$241 billion. That’s how much consumers spend each year on energy for home use. About 1 in 5 of the nation’s energy dollars is spent in homes. Energy efficiency improvements could cut this number by well over half.

90% of your time. That’s the proportion of the average American’s time spent indoors. The quality of indoor air is often worse than the air outside. Moisture and gasses from building materials are some of the many invisible sources of indoor air pollution. When done right, energy efficiency upgrades will also improve indoor air quality and make your home safer and more comfortable.

1.2 billion tons of greenhouse-gas emissions. That’s what is emitted (as carbon dioxide) into the atmosphere as a byproduct of making the energy to power U.S. homes. Every single thing done to save energy at home trims these emissions.

Did you know that the typical U.S. family spends about $1,900 a year on home utility bills? Unfortunately, a large portion of that energy is wasted. And each year, electricity generated by fossil fuels for a single home puts more carbon dioxide into the air than two average cars.

Right in your own home, you have the power to reduce energy demand, and when you reduce demand, you cut the amount of resources, like coal and gas, needed to make energy—that means you create less greenhouse gas emissions, which keeps air cleaner for all of us…and saves on your utility bills! Plus, reducing energy use increases our energy security.

Your electric bill is probably increasing, even if you still turn off the lights whenever you leave the room. The Denver Post recently reported that the price of electricity for most residences here in Colorado jumped 15 percent in the past year. Both electric rates and additional fees on electric bills are going up around the nation. However, you can potentially minimize cost spikes by carefully reading your bill, checking your consumption and comparison shopping.

Check their Work

The convenience of automatic bill pay and online banking comes with a danger. We may be less diligent about reviewing utility bills, and may even miss a major spike or an erroneous charge. Even if you don’t have to write a check, review the usage listed on your bill every month. Compare electric usage to previous months in kilowatt-hours, not dollar amounts. The actual bill may vary for the same amount of electricity depending on added fees or rate hikes, but more on that later.

The average home uses 920 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity per month, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. It’s fairly easy to use less than the average by switching out light bulbs, turning down the thermostat, turning off vampire appliances, etc. However, if your bill shows significantly higher consumption, either you or the electric company may have a problem.

• An unusually high bill may simply be an accounting error or a misread meter. You can double-check the electric company’s work by looking at your meter. It should be slightly higher than the meter reading at the end of your last billing period.

• If the meter and the bill match, but the usage seems unusually high, make sure the meter is working correctly. It should stop spinning when you turn off every appliance, light and gadget (though it’s easier and more foolproof to test the meter by shutting off all your breakers). If it still spins, it may either be broken or a neighbor’s circuit is inappropriately wired onto your meter. You can also ask most utility companies to test the meter for accuracy.

Shop Around

If the meter is working and the usage is reasonable, but the bill is unreasonable, you may have more options than you think. Many states have recently opened their utility markets to new competitors. Texas has a particularly robust electricity market. I found more than 20 rate plans from at least six providers for a ZIP code in Dallas.

You may still effectively have a monopoly, but the company may offer various rates. Look for long-term contract savings and low-income discounts. Also opt out of any renewable-energy premiums if your only goal is a lower electric bill.

Know Your Usage

If you are getting the best possible rates and the meter is working, faulty wiring or a faulty appliance may have cause the spike in your bill. If you switch off all the breakers and the meter stops running, test each circuit and each appliance. Unplug everything, then individually turn on breakers and plug in each item.

If the meter starts to spin with a breaker on but nothing running on that circuit, you may have faulty wiring. More likely, the meter will really get going when you turn on the air conditioner or other electricity hog. Use a watt-hour meter, such as a Kill-A-Watt, between the outlet and the appliance to check the true energy usage of your devices and appliances.

If you think you are overpaying for electricity, check the electric company’s numbers and meter, then check your wiring and appliances, and shop around if you can.

Source: Networx

This chart shows how much energy a typical appliance uses per year and its corresponding cost based on national averages. For example, a refrigerator uses almost five times the electricity the average television uses. Visit www.energysavers.gov to learn how to calculate the electrical use of your appliances.

1. Maintaining a constant temperature

Cause: A persistent myth suggests that you can save energy by leaving the house at a comfortable 68 degrees (a widely recommended winter setting), even when you are sleeping or away at work.

The idea is that it takes more energy for the furnace to reach a comfortable temperature than to maintain that temperature.

Effect: You could miss out on significant potential energy savings by not using a programmable thermostat and adjusting the temperature overnight and during the workday.

Though the impacts of adjusting the thermostat vary based on your climate and other factors, studies show that knocking the temperature down by 10 degrees for eight hours per day can cut heating bills by 5 to 15 percent.

Sure, the furnace will cycle on for a longer period to return to the more comfortable temperature, but it will be far outweighed by hours of savings when it didn’t have to work as hard.

2. Cranking up the temperature to warm up the house

Cause: You come home in the middle of the day to a cold house. You want to warm back up to 68 ASAP, so you crank the dial up to 78 to get the furnace working harder and faster.

Effect: No time is saved in reheating the house. Most furnaces pump out heat at the same rate no matter the temperature. They just cycle on for a longer period to reach a higher temperature.

The furnace will take the same amount of time to return to 68 degrees regardless of the thermostat setting. By cranking up the thermostat, you are likely to overheat the house past 68 degrees and waste energy. Just reset the thermostat to 68, make some hot chocolate, and wait.

3. Closing off vents in unused rooms

Cause: You don’t want to waste energy heating rooms you aren’t using.

Effect: Again, this just wastes energy and makes your furnace run inefficiently because it changes the air pressure in the whole system.

Experts recommend never shutting off more than 10 percent of vents. Sealing your ducts is a more efficient way to save energy.

4. Using the fireplace

Cause: You found some free firewood on Craigslist and think you can burn up some free heating energy while enjoying a romantic fire.

Effect: While we can’t make any promises about increased romance, we can predict increased energy bills. An open fireplace flue may suck more cold air into the house than the fire can radiate into the living space.

5. Using electric room heaters

Cause: You spend most of your time in a couple of rooms, so you figure you will just heat them with space heaters.

Effect: This could lead to higher energy bills and greater fire risks. Generally, a central gas heating system is cheaper and more efficient than a set of electric room heaters. Electric heaters also can be a fire hazard.

There are exceptions. A single energy-efficient space heater in a small, well-insulated room can save energy if the central heater is switched off.

6. Switching to electric heating

Cause: Electric heaters are more efficient than fuel-based systems, so they must be cheaper and better for the environment, according to this popular idea.

Effect: In most areas, simply switching to electric heat leads to higher energy bills and a bigger carbon footprint. Your heater may be more efficient, but most U.S. homes are still linked to coal-fired power plants. These coal plants and their transmission systems are extremely inefficient.

Of course, it’s a different story if you have a large photovoltaic solar array or your utility company uses renewable energy.

7. Replacing the windows

Cause: Those big pieces of glass get so darn cold. They must be the reason your house is so drafty.

Effect: You could spend a lot of money to only take care of part of the problem. Windows must be installed properly to avoid drafts, gaps, and leaks.

Moreover, more heat is typically lost through poorly insulated walls and ceilings than through windows.

8. Replacing the furnace first

Cause: You blame high energy bills on an old, inefficient furnace.

Effect: Your energy bills will still be higher than necessary if you don’t start with cheaper, smaller upgrades to improve the energy efficiency of your home, such as caulking around windows and doors and adding insulation.

9. Upgrading to the most efficient furnace on the market

Cause: You want the sleekest, most energy-efficient furnace available because it will be the most cost effective as well.

Effect: You may end up replacing an over-sized furnace with another (albeit more efficient) over-sized furnace. The U.S. Department of Energy reports that most U.S. homes have over-sized HVAC systems.

Again, insulate and weatherize to maximize efficiency, then get the smallest system that will comfortably meet your heating needs, which will be substantially reduced. Also make sure it is professionally installed.

10. Using incandescent light bulbs for heating

Cause: Incandescent bulbs give off more heat than light, so they must be warming up the house.

Effect: It is hard to see this logic as anything but a weak excuse for holding on to the Edison bulbs rather than switching to CFL and LED lighting.

In fact, one German entrepreneur is marketing incandescent bulbs as “heat balls” to skirt EU laws against the old-style bulbs. However, I doubt he is keeping cozy this winter simply by sleeping with the lights on.

Source: Yahoo Green

A product can be theoretically green for the environment, but yet completely energy inefficient when compared to other products in its category. Bamboo flooring is a perfect example. It may be renewable and not involve clear-cutting, but it has to come on freighters from across the ocean and then be trucked or train-ed all the way to you. That’s a tremendous amount of embodied energy compared to reclaimed oak flooring that comes from a barn right up the road.

Conversely, spray polyurethane foams (SPF) are shown to be super efficient insulators, but the isocyanate chemicals they use have some of the worst offgassing of global warming potential (GWP) VOCs of almost any chemical made.

So what you’re looking for is that happy middle ground. An insulation product that is acceptably friendly to the environment while still doing a verifiable job of reducing the energy required to maintain your interior temperature.

And what’s the deal with “bio-based” insulation?
The “bio” to which they are referring is soy-based oils vs. petrochemical oil. The problem is that none of them have more than single digit percentages of soy-based oils in their contents.

Compare that with the new FTC-recommended advertising guidelines, which say to claim that your product is “bio-based” it should be AT LEAST 51% of the ingredients. Unfortunately, those guidelines are voluntary, so manufacturers are still getting away with hyping bogus quantities.

Before Cleanup: Air Out the Room

• Have people and pets leave the room, and don’t let anyone walk through the breakage area on their way out.
• Open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes or more.
• Shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system, if you have one.

Cleanup Steps for Hard Surfaces

• Carefully scoop up glass pieces and powder using stiff paper or cardboard and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
• Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
• Wipe the area clean with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes. Place towels in the glass jar or plastic bag.
• Do not use a vacuum or broom to clean up the broken bulb on hard surfaces.

