Let's make our real estate more green and environmentally conscience shall we? So the title of the blog is a play on the Bruce Willis movie "Live Free or Die Hard." I haven't seen it but want to desperately! Anyway, I was doing a bit of research and stumbled upon a few ways to help the environment by doing a few small things around the house.
I know that I am not the most environmentally conscience person around, but I was inspired by a specific message I read on LiveEarth.org. It basically said that if everyone made small changes in their lifestyle, the overall effects would be tremendous. So why don't we make a small change or two and become a part of the solution of the climate crisis.
Environmentally conscience real estate ideas:
- Change regular light bulbs to CFL bulbs: They typically consume 65-75% less electricity and last about 10 times longer.
- Blanket insulation kits: Wrap your hot water heater in a blanket! They cost around $20 and can reduce your emissions by 1,000 pounds of CO2 a year
- Heating and cooling: During the winter if you turn your heater down just one degree you can save 3% in heating costs. I’m assuming the effects are fairly similar with your a/c by turning it up a degree or two.
- Turn off your computers: By turning your computers to sleep after periods of inactivity and turning it off at night, you can save as much as $100 a year in energy costs.
- Phantom electricity: I had never heard of it before either but phantom electricity is the power used by an appliance when it is not on! TV’s and VCR’s waste $1 billion in lost electricity in the US annually. Solution: plug your TV’s, VCR’s, DVD’s, and Stereo’s into a power strip that can be turned off completely.
I hope we can all make a few changes and help the environment!
As always, please give me a call with all of your New Orleans Real Estate needs.
Darryl Glade ~ www.DarrylGlade.com ~ 504.451.8960
Sources: www.liveearth.org, www.onebillionbulbs.com
More info on CFL bulbs:
~They typically consume 65%-75% less electricity than regular bulbs and last about 10 times longer.
~If one million people replaced one bulb we could eliminate more than 200,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
~They save you money! Over the life of one CFL it will save you around $89.
~Go to www.DarrylGlade.com to use the CFL replacement calculator to find out how much you can save by replacing 2, 3, 5, 10, etc. bulbs in your home.
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