Saturday, April 02, 2011

Earth Day Challenge 2 & Giveaway


It is a great feeling to be sitting outside in the warm weather with not much wind, sipping wine and writing this! Today was spring-cleaning day/purging for my upcoming garage sale & move.  I love the feeling of getting rid of things and having less!  I do not understand how we accumulate so much....it is rather annoying! I have always had the dream of living in a downtown Chicago apartment, but if I were to ever move to a tight space like that I would have a big massive garage sale!  By tomorrow night I should have every room organized and purged of things we no longer need/use.  How did you spend your Saturday? 

Today's Earth Day Challenge can be done from the privacy of your own home.  The challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to use less electricity.  "Americans use at least twice as much water and energy per person as anyone else in the world"* A benefit of this challenge is if we use less electricity, the energy bill will go down--so it is good for both the earth and your budget! Here are a few simple things you can do to help save energy:
1. Turn off lights when you do not need them.
2. Unplug appliances if you are not using them. "Residential consumers in the Untied States spend more then $5 billion annually on standby power alone--about 5% of all electricity consumed in the county."*
3. Only run your dishwasher when it is completely full.
4. Start a compost pile for your garden instead of using the garbage disposal. 
5.  Keep your microwave clean and it uses less energy. I do not encourage people to use microwaves (more on that in a future post), but if you do use microwaves make sure it is clean.
6. Don’t stand in front of your fridge with the door open as you daydream about things.  Only open the fridge when you know for sure what you need. 
7.  Turn off power strips when you are not using them.  “The average American household continuously leaks about fifty watts of electricity. Eliminating that trickle would save $1 billion a year in wasted electricity” *
8. Use more energy efficient light bulbs.

I will be giving away 3 energy efficient light bulbs to one lucky person (two 100 watt bulbs and one 75 watt bulb).  
To be eligible for this giveaway just leave a comment with an energy saving tip.
I will pick a winner Tuesday evening (April 5).
 
*Quotes taken from The Green Book: The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a Time

Til' next time, 






2 comments:

  1. I love your posts Andrea:) Please let me know when you have your garage sale, I would love to stop by:) My energy saving tip: Don't leave ceiling fans on when you are not in the room/not home:)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Andrea, good post on saving electricity...our bill was way too high this last month....my tip is to turn your dishwasher off after the rinse cycle and don't waste all of that electricity on the dry cycle - they will air dry just fine. (I don't acutally do this, but I have in the past and need to start doing it again) Also, if you have a hot tub and never use it - drain it and STOP.WASTING.ELECTRICITY. I guess that two :)

    ReplyDelete

I'm so glad you stopped by to leave a comment. Getting comments is like getting hugs from my readers, I love it!