Cleanup Steps for Carpeting or Rug

• Carefully pick up glass fragments and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
• Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
• If vacuuming is needed after all visible materials are removed, vacuum the area where the bulb was broken.
• Remove the vacuum bag (or empty and wipe the canister), and put the bag or vacuum debris in a sealed plastic bag.

Disposal of Cleanup Materials

• Immediately place all clean-up materials outdoors in a trash container or protected area for the next normal trash pickup.
• Wash your hands after disposing of the jars or plastic bags containing clean-up materials.
• Check with your local or state government about disposal requirements in your specific area. Some states do not allow such trash disposal. Instead, they require that broken and unbroken mercury-containing bulbs be taken to a local recycling center.

Bring home real results by encouraging games and activities such as:

• Keep count of how many times your kids turn off the lights in unoccupied rooms, and reward them after they reach a certain number each week.
• Ask your children to track down all the incandescent lights in the house, and replace them with efficient bulbs together.
• Use a Kill-A-Watt electricity usage monitor with your kids to identify which appliance or electronic in the house is the biggest energy hog. If you decide it’s time to replace it, shop for a new one with an Energy Star label together.

Check out the U.S. Department of Energy’s site for other games, tips, and facts.

Consumers who heat with oil will see the biggest hike in expenditures up an average of 11.5 percent to $1,906. That’s followed by propane (up 7.5 percent to $1,830) and natural gas (up 3.6 percent to $751). Consumers who heat with electricity will actually see their bills go down 1.9 percent on average to $959.

Make sure you follow these easy steps to help winterize your home so you can stay comfortable without skyrocketing energy bills.

1. Dodge the Draft(s)
   According to the U.S. Department of Energy, drafts can waste 5% to 30% of your energy use. Start simple and adopt that old Great Depression fixture — the draft snake, which you can easily make yourself. Just place a rolled bath towel under a drafty door, or make a more attractive DIY draft snake.
2. Change Furnace Filters
   Yes it’s easy to forget, but it’s important to replace or clean furnace filters once a month during the heating season. Dirty filters restrict airflow and increase energy demand. Here’s a worry-saving tip: mark a monthly check on your calendar.
   Better, consider switching to a permanent filter, which will reduce waste and hassle. Did you know that disposable fiberglass filters trap a measly 10 to 40% of debris? Electostatic filters trap around 88%, and are much better at controlling the bacteria, mold, viruses and pollen that cause illness and irritation.
3. Run Fans in Reverse
   Most people think of fans only when they want to be cool, but many ceiling units come with a handy switch that reverses the direction of the blades. Counterclockwise rotation produces cooling breezes while switching to clockwise makes it warmer: air pooled near the ceiling is circulated back into the living space – cutting your heating costs as much as 10%!
4. Turn Down Your Water Heater
   While many conventional water heaters are set to 140 degrees F by installers, most households don’t need that much steam, and end up paying for it — in dollars and the occasional scalding burn. Lowering the temperature to 120 degrees F (or lower) would reduce your water heating costs by 6% to 10%.
5. Give Your Heating System a Tune-Up
   You probably already know that cars need periodic tune-ups in order to run their best. Well the same is true for heating equipment. Keeping your furnace clean, lubricated and properly adjusted will reduce energy use, saving up to 5% of heating costs.
   If your entire furnace is in need of replacement, it will cost a lot more — but replacing an inefficient burner for a modern machine will save you every month through the heating season. Be sure to take advantage of federal tax credits for new furnaces, which can cover 30% of the cost, up to $1,500.
6. Mind That Thermostat
   It’s easy to forget to turn down the heat when you leave the building, but doing so is one of the surest ways to save money. Most households shell out 50 to 70% of their energy budgets on heating and cooling, so why pay for what no one uses?
   For every degree you lower the thermostat during heating season, you’ll save between 1 and 3% of your heating bill. Make it easier with a programmable thermostat; they are widely available for as little as $50, and the average family will save $180 a year with one.

For even higher impact on your home’s comfort and energy bills, contact Recurve so we can provide expertise on projects such as:

• Air sealing – simple leaks can sap home energy efficiency by 5% to 30% a year, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
• Insulation – it may not seem sexy, but insulation is one of the best ways to save energy and money at home.
• Duct sealing – studies show 10% to 30% of heated (or cooled) air in an average system escapes from ducts. Properly sealing ducts can save the average home up to $140 annually, according to the American Solar Energy Society.
• Upgrade to an efficient furnace – if your furnace is old, you could save a lot of money in the long run (and improve your home’s value) by upgrading to a new unit.
]]> http://blog.recurve.com/6-easy-weekend-winterization-projects/feed 0 http://blog.recurve.com/stay-warm-save-money-this-fallwinter http://blog.recurve.com/stay-warm-save-money-this-fallwinter#comments Mon, 27 Sep 2010 20:05:30 +0000 Shana Fong http://blog.recurve.com/?p=763 Fall is the perfect time to start prepping your house for winter. The U.S. Department of Energy suggests these 5 steps to ensure that your home stays comfortable this winter without costing you an arm and a leg:
1. Look for rebates from your utility or state. Recurve has put together a handy resource for available incentives on our website.
2. Get an energy audit. In order to know how to save energy, you have to first find out where you are losing energy – and money.
3. Have your heating system serviced. Keep your system operating efficiently, and don’t forget to replace your furnace filter once a month or as needed.
4. Find and seal your air leaks. This includes less obvious gaps such as recessed lights and unfinished spaces behind cupboards and closets.
5. Check your insulation and add more as needed. Insulation is often the most cost-effective energy improvement you can make in your home.
]]> http://blog.recurve.com/stay-warm-save-money-this-fallwinter/feed 0 http://blog.recurve.com/home-sick-home http://blog.recurve.com/home-sick-home#comments Wed, 15 Sep 2010 18:20:47 +0000 Shana Fong http://blog.recurve.com/?p=745 It seems like Americans are more health-conscious than ever these days, but do you ever ask yourself how healthy your home is? The Sierra Club has put together a list of 9 home health hazards to be aware of. The high points are summarized below.

1. Radon
You can’t see it or smell it, but radon kills about 20,000 Americans each year. It’s the number two cause of all lung cancers, and the leading cause of lung cancer among non-smokers in the United States.

Retrofitting most homes to reduce radon levels isn’t complicated, but you’ll probably want to hire a state-certified radon mitigation contractor. A basic mitigation system consists of a pipe and a fan that pulls radon from below your house and vents it to the outside, typically through the roof. The cost of reducing radon in a home ranges from about $800 to $2,500, according to the EPA.

2. Volatile Organic Compounds
Volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, are one of the main sources of air pollution in our homes. VOCs are a huge class of carbon-based chemicals that share a common trait: they are volatile at room temperature, meaning they readily release gases into the air we breathe.

The list of health effects from VOC exposure is enough to scare the daylights out of anyone: nausea; cancer; memory loss; eye, nose, and throat irritation; kidney, liver, and central nervous system damage.

3. Problems with Plastics
Although VOCs are the primary indoor air pollution culprit in our homes, they’re not the only chemical that can compromise human health. Many of the “miracle” plastics developed by science and industry in the past half-century turned out to have hidden health burdens. While completely eliminating harmful plastic items from your home may be next to impossible, you can reduce your exposure.

4. Pesticides and Herbicides
Pesticides and herbicides are biocides: they’re designed to kill living organisms. Makers of these chemicals may claim the products are safe when used properly, but why take the chance? Banning pesticides from your home and garden is an especially good idea if you have young children–their developing bodies are particularly vulnerable to pollutants.

5. Mold
You’ve probably encountered the sensationalist media stories about house-eating toxic molds. The truth is, mold spores are floating everywhere, in the air inside and outside our homes. There’s no way to keep mold spores out of the air. The trick to controlling mold in your home is controlling moisture–mold thrives on moisture.

If mold is allowed to multiply unchecked in a building, it can eventually cause serious damage to the structure. It also has the potential to affect health. Not everyone is bothered by mold but for some people, exposure may trigger allergic reactions, asthma episodes, or other respiratory problems.

6. Other Biological Contaminants
Pet dander, pollen, and feces of dust mites and cockroaches can trigger allergic reactions, asthma episodes, and other respiratory problems. Good housekeeping, especially dusting and vacuuming regularly, will help keep these particles in check.

7. Energy-related Risks
Carbon monoxide and other combustion byproducts
Devices that burn fuel inside your home are potential sources of air pollution. Burning gas, heating oil, propane, wood and kerosene produces many potentially harmful fine particles and gases, including carbon monoxide (CO), formaldehyde, and nitrogen dioxide. The minute quantities emitted by a properly functioning, modern fuel-burning appliance don’t typically cause health problems. However, if an appliance malfunctions it can spew potentially harmful, or even fatal, levels of CO and other chemicals into your home.

Electromagnetic fields
Unlike fuel-burning devices, using electricity won’t create indoor air pollution (although electricity generation is a leading source of outdoor air pollution and CO2 emissions). Does that mean using electricity is healthy?

Despite the lack of evidence that low-frequency EMFs cause health problems, some people remain concerned and try to limit their exposure. Easy ways to reduce EMFs include choosing energy-efficient appliances and equipment (our site gives you lots of tips about this) and eliminating “phantom loads” by unplugging appliances and devices that draw energy even when they’re turned off–that includes anything with a transformer, a remote, a timer, or memory.

8. Banned Building Materials
Millions of homes harbor lead-based paint, asbestos, and toxic wood preservatives. All three have been banned from building products, but they continue to plague building owners and occupants.

9. Emerging Concerns
There’s lots of good news on the home health front. Lead-based paint and asbestos have been banned for three decades. Radon can be a problem in some homes, but it’s not too difficult to take care of. Mold problems can almost always be solved by drying up the source of moisture. More and more people are becoming aware of potential hazards associated with VOCs, vinyl, and pesticides and are choosing alternatives that are safer for their families.

