Staying at Home Doesn't Mean We Are Environmentally Friendly

We spend most of our time at our home. This automatically increases our energy demand. We turn on our TV, turn on the lights, heating water, and keep our house cool or hot requires energy. From the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, about 20 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions in the United States come from energy used in home.

Greenhouse Gas Emission Sector. http://www.pewclimate.org/global-warming-basics/facts_and_figures/us_emissions/usghgemsector.cfm, June 21, 2008

A lot of you might ask why is that we are contributing 20 percent of Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere? This is because most of our electricity is generated by natural gas, coal, and oil.
Here is another pie chart that shows you the horrifying usage of an average home. We spend almost half on heating and cooling. We spent 10 percent on lighting and 13 percent on heating water. What are we doing here?

Energy Usage at Home. http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=products.pr_pie , June 21, 2008.




Indoor Water Usage, http://www.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/indoor.htm, June 22, 2008

Not only we are having problems with our electricity usage. We are also struggling with our water. EPA estimated we spend more than 25% on toilet and almost 14% on lealks. Leaks? Can you believe it? Those little droplets dripping down from our sink, shower, or toilet, is taking a significant amount of water we use.

Want to do something? Here is what you can do.

Change the Lighting
Change the lighting of your house to Compact Fluorescent Light uses about one third of the energy of tradition bulbs and can last up to ten times longer. Another alteranative lighting is LEDs. LED bulbs reduces energy consumption up to 90% and will last about a 100000 hours.

Air Conditioning
Come on. Almost half of the energy is used on air conditioning. to save money, turn the thermostat up a couple degrees. To make it better, use less air conditioning and use more fan. Fan can keep the space cool or warm by circulating air. However, since they don’t lower the temperature much, it is better to turn it off when you’re not in the room.

What about heating your home? Heat transfer is from higher temperature to lower temperature. Therefore, make sure the gaps around windows and door are sealed properly. This will stop the heat loss to the outside when it’s cold outside. If you are a fireplace person, make sure the thermostat is lower to prevent the heating system to replace warm air being lost to the chimney.

Conserving Water

The average family of four uses about 400 gallons of water a day. That is a lot of water. We can make sure we take shorter showers. And we can also change our shower head to aerating shower heads that combine air with water. For the water heaters, turn down the thermostat to about 120 degrees Fahrenheit (Hill and O'Neill 128).

Dishwaher or handwash? Acutally dishwasher is better, when it is completely full. Most of the dishwashers are ENERGY STAR appliances and it sets up a fixed amount of water for the entire cycle. Some of the dishewashers nowadays can run as low as 4 gallons per cyclee.

Toilets. You can change the flushing mechanism by changing the handle for a quick release. If you have to change out the whole flushing system, dual-flush systems are available for both solid and liquid waste. Also, you can change the amount of water stored in the tank by putting heavy objects such as a piece of brick inside the tank. You can save a lot of water over time.

One thing we can all focus on to save water. And I can't stress that enough. Fix the leaks! If you have leaks, fix it as soon as possible. With the 26% contribution, I think we see the emergency on that. A good way to detect toilet leaks is to put food coloring in the tank and wait for 15 minutes. If there are food coloring in the bowl, you have a leak!

Other tips
Install solar power garden lights in your lawn can also lower the cost of electricity. Solar power light absorbs sunlight and store up energy enough to be lid up at night.
Buy a jacket for your hot water heater. This will prevent excessive heat loss.
Don’t plant your refrigerator near a stove, dishwasher, or heating vent.
Clean the air filter every three months for a more efficient central air-conditioning.
Choose natural gas rather than electricity. Natural gas are cleaner and produce less carbon dioxide.
Make a habit of washing laundry and dishes only when full.
Install motion sensors and timers on lights

Tips taken from Hill, Graham, and O'Neill Meaghan, Ready, Set, Green. New York: Villard, 2008.