fireplace isn't used, close the damper in the fireplace
· Laundry Appliances
1. Avoid using your washing machine in partial loads. It is better if you meet the capacity of the machine.
2. Dirty clothes must be pre-soaked for hours. This will prevent you from running your machine twice.
3. For the garments that aren't very dirty, put small quantity of detergent and put your machine to a lighter wash setting.
4. Electric drier consumes more energy in drying clothes so better apply the conventional way of drying your garments.
5. Ironing clothes should be done at one time and during off-peak hours
· Refrigerators and Freezers
1. Refrigerators and freezers must be defrosted regularly. Frost build-up can increase the load of the compressor motor.
2. Inspect your refrigerator and look for a leaking gasket.
3. Avoid constant opening and closing of the refrigerator's door because it can contribute to ice or frost build-up.
· Kitchen Appliances
1. Don't boil water in an open pan. A pan that's covered will boil the water faster.
2. Keep the burners, range top and reflectors clean. It can help generate more heat and consume less energy.
3. When the food you're cooking starts to boil, turn the electric stove to low mode.
4. Don't put smaller pans or pots in small burners or heating elements.
· Lighting
1. Switch off unused lights as well as other appliance that use electricity.
2. Utilize low wattage yet efficient lamps.
3. Replace your incandescent bulb with fluorescent lamp.
Those are just handful of tips to lower your energy bills. There are many other factors which can also guide you in conserving your home energy.
Remember that the two great factors which you can change in order to enhance your quality of life are your lifestyle and your home. If you want to modernize your home, you have to make significant decisions regarding your household appliances. In today's world, we are faced with a wide range of appliance styles, sizes, configurations and technologies. Evaluating your household appliances can help a lot in your aim to save home energy. The following are the factors that can help you compare and assess your home appliances:
Energy Efficiency. It is always good to carefully weigh up the energy efficiency of the appliances in your home. In some household devices, you are left with a choice between electricity and natural gas as the source of power. The energy efficiency can also be based on the materials the machine or appliance is made of. Various materials can be cooled and heated at different rates.
Size. Having an appliance with the right size is significant. Speed also comes into play. Generally, the faster an appliance finishes its task, the less time it uses energy.
Features. Assess first the features of an appliance before purchasing it and think carefully how these features can improve your lifestyle.
Make Your House Green
Want to make your home green, greener, greenest?
Green Your Home: The Complete Guide to Making Your New or Existing Home Environmentally Healthy
Amazon Price: $18.96 (as of 11/16/2009)
This book has thousands of ways to make your home environmentally healthy and will help you make ecologically aware supply choices. From recycling to alternative cleaning materials, minor changes can add up to real benefits.
Greening your home means finding things you can do to reduce your impact on the planet. We dissected your house, looking for easy (but not always obvious) ways that homeowners can conserve energy and water and money at the same time.
Making Your Home Green Plan
Another advisable tip is to come up with a making your home green energy conservation plan. There are various approaches which you can use in developing such plan and these include:· Identification of the places where home energy is used inefficiently or lost
· Prioritizing the said areas and finding out how much energy is being wasted
· Correcting the said problems systematically depending on your home energy improvement budget
As you come up with your home energy conservation preparation, you should first identify the problem vicinities. It is good to start in the area where higher amount of energy is used because that area can also be the best place to gain potential savings. With the abovementioned home energy conservation tips, you can free up more bucks without increasing your income.
Save Some Green While Going Green
What could be better than helping out the environment? Why, saving some money while you are helping out the environment, of course!Of course, most everyone wants to lower their carbon footprint and help the environment be healthier but if you can save money doing it, then you have the best of both worlds. Luckily, there are many ways to go green and save some green at the same time. Here are 5 things you can do making your home green, this will help boost your bank account and the environment:
1. Buy Second Hand - most people don't think of buying second hand stuff as being environmentally consciences but when you buy something second hand it helps to keep that item from ending up in a landfill. Not only that but buying second hand can save you a bundle! Plus buying something used doesn't mean you have to settle for something that is broken or damaged - there are plenty of brand new items waiting for you to pick them up. Great places to shop for second hand goods include eBay, Craigslist, yard sales, flea markets and Consignment stores.
2. Energy Efficient Lighting - Swapping your incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent lighting might cost a bit at first, but it can save you a bundle in the long run in energy costs. In fact, fluorescent lights use 1/3 the energy that incandescent do and, since lighting is typically one of the largest energy uses in any home, this could save you 25% or more on your bill. Not only that but compact fluorescent lights last 10 times longer so you won't have to buy them nearly as often. Want even more savings? Then seek out the new LED lighting - they are more efficient and the lighting itself is much better then the fluorescents.