But it’s not as if our homes will soon be completely safe. New products and technologies are being introduced all the time, outpacing the efforts of risk assessment scientists, regulators, and health advocacy organizations to keep up.

Click here for the full article on Sierra Club Green Home.

]]> http://blog.recurve.com/home-sick-home/feed 1 http://blog.recurve.com/eco-cooling-tips-for-your-home http://blog.recurve.com/eco-cooling-tips-for-your-home#comments Wed, 18 Aug 2010 17:30:36 +0000 Shana Fong http://blog.recurve.com/?p=712 Here’s a piece written by Matt Golden and Jess Chamberlain for Sunset Magazine on best practices for keeping your house cool, the environmentally friendly way.

To keep a house cool, it’s really about either:

• Keeping the sun out, or
• Keeping the air cool/conditioned

In a retrofit situation, you have to first assess what your possibilities are:

• Is there an attic we can insulate?
• Are there eaves that are blocking some of the summer sun?
• Is there an existing cooling system?

This really affects what the best approach to take is.

For an average house in a cooling climate with an attic, we’d recommend reducing the cooling load as much as possible and utilizing passive cooling:
1. Air sealing
2. Adequate attic insulation (min. R-38) to create a thermal barrier
3. Radiant barrier, if there are ducts in attic; on roof decking or in attic
4. Low-E glazing on windows
5. Whole-house fan

This route is very cost-effective from a long-term standpoint; i.e. you’re not paying to condition the air, you just pay for the equipment and installation.
The other option is to actively cool the house, in which case you’d invest in the fundamentals (such as air sealing and insulation), then install a high SEER-rated AC unit (min. 16-18 SEER rating) designed to ACCA’s manuals J, S, D & T. If air handling equipment is located in the attic we would recommend encapsulating the attic with air-impermeable spray foam and bringing the attic into the building envelope. This prevents hot attic air (150˚F+) from infiltrating the duct system.

Easy Cooling Tips:

• Keep your AC unit in the shade
• Keep the coils clean
• Install high efficiency lighting (it keeps house cooler)
• Turn plug loads off
• Stop the sun before it gets into your house – use external shading, overhangs, and deciduous trees
• Low-E coating on windows
]]> http://blog.recurve.com/eco-cooling-tips-for-your-home/feed 0 http://blog.recurve.com/tanks-a-lot http://blog.recurve.com/tanks-a-lot#comments Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:02:14 +0000 Shana Fong http://blog.recurve.com/?p=600 In the average American home, the water heater is the second or third largest energy user.

As long as you can get a hot shower in the morning, you probably don’t think too much about your water heater. But this mysterious appliance has a huge impact on the environment. Based on the California Energy Commission’s estimate of energy use in a typical household, water heating consumes about 31% of the energy used.

Energy Facts

• Between 15%-30% of the energy your water heater uses goes to keeping a tank of water hot, just in case you need it.
• Hot water heaters have adjustable thermostats. For every 10° you lower the water temperature, you can save 3%-5% of your water heating energy.
• The heat that escapes through the sides of the tank is especially important if it’s in an unheated spot like a basement or back porch. A water heater blanket can save 5%-10% of the energy you’ve been using.

Simple Ways to Save Energy

• Adjust the temperature setting on the water heater to 120°F. If you have a dishwasher that cannot heat water with a built-in booster heater, set the water heater to 140°F. Electric water heaters have two thermostats that should be set the same. Use a thermometer at the faucet to gauge water temperature. Don’t rely on the dial on the heater; they’re generally inaccurate. With electric water heaters, turn off power to the tank before adjusting the themostat.
• Put your hand on your water heater. If it feels warm, install an insulating blanket around it. The colder the area the heater is in, the greater the heat loss. So if it’s in the garage in the winter, you’re going to lose a lot of heat.
• Insulate the hot and cold water pipes leaving the tank, wherever they are accessible. Cover at least the first five feet (preferably ten) and keep the insulation three inches away from gas flues. Foam sleeves or adhesive-backed foam tape are available at hardware stores.
• When replacing an old tank, make sure the new one is the correct size for your family and is energy efficient.
• Electric water heaters should be turned off if you leave home for more than a few nights. It takes about four hours to reheat the water when you turn it back on.

Excerpted from 30 Simple Energy Things You Can Do To Save The Earth, by The EarthWorks Group.

]]> http://blog.recurve.com/tanks-a-lot/feed 0 http://blog.recurve.com/home-energy-fixes-for-under-100 http://blog.recurve.com/home-energy-fixes-for-under-100#comments Wed, 21 Jul 2010 16:43:06 +0000 Shana Fong http://blog.recurve.com/?p=139 Here are some easy and effective home energy fixes you can do around the house for $2 to $90:
• Light switch and outlet sealers: under $5
  Two of the most frequently overlooked sources of air leakage in a home are light switches and outlets. Dodge those drafts by sealing up any switches and outlets where you can feel a draft on your hand.
• Hot water heater pipe insulation: $2 per foot
  Use this cost-efficient fix as a quick way to reduce wasted energy on water heating. Insulating just the first 6 feet of pipe from your water heater will cost $12 and will save you over $5 a year on water heating while reducing CO2 emissions by more than 55 pounds. We typically recommend insulating the first 10 feet of pipe.
• Monitor your meter: $20
  Purchase a Kill A Watt electricity monitor and plug in your appliances and electronics to find out which ones are the biggest energy culprits. Use this to inform your future upgrade decisions or see how much energy you can save with easy adjustments like turning down your refrigerator’s temperature.
• Smart powerstrips: $20-90
  Cut back on phantom power by plugging electronics into smart powerstrips, such as the one by Wattstopper which turns devices on and off based on occupancy and uses a motion detector to manage energy use. Our recommended smart strip is Belkin’s Conserve.
• Faucet aerator: $2
  These handy products are one of the least expensive ways to increase your water efficiency by mixing air into the water stream. When installed, each aerator will save 500-2,000 gallons of water a year.
• Chimney balloon damper: $35-50
  The fireplace is a common area for heat loss in your home, as most dampers don’t work well and many older homes don’t have them. Inflatable balloon dampers fit in most chimneys to keep heated air in, and you can remove them whenever you want.
]]> http://blog.recurve.com/home-energy-fixes-for-under-100/feed 0 http://blog.recurve.com/the-great-escape http://blog.recurve.com/the-great-escape#comments Mon, 19 Jul 2010 19:41:41 +0000 Shana Fong http://blog.recurve.com/?p=605 The gaps you can find around the windows and doors of the average American house add up to the equivalent of a hole in the wall that measures 10 inches by 10 inches.

Your house has more leaks than the CIA. There are cracks all over the place. Your doors and windows don’t quite meet their frames; there are tiny spaces where the walls almost join the floor; there are open areas around your electrical and plumbing outlets. And these little gaps eat energy. In fact, an amazing amount of heat in the winter – or cool air in the summer – escapes through them. But you have two simple weapons to fight with: caulking and weatherstripping.

Energy Facts

• Caulking and weatherstripping an electrically heated home can keep some 1,000 pounds of CO2 out of the air. So if 1,000 of these homes were weatherized, over a million pounds of CO2 would be saved.
• Believe it or not, stopping air infiltration can reduce your home’s heating and cooling bills by up to 40%.
• People are concerned that although weatherstripping may save energy, it will keep fresh air out of their homes. While it’s true that some ventilation is necessary, it’s really not much of a problem – a typical house may get twice as much fresh air as it needs. In other words, the air is probably flying out of your house as quickly as you’re heating or cooling it.

Caulking vs. Weatherstripping

• Cracks without any moving parts – like the places where a wall in your house meets the outside edge of a window frame, or two other dissimilar materials come together – can be sealed with caulk.
• The places where doors and windows close into their frames can be sealed with weatherstripping – cleverly designed strips of felt, rubber, metal, or plastic that fill the spaces around doors and windows, and compress when you shut them.
• Weatherstripping materials come in many styles. Some are self-sticking, so you don’t even need a hammer to install them. Others must be nailed on. Still others are crafted so pieces on the frame and the door lock together when the door closes.
• One of the trickiest places to weatherstrip is where the door meets the threshold. Special “shoes” and “sweeps” are available to stop these air leaks.
• Besides saving energy, weatherstripping and caulking have an additional benefit: By stopping drafts, they’ll make your home more comfortable.

Leak Patrol

• Some evening, when your house is at least 20°F warmer than the outdoors, hold your hand up to various places around windows and door frames. If you feel any drafts, the windows and door frames need weatherstripping.
• You can also use a smoking incense stick to look for drafts. Hold the stick near places you think might have cracks; if the smoke dances or gets sucked in, you’ve found a place to seal.
• Many of the biggest air sealing opportunities are up in the attic and below your floors. For these harder-to-reach leaks, it’s a good idea to call in a trained professional such as Recurve to quickly identify and remedy your home’s major leakage areas.

Excerpted from 30 Simple Energy Things You Can Do To Save The Earth, by The EarthWorks Group.

]]> http://blog.recurve.com/the-great-escape/feed 0 http://blog.recurve.com/dialing-for-dollars http://blog.recurve.com/dialing-for-dollars#comments Fri, 16 Jul 2010 19:21:01 +0000 Shana Fong http://blog.recurve.com/?p=585 Is your thermostat accurate? If not, chances are that the temperature sensor is being affected by cold air coming through the opening where the thermostat is mounted.

Keeping control of your thermostat is one of the simplest ways you can save a great deal of energy – and money – all year round.

Energy Facts

• During the winter, you can save as much as 2%-3% of the energy your furnace uses simply by lowering your thermostat 1°F (if it’s set between 65°F and 72°F).
• In the summer, the process is reversed. You save 3%-5% of the energy used by your air conditioner for every degree you raise the thermostat setting (if it’s set between 70°F and 82°F).
• Do you chronically forget to turn down the heat? There are low-priced, easy-to-install thermostats that adjust the temperature automatically. The simplest have built-in clocks; the more advanced models are computerized. An advanced model will, for example, turn your furnace on 30 minutes before you wake up, turn it off when you leave for work, turn it on just before you return home, and then set it for 55°F when you go to bed. Some also have a “minimum energy use” setting that monitors temperatures when you go on vacation.

