Easy Ways To Go Green

Whether you like it or not and whether you come prepared or not, winter is coming.

So better not sit on your couch and wait for it to come like a dooms day, move and be prepared!

Winter means one thing: cold air. But for those who are conscious enough to notice, winter means larger electric bills. Yes, it is true. Aside from summer, winter is the season of the year where your electric bills skyrocket to digits that cost you financial burden. Why? Because we need to warm our home.

Our home should have the right temperature to give us comfort. And the modern way to do it is by turning on our heating system. This consumes the biggest portion of our electric bill. Fortunately, we have the whole Fall to prepare for it. And to prepare for it means that we must have the right tool and proper information on how to save during the coming season.

The fireplace - Getting our fireplace ready will certainly yield to better savings; and fall is the best time to clean and repair our fireplace. Make sure that the dumper is tightly sealed when not using them. A small space would let the cold air rush in and send the warm air out. If you were using electric heating system, an opening on the fireplace would mean bigger work to maintain the place warm. Let professional contractor to do the proper maintenance. They are certainly more capable in securing your fireplace.

When you decide to use the fireplace, you can turn down your heater. This will save you as much as 8% on heating cost.

The furnace - The furnace will work extra effort if the filter is full of dirt. This will equate to energy waste since the furnace will consume more power against the service it brings. To avoid this, make sure that your filter is clean. The owner's manual will tell you how to clean the filter. A clean filter will let you breath clean air around your house. A clean filter saves you 5% on heating cost.

The duct - Small leaks on duct will certainly result to lost heat so make sure that this is regularly checked. Usually ducts are located on unheated places. This is another reason why heat is lost. Insulate the ducts by wrapping it with R-6 or higher fiberglass. Never use cloth-backed tapes. You can also wrap them with UL-approved metallic or plastic tapes and mastic sealants. The note that leaking ducts work 30% more on your heating system so make sure they are sealed and secured.

The solar heat - You need not have solar panels on your roof to use the sun as the source of heat. All you have to do is use open your drapes during the day to warn your room without using electricity. Just close them at night to keep the warn air inside. Reduction of the use of heating system during the day will let you cut as much as 10% on your electric consumption

The openings - Openings on your doors, windows, joints and sills will let the cold air outside to go in and the warm air from the inside to go out. Make sure that these openings are sealed with either sealant or weatherstripping. It will help reduce the work of the heating system immensely.

The thermostat - A programmable thermostat or a centralized heating system will let you save on the heating cost. The programmable thermostat will let you set your desired room temperature on a specific period of the day. This is much useful if you are leaving your home or are going to sleep overnight.

The centralized heating system on the other hand will give you the ultimate control on the temperature of every room. These 2 will let you decide how warm a room could be. One interesting thing to note is that a centigrade lower on your heating system will let you save as much as 5% on your heating cost.

The water heater - Households can set the heating system between 120 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. This range is ideal on both mobile homes and regular homes.

Everyone wants a clean and fresh smelling home, but if you've been using commercial cleaners and air fresheners, you might have a home full of toxins!

In fact, the EPA says that the levels of pollutants in the home can be up to 100 times higher than the outside air. This pollution can come from gasses given off by anything from your carpeting to your kitchen cabinets to your cleaning products.

Walk into any grocery store and you will see a myriad of cleaners - there's so many it might even be hard to choose. Most of them are loaded with harmful chemicals, but there are many now that bear the words "natural" on the label. However, one should not be fooled by that one little word - many of these cleaners are anything but natural and there are no standards or regulation for using this word on product labels.

If you really want to go green with your cleaning, there are plenty of natural things you can use. Tea tree oil is a great natural cleaner for mold and mildew, baking soda makes a wonderful abrasive cleaner and white vinegar is a great all around cleaner that will shine your windows and mirrors like nobodies business. In addition to the health benefits of no toxic cleaning, using these substances is also much less costly than most store bought cleaners.

For scrubbing surfaces like bathtubs, sinks and even counters use a mixture of baking soda and liquid detergent combined to make a paste. Put the paste on a sponge and scrub away. You can also mix baking soda with a little water if you prefer.

For cleaning glass surfaces, there is nothing like vinegar. Mix 3 tablespoons with 2 cups of water and just a dab of liquid detergent. Put it in a spray bottle and shake it up, then just spray on and wipe off as you would any cleaner.

When it comes to moldy areas, bathroom tile and even cutting boards, you can use straight vinegar sprayed on the area and let to sit for as long as you want (even overnight). The vinegar will work to clean and sanitize as well as deodorize. If you have a mold problem, combine 2 teaspoons tea tree oil with 1 cup of water and spray directly on the area without wiping off - it works wonders!

You can even use natural ingredients as an effective furniture polish and olive oil works wonders for this task. Mix ½ teaspoon with ¼ cup lemon juice - dab onto a rag and wipe over the wood. This mixture can be stored in a tightly closed glass jar for quite some time.

When it comes to deodorizers for the home, those store bought sprays are harmful both environmentally and health wise. Your much better off to open the windows and let the fresh air in. If that's not enough then you can always put out bowls of dried flowers or herbs, use an open box of baking soda to absorb odors or place some cedar blocks strategically around the house.

