Articles tagged “Saving Energy”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Green Glossary: Daylighting By Mickey Z. IN Home & Garden Jan 8 2009 Let's begin with the words from a little something I like to call Planet Green: "Daylighting, the practice of designing for maximum use of daytime sunlight, is being used to do better business, make people happier, and save energy and dollars everywhere from hockey rinks, to Wal-Mart, to office buildings." + READ MORE

Take a Hottie to Bed; Stay Warm, Save Energy By Josh Peterson IN Home & Garden Jan 6 2009 Taking a hottie to bed this winter may be one of the most energy-efficient ways to stay warm. A hottie uses less energy than an electric blanket or a space heater, and a hottie can help you keep your body hot and your thermostat down, night after night, all winter long. A hottie, by the way, is New Zealand-style slang for a hot water bottle. The other kind of hottie may also be a great way to warm a bed, but that's a different post for someone more mature. + READ MORE

5 Ways to Green Your Video Game System By Josh Peterson IN Tech & Transport Jan 5 2009 The NRDC came out with a report on video game systems recently. Their findings were astounding. Did you know that video game systems consume 16 billion kilowatt-hours annually, about the same amount of electricity used to power San Diego for year. More than 40 percent of homes have video game systems and many of those video games systems remain on all the time. + READ MORE

5 Ways to Green Your Garage By Josh Peterson IN Home & Garden Dec 31 2008 Moe from the Simpsons calls garages "car-holes," and that's a pretty fair assessment of what they are. Most garages look like an oil-stained dungeon. Often unkempt, garages are a repository of bad smells, unwanted Christmas gifts and probably some lumber. Here are 5 ways of greening your garage. + READ MORE

Organize Your Time by Using Your Crock Pot By Kelly Rossiter IN Food & Health Dec 22 2008 My daughter has been encouraging me to try doing ribs, even though she doesn't normally eat meat. Most of the recipes I found were had really sweet barbeque sauce or ketchup bases. What I really wanted was a sticky Asian style rib, so I just made it up as I went along. The meat fell off the bone and it was tender and delicious. + READ MORE

Green Glossary: Phantom Power By Mickey Z. IN Home & Garden Dec 19 2008 Vampire power, says GrinningPlanet.com, is "the electricity your home electronics and appliances suck out of the power grid when you're not using them." Grinning Planet continues: "If you're a conscientious user of appliances and gadgets, you always turn them off when you're not using them. But many electronics don't actually go all the way off-they continue using 'standby power.' + READ MORE

Green Your Errands in these Real World Situations By Sara Novak IN Home & Garden Dec 18 2008 It's no doubt a part of most of our lives. A slave to our to-do list, running errands has become our second job when we get off work. While there's no escaping all that needs to be done, there are tons of ways to make these errands so much greener, and if you ask me, more enjoyable. + READ MORE

Green your office equipment By Lloyd Alter IN Work & Connect Dec 17 2008 The great thing about computers today is that they last a long time; it used to be that hardware and operating system upgrades came so quickly that one was replacing them every couple of years; now that so much of our work is done on the internet, computers are almost all fast enough, and changing the operating system is no longer a must-do. (in fact, many PC users are actively resisting changing to Vista.) If you are using an older computer and it is not quite as peppy as you like, consider switching to Linux. + READ MORE

Light Your House with LED Lights (Video) By Josh Peterson IN Home & Garden Dec 15 2008 Steve Thomas, Renovator of Nations, is back with a brand-new Planet Green Holiday Highlights. We all like to decorate our homes during the Holiday season with sparkling, radiant Christmas lights. But what of energy consumption? Steve Thomas suggests LED lights to reduce to your electricity usage by ninety percent. That's a lot of percent! + READ MORE

Decorate Your Home with Solar Powered Christmas Lights (Video) By Josh Peterson IN Home & Garden Dec 10 2008 Steve Thomas, host of Renovation Nation, is here to illuminate our Christmas. His electric idea can help power our holiday cheer without doing harm to the environment. + READ MORE

