Cut Your Costs through Renewable Energy Sources
You can reduce your costs by using renewable energy sources as well as conserving whatever energy sources you may have. Simple alterations to your daily lifestyle can also help you to cut your costs and improve your financial situation. You can start off by using less water, check any leaks you may have and make sure that you properly check your faucets and fix anything you may find. Avoid long showers and baths.
Consider using less energy as well as water, you can also get a toilet cistern that is likely to use less water and gallons per flush. Use less water and you will find more money in your pocket every month! You can also cut your costs through renewable energy sources by walking rather than driving, you can also use your bicycle to travel to work this will help you to decrease your carbon footprint and it is also a great way to cut back on your costs such as gas and car maintenance.
You can also keep your speed down every time you are driving, by keeping your speed to a minimum, you will find that your car will run more efficiently than if you unnecessarily speed. Practice how to drive efficiently and do not accelerate your car too fast or brake hard every time, gauge your speed at every red light in order to avoid speeding and breaking all of a sudden. You will find yourself cutting down on gas costs if you are able to gauge and measure the speed of the changing lights from green to yellow to red.
You can also incorporate the use of solar power in order to input some renewable energy into your home. The energy of the sun is quite efficient in heating your home and this can reduce the overall heating costs as well as electricity costs. Remember that fossil fuels are declining in availability, this makes them more scarce and electricity to become much more expensive for you in the future.
Yoga Mats: Eco Choices
Yoga is a natural and healthy way to release stress and open the body and mind for relaxation through fluid movement and poses. But in order to do your yoga practice, you need a few basic pieces of equipment. Whether you choose to do your yoga at home or at a studio, these standard accessories are must haves. For the eco-conscious, there are organic and cotton versions of nearly all yoga equipment.
Yoga mats are a staple of any studio. Whether you practice at home or with a class, you will need a yoga mat. Other common peices of equipment are yoga bolsters, yoga props or blocks and even an eye pillow to help you reach a deeper place of relaxation while laying on the floor. In many studios, you will also find swiss balls uk and aerobic mats (most studios also hold pilates and other aerobic work out classes).
While stability and firmness is most desirable for a yoga mat, if you are looking for an eco version, note that the price tends to be higher! Ecological yoga mats are kinder on the environment and tend to be recyclable and degradable. There are also natural rubber made yoga mats (created from the rubber tree) and of course all-cotton mats.
Going Green at Home
“Going green”, “Eco friendly”, “environmentally conscious” and “living natural” are terms that are now part of our daily lives. You hear about it on the news, your read it on magazines and newspapers and continuously on the internet. Even news services have a nature category.
Going green and living natural. It seems as if everybody is doing it.
But what does it mean?
It can go from a full scale change in life, going 100% natural and even be militant about it, to small continuous changes without affecting your quality of life except for the better. My suggestion is starting little by little. Rather like eating the proverbial elephant (at least I hope you don’t actual try the elephant).
Take food for example. You can increase your fresh fruit and vegetables intake. What sort of packing does it come in? Every day you have more green food choices – look for them and learn about them. Your proteins – the meat or fish you eat; they are being farmed. How are they fattened?
Or energy requirements. At home, with a little effort, you can reduce your electric bills just by turning down the air conditioner or heaters. A simple formula is: use what you need. Leave a little.
Can you afford to do it?
Yes you can. Just start with a conscious decision. At the end of the day that is all it takes. There is an enormous amount of information and consumer alternatives around, and there will be more each day.
Be creative. A British couple have recently taken their honeymoon in the US and paid their flight with recyclable aluminum cans.
Can you afford not to?
A few thoughts for you. How about your health? We really don’t know the toxicity levels we have or a clear idea of the long term effects. We do know that heart problems, cancer, diabetes and others are much greater than at any other time. Think about it.
What about climate change? The weather has always been unpredictable, specially long term but we must all be aware that something is going on. We hear the news, we see the images and many times we are right in the middle of it – and these are not just isolated news items. We are just not sure of the long term changes or the subtle effects that are happening. The butterfly effect must be overworked.
What about the next generations. Will they be able to see animals in the wild or outside a zoo. Or even worse in a book or on film?