There's no reason why you can't clean everything in your home using natural ingredients, so throw out all those chemical cleaner bottles and arm yourself with some baking soda, vinegar and tea tree oil not only will your house be less toxic but you'll save on your next grocery bill too!

Maintaining a household has never been as difficult as before considering the escalating costs of many utilities.

Not only do you have to worry about the food you need to serve everyday but you also have to plan a strategy to pay for the many costs generated by your family. Among them is the key cost of generating sources are utilities, which include, electricity and water.

Here are some ways to go green at home to get kids involved in lowering utility bills.

LIMIT USE OF ELECTRONIC GAMES IN THE HOUSE

It is no secret that kids love electronic games, as this is a great way to pass the time and is surely fun. If your house has a video game console or computer try to assign a time when the kids can play with it. As much as possible don't let your kids play with their video games around the clock, as this will result in soaring electric bills. Remember that when playing video game consoles the kids will also use the television. That in itself shows that more than one electronic appliance is running at full tilt.

Assign a time for video games and never allow the kids to exceed. It is advisable to keep a limit of one to two hours of gameplay during weekdays and four hours during the weekend. Also make sure that your kids study first before they plug in their consoles or even computers. Another key method is asking your kids to unplug their electric gadgets when not in use, as these devices eat up electricity even when in stand-by mode. This practice also teaches them to be neat, as they would be forced to properly store their electronic toys.

PRESERVE USE OF WATER

Advise your kids to preserve their use of water. This can done by limiting the use of the shower or the bathtub. Try to use a medium-sized container for kiddie baths instead of the shower to help control consumption. Tell them to close the faucet in the middle of brushing and just fill up a small cup when gargling. While it is also fun to splash around in the bathtub, remember you need at list 25 gallons of water to fill up a stardard-sized tub. Limit use of the tub during weekends.

In order to help control you utility bills, the kids need to be involved is working towards efficiency. It is always helpful when a child becomes responsible at an early age, as he or she will carry this up to adulthood. Parents should also realize that maintaining a household is basically a team effort and all of the family members should do their part.

What You Should Know About Home Energy Rating System

Energy conservation is one of the considerations that homeowners are taking into account when they are buying furnishings for their homes. From heating systems to washers, owners would like everything to be energy efficient.

This is the reason why there are a lot of products out in the market these days that have with them seals that show how energy effective and efficient these things are. Buyers who are conscious of what they want for their homes always look for this seal. And why not? If it means that they could save on electricity bills, then they would gladly go for it.

But the issue here is not only about the furniture that runs on electricity. The main issue is really about the energy that houses are consuming. There was a time when people cannot control their consumption because they have no means of measuring or estimating energy. The result? Soaring electric bills consumption that could have been prevented if owners only know how to.

With the technology of today, this problem has been eliminated. There is now home energy rating systems that people can have. This is the answer that everyone is waiting for to counter his or her energy efficiency and high bill problems.

If you compare this system to something that you can relate with easily, it would be like that of the meter you have in your car that calculates how many mileage you have used the car for.

In place of the meter, there would be a person visiting your place. That person will conduct an inspection of your place and will survey how much energy you are using by looking at everything from appliances to window positioning and airflow.

It can be noted that the inspector is not just any person. This is someone that has extreme knowledge about houses and energy use. Once he had thoroughly inspected your home, that will be the time when he can point out suggestions or proposals to make your home more energy efficient.

Since electricity is one of the highest paying in all the bills that is acquired in every home, it is normal that owners would rather opt to have inspectors checking out their homes rather than pay the bills that seem to be escalating month after month.

Persons that are considered expert in this system can even point out the furniture that you can and you cannot do without. They would be glad to help you sort out what you have in your home and suggest new things that might help you lower your bills.

This is not all. The data that are gathered from homes are then put into a file that the energy department of the location have. Once all the information has been compiled, the house will be given a rating based on the specified standards of what they consider energy efficient and what is not. Now, why would that be important to the homeowner?

Simple. The rating on how energy efficient and how energy inefficient a house is will reflect on the mortgage that the owners are paying. Mortgages are important to be considered by homeowners because those are also expenses that they need to pay continuously. Owners do not want to be buried deep into mortgages just because their homes are not considered an efficient one.

Another problem that could arise is when homeowners decide to sell their property. It seems that every buyer is now aware or has been taught well about choosing homes that are energy efficient. This is one of the queries they ask real estate brokers and agents. They need to be assured that the property that they are about to buy will be worth it as far as electricity bills go.

Not so many people are aware of the fact that energy efficiency is a factor that affects the market value of their home. If only they have known, they would have probably went out of their way having that needed inspection and making the most of what inspectors have to say.

So the next time you have that home energy rating given, you might want to give it some thought and take note of the suggestions that the department will be giving you. It will only be for your own good and the good of the persons that you will be giving or selling your property to. And to think that you could have paid less or have gotten a higher selling price if you have known the aforementioned facts.