Simple Ways to Save Energy

• Keep the thermostat under control. Recommended winter settings for heaters: 68°F in the daytime, 55°F at night. In the summer, turn the air conditioner’s thermostat to 78°F.
• Check the temperature. Using an accurate thermometer, make sure that the temperature near your thermostat is representative of the rest of the house. If it’s located in a drafty or sunny spot, you may be getting false readings and wasting energy.
• Plug the hole in the wall behind the thermostat with a piece of fiberglass insulation.

Excerpted from 30 Simple Energy Things You Can Do To Save The Earth, by The EarthWorks Group.

]]> http://blog.recurve.com/dialing-for-dollars/feed 0 http://blog.recurve.com/duct-soup http://blog.recurve.com/duct-soup#comments Wed, 07 Jul 2010 17:49:16 +0000 Shana Fong http://blog.recurve.com/?p=530 Leaking ducts can reduce the efficiency of your heating system by up to 20%. Ducts are a critical part of making your home energy efficient. If they’re leaking air – which they almost always do – or if they’re losing heat because they’re uninsulated, they’re contributing as much to global warming as they are to keeping you warm.

Energy Facts

• You can save up to 10% of your heating or cooling costs by insulating and tightening up ducts.
• Even if the air isn’t actually escaping from an uninsulated duct, you lose a lot of heat through its thin metal walls.
• When the first air that comes out of the vent after you turn on the heater is chilly, and stays chilly for a long time, you know your ducts are uninsulated and you’re wasting energy.

Simple Ways to Save Energy
If your ducts aren’t insulated: Turn on your furnace and feel for air escaping around the duct joints. If you feel any (and you probably will), hire a certified contractor such as Recurve to seal them with mastic.
If your ducts are already insulated: It’s harder to find out if your ducts leak. You can expose the joints (where the ducts bend, for instance) to check – but it’s best to leave it to an expert.

• Before you start examining your ducts, check to make sure the insulation isn’t asbestos (looks off-white, stiff, heavy cloth). If it is, stay away! It’s in your best interest to get it properly removed ASAP.

Excerpted from 30 Simple Energy Things You Can Do To Save The Earth, by The EarthWorks Group.

]]> http://blog.recurve.com/duct-soup/feed 0 http://blog.recurve.com/making-a-splash http://blog.recurve.com/making-a-splash#comments Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:00:54 +0000 Shana Fong http://blog.recurve.com/?p=446 Eight percent of American homes now have pools, which waste more energy than all the nation’s ENERGY STAR homes are saving!

Swimming pools are typically the first- or second-largest single energy user in homes that have them. California’s 1.35 million residential pools use the entire electrical output of a medium-sized power plant.

Energy Facts

• Evaporation is the biggest source of heat loss from hot tubs and pools. When only 5 gallons of water evaporate from a hot tub, the remaining 500 gallons chill by 1°F., then must be re-heated.
• American swimming pools contain enough water to cover the city of San Francisco with a layer of water about seven feet deep. About 30% of that water is heated, requiring as much natural gas as a city of 6 million normally uses.
• For every hour it’s in use, an average pool heater consumes three times as much energy as a home furnace.
• Pool blankets (insulating sheets that float on the water surface) reduce the energy consumption of pool heaters by 40%-70%.
• Pool pumps use about the same amount of energy in an hour as window unit air conditioners.

Simple Ways to Save Energy

• Cover your spa or hot tub. Use a well-insulated cover with an R-value rating of 12 and foam insulation that is at least 2 inches thick. It’ll prevent heat loss and evaporation.
• Cover your pool with a floating pool blanket whenever you’re not swimming.
• Install a highly efficient two-speed or variable speed pool pump and use the low speed as much as possible. This can cut your pool-pumping energy consumption, and the related costs, in half.
• Resist buying a pool pump bigger than you need; it will cost more to buy and operate than a properly sized one.
• Put a timer on your pool pump – most run longer than needed to keep pools clean.

Excerpted from 30 Simple Energy Things You Can Do To Save The Earth, by The EarthWorks Group.

]]> http://blog.recurve.com/making-a-splash/feed 0 http://blog.recurve.com/got-a-light http://blog.recurve.com/got-a-light#comments Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:00:52 +0000 Shana Fong http://blog.recurve.com/?p=442 Lighting accounts for 10% of all electricity consumed in the United States. Over half of that electricity is used in business and manufacturing.

Flicking a light switch is a simple motion. You do it dozens of times a day without thinking. It’s time to give it some thought. According to the World Resources Institute, the production of energy for lighting accounts for 10% of all the emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas. From 5% to 10% of your residential energy bill goes to paying for lighting. So it’s important to conserve energy by lighting right.

Energy Facts

• Are “long-life” incandescent bulbs better for the environment? No. They’re actually less efficient than the regular ones, and can easily cost more in extra energy than they save on replacement bulbs.
• It’s a trick: “Energy-saving” incandescent bulbs usually save energy simply because they put out less light than their regular counterparts. Check out the “lumens” rating on the package for the amount of light emitted.
• Believe it or not: Dust on a light bulb or dirt on a glass fixture can reduce the light it gives off and make it seem that you need a brighter, higher-wattage light.
• Even the paint color you choose can affect your energy use. The more light the walls reflect, the greater the chance that the light can be “recycled” by striking the wall, bouncing off, and still illuminating the room. A lighter wall can lead to a 25% energy reduction.
• Opening curtains during the day will save lighting energy. Direct sunlight is 100 times brighter than the light from a strong reading lamp.
• It used to be a good idea to leave fluorescent lights on if you were just going to be out of the room for a few minutes. But new fluorescents last longer even when switched on and off frequently.

Simple Ways to Save Energy

• When you leave a room, turn off the lights. People commonly think it takes more energy to turn a light back on than it does to leave it on. But that’s not true.
• Use only as much wattage as you need. Why waste energy with extra light? If you think you can get away with a lower-wattage bulb, try it out and see if it still seems bright enough.
• Dust the bulbs and get the dead moths out of the fixture before you try a higher-watt bulb.
• Use fewer bulbs in multi-bulb fixtures. Most people don’t realize that one strong bulb is more efficient than several weaker ones. For example: A single 100-watt bulb uses the same amount of energy as four 25-watt bulbs, but gives off about twice as much light. And it uses less energy than two 60-watt bulbs, but yields approximately the same light. Note: for safety’s sake, put a burned-out bulb in any empty sockets.

Save Energy with Light Switches

• If any lights in your house are frequently left on when they shouldn’t be – in the garage or basement, for instance – you can install a timer to shut them off automatically. The timer plugs into the wall and the lamp plugs into the timer – simple!
• Light timers are available at most hardware stores. If you’re a competent do-it-yourselfer, you can install them easily.
• You can install dimmer switches wherever you need bright light only occasionally. If it’s an energy-saving dimmer switch (check it out when you buy it), you’ll have the option of using less energy on lighting at other times.

Excerpted from 30 Simple Energy Things You Can Do To Save The Earth, by The EarthWorks Group.

]]> http://blog.recurve.com/got-a-light/feed 0 http://blog.recurve.com/facts-behind-the-fanfare http://blog.recurve.com/facts-behind-the-fanfare#comments Tue, 15 Jun 2010 17:02:21 +0000 Shana Fong http://blog.recurve.com/?p=438 Americans purchase about 16 million fans each year. In the heat of summer, fans can be a good alternative to energy-sucking air conditioners.

Energy Facts

• Ceiling fans consume as little energy as a 60-watt bulb – which is about 98% less energy than most central air conditioners use.
• Ceiling fans are often used instead of air conditioning. But it’s not necessarily one or the other. Fans produce air currents that carry heat away from the skin, so even air conditioned rooms feel cooler when one is running.
• Many ceiling fans save energy in winter as well as summer. The secret: Their motors run in “reverse.” This pushes warm air caught near the ceiling down to where you can feel it. Set the fan on low speed so it pushes room air up against the ceiling, forcing warm air slowly down the walls to the floor.
• How much difference can that make? Some rooms in your house can be 15° warmer at the ceiling than at the floor. A well-placed ceiling fan can reduce this difference to only 3°.
• Remember: fans only save energy or make you feel cooler if you are in the room, so remember to turn them off when you aren’t using them.

Simple Ways to Save Energy

• If you’re shopping for a ceiling fan: Purchase an ENERGY STAR-rated unit. You’ll find them at home improvement centers. Look for a fan that’s reversible and has more than one speed. Check to make sure the blades are angled at least 10°.
• If you’re thinking about where to install one:Rooms with the highest ceilings are the best candidates. But make sure the blades are between seven and nine feet above the floor.
• Match the fan to the room. For rooms 12 feet by 12 feet or less, you can use a 36 or 42-inch fan. For rooms up to 12 feet by 18 feet, use a 48 or 52-inch fan. For bigger rooms, you may need more fans.

Excerpted from 30 Simple Energy Things You Can Do To Save The Earth, by The EarthWorks Group.

]]> http://blog.recurve.com/facts-behind-the-fanfare/feed 0 http://blog.recurve.com/the-lawn-rangers http://blog.recurve.com/the-lawn-rangers#comments Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:14:20 +0000 Shana Fong http://blog.recurve.com/?p=433 An acre of lawn needs 1.3 million gallons of water a year to stay green and healthy. Here are some tips on how be water-wise without sacrificing your grass.

