It is Easy Being Green

Simple Things You Can Do To Save the Planet

We have to go green.  It's actually not a choice.  Most forms of energy that we use help to promote the greenhouse effect or deplete the Ozone layer.  If this continues to happen the Earth's temperature will begin to rise.  A 1° rise in the average temperature of the Earth could wreak havoc on our ecosystems.  The purpose of this article is to inform you of things that you can do around your house to help save the planet.

The first thing that you can do is to change your incandescent bulbs to fluorescent bulbs.  Fluorescent bulbs will save you between 50 and 75% in annual lighting costs over incandescent bulbs.  Fluorescent bulbs are initially more expensive but they give off less heat and last up to 10 times longer than incandescent ones.  If you have incandescent bulbs, think about installing a dimmer switch and reducing your bulbs brightness by half this will make them last longer.

The second thing you can do is use a laptop computer.  A laptop computer will give you an annual computer related energy savings of as much as 50% over a desktop.  Home inspection Carolina also recommends enabling the sleep mode on your laptop after five minutes of inactivity.  If nothing else change your old cathode ray tube or "CRT" monitor to an LCD monitor.  An LCD monitor uses up to 75% less energy than a CRT monitor.  Home inspection Carolina recommends plugging your TV and VCR into a power strip rather than an outlet.  When an appliance is plugged directly into an outlet they continuously leak up to 15 W of electricity if they're plugged in.  When they are plugged into a power strip, however, the appliance is leaked only about one to three watts.  This will save you about 2% on your annual electricity bill.

If you have the old single pane windows consider changing them to double pane windows.  This can reduce your utility bill by as much as 10%.  If you want to save even more look for Windows with the energy Star label.  If they have an energy Star label they meet strict energy-efficient guidelines set by the US government and can save up to 15% in any climate.  Don't forget to call and use weather-stripping.

•·         As for plumbing there are several things you can do to go green.  Check all of your faucets to make sure that they have aerators.  Aerators screw onto the bottom of the false.  They basically strain or screen the water.  What they really do is reduce the amount of water that you need by aerating it. Consider installing a tank close water heater.  Tank close water heaters are about 10 to 30% more energy-efficient than storage tanks, which constantly have to keep war are warm and are common in most US homes.  A tank close water heater can range in cost from $1500-$2500.  If you don't have $2000 lying around there is a less expensive option that you could do.  You could add a recirculation pump.  Recirculating pumps save water.  If your shower is a long ways away from your water heater, you typically run the water until it gets warm.  It takes a little while for the warm water to make it to your shower.  All the cold water that you ran out to get warm is wasted.  This would not happen with a recirculating pump.  Another thing that you want to do is to make sure that your shower head has a low flow head on it.  A7 minute shower with a low flow head will save about 6 gallons per shower. Toilets before 1994 use about 3.5 gallons per flush.  Low flow toilets were used after 1994.  The low flow toilets only use 1.6 gallons per flush.  If you're toilet is a pre-1994 toilet, consider putting a jar or two down in the water closet.  We did this growing up in my house but not because we were trying to go green.  We were just trying to save money.  Going green can save you money.

You can use 50% less water with a landscape consisting of drought resistant plants and grasses.  We advocate small lawns, native plants, efficient irrigation, and mulches, which slowed erosion and evaporation.  Don't forget to group together plants with similar watering needs into specific  zones.

Reduce, reuse, and recycle.  This is the mantra that we will all have to take.  We only have one planet folks.  If we all start taking little steps it will help go a long way to saving our planet.  If you have any questions about going green around the home please contact Preston Sandlin at http://www.askthecharlotteinspector.com or http://www.homeinspectioncarolina.com