6 Tips to Make Your Vacuum Cleaner Last By Josh Peterson IN Tech & Transport Dec 9 2008 If you have carpets, then you probably own a vacuum cleaner. Vacuums can be important for maintaining the air quality of your home. You want a vacuum that can get all the dust from the inner recesses of your carpet, and you want that vacuum cleaner to last as long as possible. Here's how to make the vacuum vacuum longer. + READ MORE

Watch TV the Eco-Friendly Way with these 5 Easy Tips By Josh Peterson IN Home & Garden Dec 5 2008 Now that there is a recession on, you might want to kick back and take in some television. After the initial purchase of a TV set, all the entertainment on the boob tube is free, unless you subscribe to cable or have a satellite. A sufficiently large and advanced TV set can rival the fridge for energy output. How can you save money and electricity? + READ MORE

5 Easy Ways To Green Your Fridge By Josh Peterson IN Home & Garden Dec 3 2008 Your fridge looms monstrous over the rest of your kitchen. If you think about it, the fridge is essentially a storage locker for the dead plants and animals that we like to eat. Spooky, right? Fridges use up a lot of energy while making the coldness. You can do things to make your fridge more efficient. Here are five easy steps to make your refrigerator run more efficiently. + READ MORE

Should You Use a Landline or a Cell Phone? By Josh Peterson IN Tech & Transport Dec 2 2008 Cell phones are certainly popular. They are convenient and great for getting you out of jams. No more looking for a farmhouse in the middle of the night while broke down on the lonely, open road. The cell phone is a modern marvel. But is it green? Should you keep a cell phone for emergencies but make most of your calls on a landline? Is a landline greener? Are cell phones bad for the environment? Let's find out. + READ MORE

5 Clean, Low-Tech Replacements for Dirty, High-Tech Gear By Josh Peterson IN Home & Garden Nov 25 2008 Our technology has progressed rapidly over the last 100 years. Sometimes, however, we don't need a technological upgrade. The old technology worked just as well or even better than new technology. By switching back to these older technologies, we can save energy and resources and reduce overall pollution. + READ MORE

Busted: Five Big Energy Savings Myths Debunked By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Nov 25 2008 It is more important than ever to start cracking down on energy use to save both money and even the planet. One of the best ways to cut back on energy use is to question some popularly held energy saving strategies and separate the ones that actually work from the ones that don't. Read on to test your knowledge about what to do to save energy (and what not to do). + READ MORE

Home Office Tricks: Get a Big Monitor By Lloyd Alter IN Work & Connect Nov 25 2008 Many people are still looking electron guns in the face with CRT screens, which use a lot of power and take up a lot of space. Many others made the investment in flat screen monitors a few years ago and are working on 15" and 17" monitors. Now that the prices of monitors have dropped so much, perhaps it is time to consider getting a second monitor. + READ MORE

Stuff Happens: The Power of Television By Team Planet Green IN Home & Garden Nov 24 2008 A monster may be living in your bedroom; a thirsty vampire that steals energy even when you aren't thinking about it. That monster is your TV, an energy vampire that contributes to the $1,000,000 a year Americans spend to keep their electronics in "standby" mode. + READ MORE

Building an Efficient Bathroom (Video) By Team Planet Green IN Home & Garden Nov 19 2008 I'm sitting on our future dual-flush toilet by Caroma, one of the most water efficient models on the market. Overall, they average less than one gallon per flush. In green building it's extremely important that we start with envelope of structure and make it as tight as possible. + READ MORE

Set Your Computer for Energy Savings By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Nov 18 2008 There is a wide range of power-saving software that helps reduce the amount of energy your PC consumes. And yet, your computer is already equipped with power saving settings you can utilize. Try out these tips to set your computer for maximum energy savings. + READ MORE