Energy Facts:

• During the summer, the majority of household water is used for keeping yards green.
• Even in places where water doesn’t have to be moved long distances from source to tap, a significant amount of energy is required to treat and process it before it enters the water main.s

Simple Ways to Save Energy:

• Use a push mower instead of a power motor to save energy and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 80 pounds a year.
• Set your mower blades so they cut grass about 2-3 inches tall. Mowing it shorter dries out the soil faster and increases water use.
• Let grass clippings turn into mulch. During dry periods, cut the grass high and leave the clippings on the lawn to keep it from drying out – thus reducing the amount of water your lawn needs.
• Most lawns need about 1 inch of water a week once they’re established. Apply it slowly so the water doesn’t run off.
• Here’s how to tell how long it takes to apply an inch of water: Set two or three cans out on the lawn and turn on the sprinkler. Check every few minutes to see how long it takes to land an inch in each can. Average the times for the cans, and that’s the length of time to water.

Watering Smart

• Water early in the morning or very late afternoon to cut down on how much water evaporates before it reaches the roots.
• Try drip irrigation for shrubs and garden plants. It’s a way of putting the water in small, steady amounts right to the soil around the plant you’re watering.
• When you re-landscape, group together the plants that need similar amounts of water. That way, you can avoid overwatering one just to irrigate another.

Going Native

• Consider plants for your yard that are already adjusted to local conditions and don’t require extra water or attention. These are usually plants that are native to your area.
• Think about shrubs, succulents, and trees as a substitute for some of your lawn. Nothing requires more water than a lawn.
• When you’re ready to reseed or resod your lawn, look for grasses that require less water to thrive.
• Check your local government website for information about water conserving plants. These plants are also called “drought tolerant,” and the practice of landscaping to conserve water is called “xeriscaping.”

Excerpted from 30 Simple Energy Things You Can Do To Save The Earth, by The EarthWorks Group.

]]> http://blog.recurve.com/the-lawn-rangers/feed 0 http://blog.recurve.com/cool-tricks-for-summer http://blog.recurve.com/cool-tricks-for-summer#comments Mon, 07 Jun 2010 19:35:39 +0000 Shana Fong http://blog.recurve.com/?p=429 June is upon us, and for many that means starting to use our air conditioning units regularly. On an average summer day, Americans provide enough cold air to produce 16 trillion ice cubes. Check out these cool tricks to stop the cost of keeping cool from making you sweat.

Energy Facts:

• To cool your house efficiently, your air conditioner has to be cool itself. Try to keep it in the shade. An air conditioner exposed to direct sunlight will use up to 5% more energy than a shaded one.
• Air conditioners located on the north side of houses generally use less energy than those on the south or west sides, where it’s sunnier.
• If your air conditioner’s already in the sun, you can build a simple wooden shade screen for it. (But don’t block the air flow.)

Simple Ways to Save Energy:

• If you’ve got central air conditioning: Don’t close your vents. Closing too many of them actually reduces operating efficiency. Instead, reduce the air flow to unused rooms by partially closing the registers. Whenever possible, leave the room door partly open to keep the system operating efficiently.
• Turn the air conditioner off when you leave the house for several hours or more.
• A thermostat’s not a throttle, so don’t switch your air conditioner to a colder setting when you turn it on. It won’t cool the room any faster, but it will waste energy when you forget to turn it back up.
• Put a timer on your room air conditioner, or use a programmable thermostat on your central air conditioner. You don’t need to leave your air conditioner on all day to have a cool house when you get home. Hardware stores sell timers that will automatically start your air conditioner shortly before you get home. You may never notice the difference… until you see the savings on your electric bill.
• Keep the heat out. Minimize the amount of heat entering your home from outside by closing shades and curtains on hot days – sunlight coming through windows can account for 20% of your air conditioning bill. And don’t leave windows and doors open while your air conditioner is running.
• Set the thermostat as high as possible.

Caring for Coils:
You can save energy by taking care of air conditioner coils, just like your refrigerator coils. They won’t work efficiently unless the fins that cover the coils are clean and straight. So check them out every spring.

• If the fins are bent, you can carefully straighten them out with a plastic spatula. Or call a service person to repair them.
• If they’re dusty, dirty, or clogged with old leaves, you can vacuum them with your household vacuum cleaner. If the attachment on the vacuum won’t fit between the coils, blow the dirt away instead.

Don’t Forget the Filter
Air conditioners are equipped with filters to protect their fan blades, motors, and other internal parts. Replace or clean dirty filters. Dirty air filters are the #1 cause of air conditioning service calls. But filters are easy to replace and you can do it yourself. Put in a new one every month during the summer. Be sure all hardware is replaced and securely re-attached.

You may want to consider a permanent filter that you can wash instead of replacing. Some permanent filters restrict air flow too much for some units, so check first with a Recurve representative or another qualified technician.

Excerpted from 30 Simple Energy Things You Can Do To Save The Earth, by The EarthWorks Group.

]]> http://blog.recurve.com/cool-tricks-for-summer/feed 0 http://blog.recurve.com/lose-142-pounds-of-carbon-a-week http://blog.recurve.com/lose-142-pounds-of-carbon-a-week#comments Fri, 21 May 2010 16:00:25 +0000 Shana Fong http://blog.recurve.com/?p=416 A while back, National Geographic put out a great guide with 10 steps to cutting the excess carbon out of your life.

Weight control and health tend to go hand in hand—and what’s true for our waistlines also holds true when it comes to the weight of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) and the health of the planet. Excess pounds of carbon dioxide are raising the earth’s temperature and putting coastlines, not waistlines, at risk. Yet for a lot of people, the idea of going on a carbon diet to reduce pounds, much less tons, of the stuff seems airy when there’s nothing to hold onto.

Think of pounds of CO2 as inflated balloons: One pound of CO2 would fill a balloon about two and a half feet wide, and the amount of energy each of us uses every day, just to power our homes and drive our cars, would fill 47 of them. Imagine that for each member of your family 47 of those balloons are added to your home each day. In a week, a family of four would pack in 1,316 balloons, in a month 5,703, and in a year 68,432—enough to fill a building nine stories tall and 100 feet on each side. You wouldn’t be able to find your house in it. It’s no wonder we’re smothering our planet in greenhouse gases. The more balloons of CO2 in the air, the more heat they trap in our atmosphere. So here’s a 10-step carbon diet—a program to keep the greenhouse gas out of 142 balloons every week.

1. Wash your clothes in cold water instead of hot.
• • • • • • • • •
Burst balloons: 9 per week
Start with something easy. Washing machines produce over 500 pounds of CO2 a year when run on hot water. But your clothes will be just as clean and may even last longer when laundered in cold water.

2. Use a drying rack.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Burst balloons: 14 per week
Dryers produce about 1,450 pounds of CO2 per year and the high heat damages fabric. So get more life out of your garments, lower your electric bill and spare the planet by drying at least half of your clothes on a rack or line. Plus, sunlight is the most effective stain-remover around.

3. Seal and weatherstrip your home.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Burst balloons: 17 per week
This summer, sealing your home will ensure you don’t lose the cool air you’re paying for. Caulking and weatherstripping doors, windows and any cracks or openings in walls will save about 225 pounds of CO2 per season to run your AC. It pays off even more in the winter when you need to trap the heat; every year, you save 640 pounds of CO2 if you have natural gas heat and 470 pounds if you have electric heat.

4. Insulate.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Burst balloons: 41 per week (natural gas heating), 30 per week (electric heat)
Insulating your home is a bit more demanding and best handled professionally. There are a number of insulating options better than fiberglass, which presents a breathing hazard from airborne glass particles and formaldehyde released during installation. Some green-building specialists claim that spray foam insulation is the most efficient and cost-effective variety, even though it’s usually composed of petroleum-based polyurethane. If you choose spray foam, consider a blend that includes soybean oil, such as BioBase501, to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels. Another alternative, recycled denim insulation, uses a more eco-friendly material but isn’t as efficient an insulator as polyurethane foam.

5. Wrap your water heater and turn down the temperature.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Burst balloons: 16 per week
Insulating your water heater with a simple DIY kit, available at most hardware stores for $20, will save you 300 pounds of CO2 annually. As water heaters can account for up to 13 percent of your utility bill, set the temperature to 120° F. Turning it down from 140° F will save 479 pounds of CO2 annually. If you’re really up for a renovation and it makes sense for your household needs, switch from a conventional water heater to an on-demand heater.

6. Run the dishwasher only when full.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Burst balloons: 17 per week
Wait until you fill your dishwasher before turning it on and always set it to the energy saver mode.

7. Turn off your TV, DVD player, computer and cable box.
• • • • •
Burst balloons: 5 per week
Even while idling in “standby” mode, your home entertainment center and computer consume energy. Plug them into a power strip and turn it off after you shut down your electronics.

8. Clean your refrigerator.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Burst balloons: 15 per week
Take a look at the top of your fridge—cluttered much? Clear it off. Those piled-up plastic containers and cereal boxes can prevent your fridge from venting heat effectively. Then go for the more demanding project: Remove the grill at the base of the fridge (or turn the fridge around) to clean the coils.

9. Compost Your Food Scraps.
• • • • •
Burst balloons: 5 per week
Food waste stored in airless landfills is eaten by bacteria that release massive amounts of methane, a gas 21 times more heat-trapping than CO2. Composting ten pounds of food a week will keep five balloons out of the air.

10. Take the bus or ride your bike.
• • •
Burst balloons: 3 per week (bus), 12 per week (bike)
The average 12-mile commute to work produces roughly 12 pounds of CO2 (depending on your mileage, you produce one pound of CO2 for every mile driven). Even diesel buses are greener than cars when you factor in the number of passengers on board. Give the bus a shot once a week for a year. Or give your legs and heart a workout by commuting on a bike and save even more.

To sum it all up, after a year of these efforts, you’ll have kept over 7,000 balloons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. That’s about 3.5 tons of CO2 off the average carbon footprint.