What about energy sources. How renewable are they? What about solar power and wind power? Developments in these area are indeed amazing.
If you reduce your waste (and probably waist, as well), your bills will go down and so will your carbon footprint.
You can find many sources of information all over the place. Just give yourself a bit of research time and you will be able to live a little greener.
Going Green – Making Your Home More Eco-Friendly
These days it seems that the fashionable trend in living is going green. By that we mean more and more people are choosing to opt for cleaner energy, less waste, environmentally friendly building materials, paints and flooring plus energy efficient appliances. Al Gore’s award winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth did more to stir up interest in the green movement than most published scientific studies did. Whether or not you support the global warming theory, one thing you can’t dispute is the obvious savings, both in the environment and your finances, that making some simple and if you’re willing, not so simple, green improvements to your condo or house. Not only will this benefit you as long as you live there, but it will also make your home more attractive to potential buyers if you should decide to sell.
Perhaps the easiest thing you can do to start saving money and energy is to replace your old light bulbs with energy efficient ones. The newer compact fluorescent bulbs are available in a wide assortment of sizes and last a lot longer than basic light bulbs, all while saving on electricity consumption. New compact fluorescent bulbs often use as little as 20 percent of the energy that an older bulb will use. You can also install timers on outside lights.
To improve water consumption you can install low flush toilets and also either attach aerators to your faucets or buy new ones with aerators already installed. This simple device mixes air with the water flow, which creates good pressure with less water. You can also replace the shower heads in the baths with low flow heads.
A typical hot water heater will run constantly to keep the water hot at all times, making this appliance one of the most costly to operate in your home. You can either improve the heating efficiency of the tank you currently have by adding insulation around the tank or wrapping the pipes. You can also install one of the newer models that only heat water on demand, not constantly. Tankless models work very well and can save up to 50 percent of what an older model would cost to run. There are also solar powered hot water heaters for the ultimate in energy efficiency.
You can also go the extra mile with saving water by installing a rain water collection system to water your lawn and landscaped plants, plus making sure that you only plant native species that are tolerant of local climate conditions will also benefit your outdoor environment.
The appliances in your kitchen as well as your washer and dryer are another major area where you can green up your home while saving energy and money in the long run. Replacing some or all of your kitchen appliances with more efficient Energy Star rated ones will reduce electricity consumption and they will run much more efficiently. Remember that for every perk like an automatic ice maker or defrost, a refrigerator becomes less energy efficient. This is especially important because in the average home, a refrigerator uses the most electricity of any appliance you own. Washer and dryer models are now available that operate much more efficiently. Front load washers not only hold bigger loads, they use less water and energy.
For some really major savings you can replace your outdated heating and cooling system with an energy efficient one. Older systems, especially boiler-based ones, are usually extremely inefficient. Newer systems with programmable thermostats allow you to adjust settings according to the times you are home and need more heating or cooling. Just by installing a ceiling fan in even just the biggest room in your home and then lowering the setting on your air conditioning by 3 to 6 degrees, you can save as much as 25 percent on the cost of cooling your condo or home.
Insulation is critical to saving energy, and an average home will lose about 50 percent of its heat through the ceiling and walls if not properly insulated. Check the R value, which is the rating system for insulation value, of what you currently have in your home or what you are considering installing. The higher the R value, the better the insulation value. Don’t be fooled by thinking the thicker or heavier the insulation, the better. You should only look at the R value when deciding on what type.
For a basement in a typical home in North America, the suggested R value insulation should be R-12. One inch of insulation is basically equal to 30 inches of concrete. Of the different types of insulation, Expanded Polystyrene is the best, with blown in Cellulose a close second and Fiberglass in third place. It is also important to install some type of water proof barrier or membrane to protect insulation from moisture. If insulation gets wet it severely reduces its performance.
By adding some simple or some slightly more difficult green touches to your condo or home, you will not only improve your own savings, but will help the environment and probably entice more buyers to your home if you decide to sell. For more tips on selling your home or to find out more about some popular green developments and condos, you can check out the buildings profiled on About Chicago Real Estate
Kim Richards writes articles about Chicago real estate and new home trends for About Chicago Real Estate.
photo credit: TheTruthAbout…
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