3. Save On Paper Towels - If you're anything like me, you probably use a ton of paper towels in the kitchen. They're great for wiping up spills, drying off your hands and putting food on but what do you think happens with them once you are don? Right - they end up in the landfill! You can reduce your costs for paper towels and lighten the load on the landfills by using cloth kitchen towels instead. Invest in a bunch of them and make sure they are handing for wiping up. You'll be amazed at how few paper towels you really need!
4. Eat More Veggies - Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that eating more fruits and vegetables and less meat is better for your health, but did you realize that it's also better for the environment? Yes, it's true, raising cattle takes a huge toll on the environment. Plus beef costs more than vegetables so why not help your health and the environment by replacing a few of your meaty meals with vegetarian choices?
5. Conserve Water - There are many options in faucets today that will help you conserve water which, of course help the environment and saves you on your water bill. You can get low flow facets and smart faucets that will automatically shut off after a certain amount of time or sense when something is under it - turn the water on and then sense when nothing is under it and turn the water off.
Making Your Home Green Bargains to check out
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Resources for Alternative Energy
There are many different forms in which alternative energy is available.One of these is solar power. Solar power is driven by photovoltaic cells, and these are progressively getting less expensive and more advanced. Solar energy power can be used for electricity, heating, and making hot water.
Solar energy produces no pollution, as its input comes completely from the sun's rays. However, much more work still needs to be done in order for us to economically harness the sun's energy. For the time being, the resource is a little too conditional-storage batteries are needed to be used as backups in the evenings and on inclement days.
Wind energy has become the most-invested-in (by private investors and governments together) alternative energy source for the time being. The great arrays of triple-bladed windmills are being placed all over as "wind farms", to capture the motion of the wind and use its kinetic energy for conversion to mechanical or electrical energy.
Of course, there is nothing new about the concept of a windmill for harnessing energy. Modern wind turbines are simply are more advanced variations on the old theme. Of course, the drawback to wind energy is...what do you do when there is a calm, still day? Needless to say, during these times the electric company kicks in for powering your home or office. Wind energy is not altogether independent.
Hydroelectric energy is available as a source of alternative energy, and it can generate a substantial amount of power. Simply put, hydroelectric energy uses the motion of water-its flow in response to gravity, which means downhill-to turn turbines which then generate electrical energy. Needless to say, water is ubiquitous; finding sources for driving hydroelectric turbines is, therefore, not much of a problem.
However, hydroelectricity as a source of alternative energy can be complicated and expensive to produce. Dams are often built in order to be able to control the flow of the water sufficiently to generate the needed power. Building a dam to store and control water's potential and kinetic energy takes quite a lot of work, and operating one is complex as well,and conservationists grow concerned that it. Of course, a dam is not always needed if one is not trying to supply the electrical needs of a city or other very densely populated area. There are small run-of-river hydroelectric converters which are good for supplying neighborhoods or an individual office or home.
Probably the most underrated and under-appreciated form of alternative energy is geothermal energy, which is simply the naturally-occurring energy produced by the heating of artesian waters that are just below the earth's crust. This heat is transferred into the water from the earth's inner molten core.
The water is drawn up by various different methods-there are "dry steam" power plants, "flash" power plants, and "binary" power plants for harnessing geothermal energy. The purpose of drawing up the hot water is for the gathering of the steam. The Geysers, approximately 100 miles north of San Francisco, is probably the best-known of all geothermal power fields; it's an example of a dry stream plant.
Here are some Home Green resources for you:
The New Ecological Home: A Complete Guide to Green Building Options (Chelsea Green Guides for Homeowners) by Dan Chiras
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Simple Green 13005 All Purpose Cleaner. Gallon
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Ready, Set, Go Green! Grades 4-5: Eco-Friendly Activities for School and Home by Teresa Domnauer
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125 Ways To Go Green and Save Green by Rick Roberts
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SAVE THE PLANET ~Wall Clock~ go green recycle hybrid
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Perf Go Green Doggie Duty Bags, 50-Count Box (Pack of 5)
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33 Pack of Go Green! Towels: 100% Bamboo Fiber Compressed Towels
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Go Green Get Lean: Trim Your Waistline with the Ultimate Low-Carbon Footprint Diet by Kate Geagan MS RD
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Greens to Go-Superfood Fruit and Veggie Mix, 24 Packs
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- Though not everyone has the resources to go solar or get completely off the grid, these small green improvements to your home make a significant change to the world. Green and earth-friendly home improvement projects add up and ...
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- This means that any investment you will now make into your home and into more efficient energy solutions will be something you can benefit from later on. The US government has already created an energy efficient home ranking program and ...
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- totalhealth totalhealth Sep 9, 2009 @ 4:24 pm
- Caring for our environment really starts at home. Great and helpful ideas on going green.
by Sydney4045
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