]]> http://blog.recurve.com/lose-142-pounds-of-carbon-a-week/feed 1 http://blog.recurve.com/bathroom-water-conservation-tips http://blog.recurve.com/bathroom-water-conservation-tips#comments Thu, 20 May 2010 20:19:16 +0000 Shana Fong http://blog.recurve.com/?p=407 It’s never been more important to be wise about water, as it’s quickly becoming a scarce resource. Bathrooms account for over 60% of the average household’s indoor water use and over 1,300 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions from hot water heating. According to the EPA, if every U.S. household installed one low-flow sink faucet or aerator, it would save more than 60 billion gallons of water annually. Here are some easy tips on water conservation:

Install Faucet Aerators on Bathroom Sinks
When installed, each aerator will save 500-2,000 gallons of water a year.

Toilet Leak Detection
Use toilet dye strips to detect leaks that may be wasting over 200 gallons of water a day.

Toilet Water Flow
If you have an older toilet (built before 1980), you could be wasting up to 5 gallons of water every time you flush, compared to modern low-flow toilets. To check the date of your toilet, lift up the lid on the tank. The date is normally stamped on the underside of the lid.

You can reduce water usage on older toilets by adding a filled 1-liter bottle in the toilet tank. This will reduce typical water consumption by 500 gallons per toilet per year.

Brushing Teeth
Turn off the faucet while brushing your teeth to save more than 1,200 gallons of water a year.

Shaving
Turn off the water while shaving. Fill the bottom of the sink with a few inches of water to rinse your razor, rather than running the tap and save about 1,000 gallons of water a year.

Shower Time
If you reduce your average shower time from 10 minutes to 5, you can save more than 4,200 gallons of water each year and cut your utility bills. You would also eliminate an extra 300 pounds of CO2 emissions just from the energy used to heat the water.

Low-Flow Showerhead
Standard showerheads made before 1994 use about twice the water used by newer, energy-efficient models. Maintaining ample water pressure, the most efficient showerheads use as little as 1.5 gallons of water per minute, saving 7,300 gallons of water and $30 to $100 a year, compared to 2.5 gpm models.

To check whether you can save money with a low-flow showerhead, check your current showerhead’s flow rate which may be written directly on it. Another way to check the flow is to hold an empty half-gallon milk carton under your showerhead, turn on the water and use a clock to time how long it takes to fill the carton. If it takes less than ten seconds to fill it, you should consider changing the showerhead to a more efficient model. Look for models with the EPA’s WaterSense label.

]]> http://blog.recurve.com/bathroom-water-conservation-tips/feed 0 http://blog.recurve.com/put-a-stop-to-your-junk-mail http://blog.recurve.com/put-a-stop-to-your-junk-mail#comments Wed, 19 May 2010 15:42:44 +0000 Shana Fong http://blog.recurve.com/?p=401 Around 100 million trees and 28 billion gallons of water are used to send junk mail to Americans every year, according to greendimes.com. You can stop 75% of unsolicited mail by registering on the Mail Preference Service on the Direct Marketing Association Website (for a fee of $1). Within 90 days, most unsolicited mail will stop.

Source: The Daily Green

]]> http://blog.recurve.com/put-a-stop-to-your-junk-mail/feed 0 http://blog.recurve.com/give-your-fridge-an-efficiency-boost http://blog.recurve.com/give-your-fridge-an-efficiency-boost#comments Tue, 18 May 2010 19:59:18 +0000 Shana Fong http://blog.recurve.com/?p=391 Do you need an new fridge?
Refrigerators built before 1993 use twice the energy as any of today’s Energy Star refrigerators. The back-up fridge in your basement or garage may be the largest electricity user in your home and your biggest savings opportunity.

If your refrigerator is more than 10 years old, it may be so inefficient that a new Energy Star refrigerator could pay for itself in energy savings in just a few years. When shopping around, keep in mind that side-by-side refrigerator-freezer models use about 7 to 13 percent more electricity than freezer-on-top or on-bottom models.

Refrigerator Efficiency Tips:

• Refrigerator Positioning – To maximize the efficiency of your refrigerator, position the unit away from heat sources such as ovens, dishwashers, and windows with direct sunlight. Allow at least two inches of clearance around the unit for good air circulation.
• Door Seals – The rubber door seals on your refrigerator and freezer seal the cold air inside. If they are worn out, the compressor has to work harder to maintain the proper temperature. You can check whether your refrigerator door seals are in good working order by placing a bright flashlight inside the refrigerator. Direct the flashlight toward a section of the door seal, close the door and darken the room. If you see an light shining through the cracks, you may need to have the seals replaced. Be sure to reposition the flashlight to check the entire length of the seal.
• Clean the Coils – A refrigerator coil brush should be used to clean the coils every 6 months so they don’t have to work as hard to dissipate heat from the fridge. Don’t forget to unplug the refrigerator before cleaning.

Fast Facts from Energy Star:

• A pre-1993 fridge costs $110 per year in electricity.
• U.S. households have 44.5 million fridges over 10 years old, 12.7 million of which are secondary units, often in basements and garages. And some homes have three fridges!
• 16.9 million household freezers are over 10 years old – that’s 44 percent of all freezers.
• Combined, the inefficient appliances above use $4.9 billion per year in energy costs.
• New ENERGY STAR qualified refrigerators must be at least 20 percent more energy efficient than the minimum federal standard. New ENERGY STAR qualified freezers must be at least 10 percent more efficient than the minimum federal standard.
• Every step we take to become more energy efficient and lessen our impact on global climate change is a step to preserve energy resources and our environment for generations to come. Just think: if every American home replaced its old refrigerators and freezers with ENERGY STAR qualified models, together, we would save…

* Enough energy to light more than 8.3 million homes for an entire year.
* Nearly $1.8 billion in annual energy costs.
* Annual greenhouse gases emissions equivalent to that of nearly 2.1 million cars, or nearly 1% of all registered automobiles in the United States. That is more than the number of registered autos in the entire state of Connecticut. Lined up bumper to bumper, those cars would stretch from New York to Los Angeles and back.

]]> http://blog.recurve.com/give-your-fridge-an-efficiency-boost/feed 0 http://blog.recurve.com/green-basics-dispelling-the-myths http://blog.recurve.com/green-basics-dispelling-the-myths#comments Fri, 30 Apr 2010 23:30:06 +0000 Shana Fong http://blog.recurve.com/?p=377 Treehugger has a fantastic section called “Green Basics” in which they cover the hottest topics in going green. They break topics down into digestible chunks and help you cut through the greenwashing to decide between paper or plastic and whether biodiesel really is all that.

The article on offshore drilling is particularly relevant these days with Obama announcing plans to expand offshore drilling – and then a month later, the most disastrous oil spill possibly ever occurring in the Gulf of Mexico.

Offshore Drilling: Worth the Oil, or False Hope?
With fuel prices and consumption dominating the news—not to mention our country’s future energy policy—we offer a quick primer on the complex subject of offshore drilling. How much oil do we currently produce from offshore drilling, and how much might we potentially recover? What’s the status of the moratorium banning offshore drilling in various areas? What are the environmental risks? And perhaps most importantly, what is the psychological impact of thinking that offshore oil holds promise as a source of abundant, less-expensive oil when nothing could be farther from the truth?

Offshore Drilling: Background Info
The term offshore drilling refers to the extracting of oil from fields that lie beneath the ocean floor, anywhere from a few hundred feet to 200 miles off the coast. The first offshore well was drilled in 1887 from a wooden wharf off Summerland, California; technology improvements have made it possible to drill in deeper water and farther from shore ever since. Today, some 4,000 platforms operate in the U.S. federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico, primarily off the coastlines of Louisiana and Texas, and off the coast of Alaska, producing approximately 565 million barrels of oil per year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s overview of offshore activity. U.S. offshore oil production of 565 million barrels per year equates to roughly 1.5 million barrels per day; contrast that figure with U.S. current oil consumption of 21 million barrels per day.

Offshore Drilling: What’s the Fuss
The debate about offshore drilling stems from questions over how much oil potentially could be recovered from underwater fields versus the time and cost, both in dollars and environmental impact, related to that process. Common misperceptions notwithstanding, the debate does NOT stem from notions that offshore drilling could eliminate U.S. need for foreign oil (at current consumption, the U.S. uses 8 billion barrels of oil per year; conventionally recoverable oil from offshore drilling is thought to be 18 billion barrels total ever—not per year). The debate does NOT stem from notions that offshore drilling would guarantee lower fuel prices (oil is a global commodity, and U.S. production is not big enough to influence global prices).

Offshore Drilling: Environmental Risks
Environmental risks associated with offshore drilling include discharges or spills of toxic materials, interference with marine life, damage to coastal habitats, and effects on the economic base of coastal communities. Recent research suggests that transporting the oil poses greater threats than the drilling process itself. In Louisiana, the 10,000 miles of canals dug to transport oil and lay pipelines contribute to coastal erosion because the canals crisscross the state’s coastal wetlands. While technology improvements have lessened the occurrence of oil spills in the last 40 years, the Minerals Management Service, a bureau in the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages the nation’s natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on the outer continental shelf, projects about one oil spill per year of at least 1,000 barrels in the Gulf of Mexico over the next 40 years. Every three to four years, it says, a spill of at least 10,000 barrels can be expected. Those spills could potentially hit the beaches of western Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas.

Offshore Drilling: The Moratorium
Rights to U.S. offshore areas are shared between the states and the federal government according to various acts passed over the years. Specifically, the states have jurisdiction over any natural resources within 3.45 miles of their coastline (except Texas and the west coast of Florida where the jurisdiction extends to 10.35 miles), and the U.S. has rights up to 200 miles off the coastline. Offshore drilling has been banned in various areas thought to be particularly environmentally sensitive over the years. An offshore oil moratorium that had been in effect since 1981 expired October 1, 2008. With the lifting of the ban, areas in the Gulf of Mexico can be opened up for drilling by the federal government. Additionally, areas off the coasts of California, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia can be opened up if those states approve. According to an Nov. 12, 2008, MMS press release, the agency has already begun the process for approving leases off the coast of Virginia. However, offshore drilling in new areas won’t deliver a drop of oil for ten years, according to numbers cited by the Bush administration two years ago. In fact, the U.S. Energy Information Administration recently did a detailed study of the likely outcome of offshore drilling for their Annual Energy Outlook 2007, and concluded that increased access would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil production or prices before 2030.

Offshore Drilling: False Hope
It’s too soon to tell what the real impact of the moratorium being lifted will be. But the psychological impact of knowing there is more oil available to be drilled may be a negative for Americans’ energy-mindedness. “Thinking that there is more oil to be drilled offshore gives people a false sense of hope that there’s actually enough oil out there to make us energy independent,” says Jonathan Dorn, staff researcher at the Earth Policy Institute. “Nothing could be farther from the truth. The DOE data shows that there’s an insignificant amount of proven oil reserves, plus it will take five or 10 years to drill the oil given the existing backlog in the offshore fleet and other factors.” A similar view is shared by Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope: “All the debate about drilling this year accomplished nothing other than serving as a distraction from real energy solutions. Every time Congress tries to implement real clean energy solutions, the oil industry and its allies demand a ransom. Once the politically-charged election season is over we will be able to revisit this issue as part of a comprehensive energy bill that moves us away from dependence on oil and invests in clean energy solutions.”

Offshore Drilling: Facts and Figures

• Offshore drilling currently accounts for 30 percent of total U.S. oil production.
• The United States currently produces approximately 1.5 millions barrels of oil per day from offshore drilling, and consumes nearly 21 million barrels of oil per day.
• The United States currently consumes nearly 8 billion barrels of oil per year.
• The Minerals Management Service estimated there were 76 billion barrels of “remaining undiscovered technically recoverable” oil in U.S. offshore regions, but this estimate represents the “potential hydrocarbons of an area that can be produced using current technology, without any consideration to economic feasibility.” Of this 76 billion barrels, 18 billion are considered “conventionally recoverable.” Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration Overview report.
• One barrel equals 42 gallons of crude oil.
• Of the crude oil consumed in the U.S., 66 percent is imported.
• U.S. oil production currently occurs onshore in the lower 48 states (2.9 million barrels per day), offshore (1.4 million barrels per day primarily in the Gulf of Mexico, plus 0.7 million barrels per day off Alaska).
• Lifting the moratoria on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) would reduce the price of a gallon of gasoline by at most a few cents—and this would not be seen for at least another decade.
• Oil is traded as a global commodity and its price is set on the world market. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) could simply reduce exports to negate even the nominal potential price reduction.

Here are a couple more of our favorite articles:

VOCs: Volatile Organic Compounds, Indoor Air Quality and Respiratory Health
You can’t see them, but they’re all around us. They aren’t listed as ingredients on the objects we bring in our home, but they’re often there. They’re volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, a wide range of carbon-based molecules (organic compounds) used in a wide range of products that find their way into our homes. Under normal conditions, they vaporize, effectively leaving their host and entering the air, where they combine with other airborne compounds to form ozone, which isn’t good to breathe.

Eating Local Food: The Movement, Locavores and More
The local food movement, eating local, being on the “100 mile diet” or being a locavore are all synonymous with local food, an idea that has risen to prominence as an important part of the larger green movement. Local food integrates production, processing, distribution and consumption on a small scale, creating sustainable local economies and a strong connection between farm and table.

Learn the myriad environmental, social, economical and agricultural benefits of supporting small family farms and seasonal food grown right in your own backyard.

]]> http://blog.recurve.com/green-basics-dispelling-the-myths/feed 1 http://blog.recurve.com/how-green-is-your-hdtv http://blog.recurve.com/how-green-is-your-hdtv#comments Thu, 08 Apr 2010 01:05:53 +0000 Shana http://blog.recurve.com/?p=343 Finding the eco-friendly (or the least eco-hostile) TVs can still be tricky. Statistics on power consumption are available if you look for them (CNET maintains a helpful database), but they aren’t typically flaunted. Even when “eco-friendliness” is advertised, it might just be a case of subtle greenwashing. Vizio LCD TVs branded with the Eco HD tag, for example, are at least 20% more efficient than the latest Energy Star guidelines call for, but that’s still a far cry from being a true energy-sipper.

The Energy Star sticker is theoretically a good starting point in the search for a green TV. But as of March 16, more than 1,100 HDTVs are Energy Star 3.0 compliant. That’s way too many TVs for the designation to be meaningful. Thankfully the newest Energy Star standard (version 4.0) takes effect on May 1 and is much more discerning. For example, a 42-inch HDTV must be 45% more efficient to be compliant under the new standards.

Generally speaking the most environmentally friendly TVs are LED-backlit LCD sets (I’ll just call them LED TVs from here on out). They’re far more energy efficient than plasma or conventional LCD sets, which both use fluorescent lights. Fluorescent lamps release about 80% of their energy as heat, according to the Energy Star Web site, so a huge amount of power is wasted. A well-built LED is much more efficient and should be mostly cool to the touch.

LEDs are also free of mercury, a toxic metal used in all fluorescent lights. So when it’s time to pitch (or preferably, recycle) your LED TV, hopefully many years down the line, it’ll create less toxic waste than a conventional LCD or plasma.

Sources
Forbes 3/23/2010
C|NET database of TV’s based on their power efficiency

]]> http://blog.recurve.com/how-green-is-your-hdtv/feed 0 http://blog.recurve.com/report-spare-fridge-trend-undermines-energy-savings http://blog.recurve.com/report-spare-fridge-trend-undermines-energy-savings#comments Thu, 08 Apr 2010 00:54:35 +0000 Shana http://blog.recurve.com/?p=341 Many people who splurge on high-tech eco-friendly refrigerators are undermining their environmental efforts by continuing to use their old, inefficient fridges, according to a new study. A quarter of houses now have two refrigerators, the report found, and the rate is increasing by about one percentage point each year. “You’re not saving any money on efficiency if you’re keeping that old one plugged in,” warned one green-energy expert.

Source:
The New York Times/Green Inc. blog (3/19)

]]> http://blog.recurve.com/report-spare-fridge-trend-undermines-energy-savings/feed 0 http://blog.recurve.com/the-difference-between-free-and-paid-home-energy-audits http://blog.recurve.com/the-difference-between-free-and-paid-home-energy-audits#comments Wed, 31 Mar 2010 00:41:06 +0000 Shana Fong http://blog.recurve.com/?p=321 Here’s another question we hear from customers all the time:

What’s the difference between a free energy audit from a utility company like PG&E, and one that you pay for?

A home energy audit is the first step in understanding how to make your home more energy efficient by uncovering how it uses energy and where it is losing energy. You have a few options when it comes to energy audits:

• Simple do-it-yourself audit: Utilizing a tool such as the ENERGY STAR Home Energy Yardstick, which compares your home’s energy use with others across the country and provides suggestions on improvements
• Free audits offered by utilities, organizations, or companies: A basic assessment conducted by a technician that looks at some of the areas in your home that affect your energy usage and carbon footprint
• Professional audits by home energy companies or raters: A comprehensive assessment performed by a certified auditor that identifies the most cost-effective improvements to address root causes of your concerns and provide long-term solutions

Both DIY and free energy audits are good starting points but vary greatly in process and goals from professional audits. Here’s an illustrative example of how they differ:

Acterra, a local nonprofit organization, offers free audits to homeowners in select areas of the South Bay. Conducted by a team of two trained volunteers over two and a half hours, the “HouseCall” is an introduction to basic energy efficiency and conservation measures. It includes simple upgrades such as changing out light bulbs to compact fluorescents, optimizing refrigerator and water heater temperatures, and installing faucet aerators. Additionally, the volunteers will suggest other tips on other energy-saving upgrades. For renters and homeowners alike, it’s a great first step if you are looking for a simple, no-cost way to reduce your energy usage by up to 10%.

Recurve’s energy audit includes a 20+ point inspection of your home, including blower door testing to assess the leakiness of your home, attic and crawlspace inspections, utility bill data analysis, heating and cooling load calculations (i.e. how much energy it takes to heat and cool your home on the coldest and hottest days of the year, respectively), lighting and appliance audits, and heating, cooling and water heating systems analyses. The result is a comprehensive report on how your home is currently using energy and a roadmap to making your home more healthy, comfortable and efficient. And if you move forward with the improvements, you will often see significant results – most of our customers see upwards of 30-50% in energy reductions.

In sum, free energy audits are a great way to identify easy, DIY fixes to your home and can be utilized by renters and homeowners alike. Professional audits offer a much more thorough look at how your home uses energy and the specific steps you can take to significantly improve efficiency in the most cost-effective path possible.

To clear a few questions/myths up:
• PG&E only offers free audits to businesses, not homes
• If you decide to do the energy upgrades, some professional companies will credit part or all of the audit cost back – making it essentially free
• Beware of free audits offered by companies that are just trying to lure in buyers of their product, instead of relying on a comprehensive whole-home approach

Remember, energy audits alone don’t save energy. Use the information you glean from your home audit to identify the improvements that make the most sense for your energy needs and your budget.

Resources:
• Energy Star’s take on home energy audits: http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=home_improvement.hm_improvement_audits
• Home Energy Yardstick: http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=HOME_ENERGY_YARDSTICK.showGetStarted
• Acterra’s Green@Home program: http://www.acterra.org/programs/greenathome/housecalls.html

]]> http://blog.recurve.com/the-difference-between-free-and-paid-home-energy-audits/feed 1 http://blog.recurve.com/berkeley-residents-get-off-your-gas http://blog.recurve.com/berkeley-residents-get-off-your-gas#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:40:13 +0000 Shana Fong http://blog.recurve.com/?p=230 The City of Berkeley is once again hosting the residential natural gas efficiency contest for Berkeley residents (renters and homeowners). All residents who receive a natural gas bill from PG&E, either directly or through their landlord, are eligible to enter and win. Cooperatives are eligible this year as well.

The contest period covers natural gas use for the month of February, so start conserving now! Last year’s prizes included Whole-House Performance Testing, $100 in BART tickets, Farmer’s Market Gift Certificates and gift baskets, and Berkeley Repertory Theater tickets.

Categories include: Lowest Natural Gas Use Overall, Lowest Natural Gas use Per Person, Greatest Percentage of Natural Gas Reduction, and Most Creative Effective Strategy for reducing natural gas consumption.

Contestants may also be eligible for up to a 20% bill credit from PG&E through their Winter Gas Savings program.

Download a contest application here: http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=34650

For additional information, please contact the Contest manager at Energy@CityofBerkeley.info or call 510-981-7435. PG&E is a co-sponsor of this contest.

]]> http://blog.recurve.com/berkeley-residents-get-off-your-gas/feed 0 http://blog.recurve.com/ewaste-recycling-fund-raiser http://blog.recurve.com/ewaste-recycling-fund-raiser#comments Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:17:08 +0000 Shana Fong http://blog.recurve.com/?p=200 Who doesn’t have a pile of unused electronics that they would love to get rid of – without just dumping it into a landfill? For those in the Bay Area, Conexions is hosting a FREE electronic ewaste recycling event. Bring your unwanted tv’s, computer monitors and equipment, and many other hard-to-recycle items to this event. Check out the details here.
]]> http://blog.recurve.com/ewaste-recycling-fund-raiser/feed 0 http://blog.recurve.com/handy-guide-to-recycling-nearly-everything http://blog.recurve.com/handy-guide-to-recycling-nearly-everything#comments Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:00:48 +0000 Shana Fong http://blog.recurve.com/?p=190 On average, individuals throw away 4 pounds of garbage every day. About a third of the waste is from product packaging. If you recycle all your home’s newspapers and newsprint ads, cardboard, glass and metal, you can reduce carbon emissions by 850 pounds a year. Use this list as a handy reference guide for all of your recycling needs:

ALUMINUM
Aluminum refining is a major source of greenhouse gases. Recycling a ton of aluminum saves 37 barrels of oil. When you recycle a beverage can, rather than tossing it in the trash can, you’ll save enough energy to run a computer for 3 hours or a TV for 2 hours. If you have a party and recycle 125 aluminum cans, you’ll save enough energy to power a home for a day.

BATTERIES
Battery acid can be converted to sodium sulfate for laundry detergent, glass and textile manufacturing. For a list of retail chains with drop-off sites for recycling batteries, check with the Rechargeable Batter Recycling Corporation: (678) 419-9990, www.rbrc.org. Battery Solutions will help you dispose of batteries from cell phones, laptop computers, flashlights, cameras, watches, hearing aids, clocks and electronic devices: (800) 852-8127, www.batteryrecycling.com.

CARDBOARD BOXES
Contact local no-profits to see if they can use your boxes, or offer them on www.freecycle.org, or www.craigslist.org. UsedCardboardBoxes.com offers “box rescue” services to businesses with 1,000 or more of the same-sized boxes and resells the boxes to consumers.

CELL PHONES
About 500 million cell phones are taking up shelf space rather than being recycled. You can drop off your old cell phones at large retail chains like Staples, AT&T, Best Buy, Office Depot, and Sprint PCS. You also can donate to recycleplace.com or Collective Good, which refurbishes old cell phones for developing countries: (770) 856-9021, www.collectivegood.com.

COMPACT FLUORESCENT BULBS
CFLs contain up to 5 milligrams of mercury and should be disposed of properly. For nearby drop-off sites, call 1-800-CleanUp or visit www.epa.gov/bulbrecycling (click “where you live”), or www.earth911.org. You may also deposit CFLs at some large retail chains such as Ikea (www.ikea.com).

COMPOST
Use the searchable database at www.findacomposter.com to locate a composting facility in your area.

COMPUTERS AND E-WASTE
Electronics, such as old computers and televisions, contain chemicals and lead and should be recycled. For computer re-use programs, visit www.recycles.org a non-profit exchange that connects businesses and consumers with nonprofit organizations.

For disposal centers, visit www.earth911.org or call 1-800-CleanUp. The EPA website also provides a list of corporations, such as HP and Dell, that accept computers. For all your other “technotrash,” contact the Consumer Electronics Association at www.mygreenelectronics.org or GreenDisk at (425) 392-8700, www.greendisk.com.

GLASS
By some estimates, it takes about 1 million years for a glass bottle to break down in a landfill. When purchasing glass, look for recycled products. Producing glass from recycled glass requires 30% less energy than producing it from virgin materials.

INK TONER CARTRIDGES
More than 3 quarts of oil are used to produce one laser printer cartridge, and the plastic body takes more than 1,000 years to decompose. Check Earthshare for recycling locations: www.earthshare.org/marketplace.html, or deposit cartridges at participating office supply retail chains. Recycleplace.com will even pay for your old ink cartridges and cell phones: (877) 348-5319.

JUNK MAIL
Junk mail produces more CO2 than 2.8 million cars. To keep junk mail and catalogs out of your mailbox, contact the Direct Marketing Association’s free Mail Preference Service at www.dmachoice.org or try www.41pounds.org which charges $41, donating about 1/3 of proceeds to environmental organizations.

MOTOR OIL
If you recycle just two gallons of used oil, it can generate enough electricity to power the average household for almost 24 hours. Find recycling centers for used motor oil at www.recycleoil.org or call the American Petroleum Institute at (202) 682-8000.

PAPER
If you convince just 3 of your friends to recycle newspapers, you’ll save about 17 trees, 2 barrels of oil, 7,000 gallons of water, and 4,100 kilowatt hours of electricity.

When you buy paper, buy recycled! It takes 60% less energy to produce recycled paper and 58% less water than to produce paper from virgin wood pulp. It also generates 74% less air pollution and 35% less water pollution.

PLASTIC
Two-thirds of the 40 billion plastic bottles produced annually in the US end up in landfills, where plastics need 100 to 400 years to break down. Every ton of plastic bottles recycled saves 3.8 barrels of oil.

Recycling rules for municipalities vary but, in general, most recycling programs accept PET bottles, usually used for soda and water, and HDPE bottles used for milk and laundry detergent. The following items generally should not go into the recycling bin: automotive, pesticide, or solvent bottles, lids or spray pumps, toys, trays, tubs or containers, plastic bags or film.

STEEL CANS & APPLIANCES
Recycle 1 ton of steel, which is used to produce may household appliances, and you’ll save the energy equivalent of 3.6 barrels of oil. That’s 2,500 lbs. of iron ore, 1,400 lbs. of coal and 120 lbs. of limestone.

Check out the Steel Recycling Center’s database of recycling locations for steel cans and appliances: www.recycle-steel.org or call (800) Yes-I-Can. Some charities, such as Goodwill, accept working appliances.

STYROFOAM PACKAGING
Many pack-and-ship stores will accept foam packaging for reuse. For additional foam peanut drop-off locations, contact the Plastic Loose Fill Council at (800) 828-2214. To dispose of large quantities of styrofoam block packaging, go to www.epspackaging.org or contact the Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers at (410) 451-8340.

Thanks to Eco Hatchery for providing the recycling tips.

]]> http://blog.recurve.com/handy-guide-to-recycling-nearly-everything/feed 0 http://blog.recurve.com/helpful-seasonal-home-maintenance-calendar http://blog.recurve.com/helpful-seasonal-home-maintenance-calendar#comments Wed, 20 Jan 2010 21:01:12 +0000 Shana Fong http://blog.recurve.com/?p=186 Here’s a helpful checklist of things to do around the house, according to season:

JANUARY/FEBRUARY

• Clean or replace furnace filter
• Check/clean heat recovery ventilator; wash or replace filter
• Clean humidifier
• Clean range hood filter
• Check basement floor drain

MARCH/APRIL

• Clean or replace furnace filter
• Check/clean heat recovery ventilator; wash or replace filter
• Clean humidifier
• Check sump pump
• Check gutters and downspouts and clean if needed
• Inspect air conditioning; service as needed (usually every two or three years)
• Inspect basement or crawl space for signs of seepage/leakage
• Ensure that ground slopes away from foundation wall

MAY/JUNE

• Clean windows, screens and hardware; install screens
• Check that air intake and exhausts are clear of debris, nests, etc.
• Clean range hood filter
• Undertake spring landscape maintenance; fertilize young trees

JULY/AUGUST

• Air out damp basements on dry days or use dehumidifier
• For central air conditioning, clean filter in air handling unit
• Check exterior finishes
• Check exterior wood for deterioration
• Check caulking and weatherstripping, including around entry door from garage and house
• Check basement floor drain trap; replenish if needed
• Have furnace/heating system serviced (every two years for an electric furnace)

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER

• Check fireplace and chimney; service or clean if needed
• Clean range hood filter
• Clean leaves out of eavestroughs
• Check roofing and flashing for signs of wear or damage
• Close windows, skylights
• Winterize landscaping

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER

• Clean or replace furnace filter
• Check or clean heat recovery ventilator; wash or replace filter
• Clean humidifier
• Check exhaust fans
]]> http://blog.recurve.com/helpful-seasonal-home-maintenance-calendar/feed 2 http://blog.recurve.com/asthma-linked-to-formaldehyde-exposure-at-home http://blog.recurve.com/asthma-linked-to-formaldehyde-exposure-at-home#comments Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:49:23 +0000 Shana Fong http://blog.recurve.com/?p=67 Most people aren’t aware of exactly how their home’s air quality affects their health and the health of their family. Did you know that up to 30% of the air you breathe comes from your crawlspace? As you can imagine, crawlspace air is full of moisture and dirt, which can lead to issues such as respiratory distress and mold.

Here’s another example of the link between childhood asthma and formaldehyde exposure from household items such as furniture and carpet. Roughly 7% of adults and 9% of children suffer from asthma in the U.S. – by identifying the triggers, we can help improve the health of future generations starting at home. American Chronicle (11/30)

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