Another reason to love a sunny day

Is a solar hot water system in your future? 

I love sunny days – and this picture shows another reason why:

That’s the temperature gauge on our home’s solar hot water tank yesterday (April 17).  It was a beautiful, sunny day and the solar system – which pre-heats water going into our electric hot water heater – was working so well it actually made the water hotter than my electric tank normally heats it!  In other words, free hot water from the sun.  The system works every month of the year, but works best in the spring, summer and fall.

My hot water is not entirely free, of course, because the solar system wasn’t free.  But many energy efficiency programs offer incentives to help bring the investment down.  And because sunlight is free, solar hot water offers protection against rising power rates.

Here’s a link to Thermo-Dynamics, the Atlantic Canadian company that manufactures systems like mine.

Rediscover a fast, efficient, money-saving way to cook better food

Rediscover pressure cookers 

Years ago, pressure cookers were a popular way to prepare food – and maybe it’s time for a comeback!  Here’s why:

• Fast: pressure cookers can cook food in 1/3 the time ovens, microwaves or other stovetop methods would take.  (That’s because of a basic law of physics: the pressure raises the boiling point of water, and that hotter temperature makes for quicker cooking.)
• Efficient: quicker cooking means you can reduce your cooking energy costs by 2/3.
• Better nutrition: pressure cookers allow you to cook with less fat and oil, and they can help food retain more nutrients and flavours.
• Less waste: many pressure cooker recipes offer great ways to use leftovers rather than throwing them out.

Pressure cookers won’t work for every dish, but they’re excellent for staples like rice, beans, potatoes, pasta, soup, meat, veggies and more.  Many of them even come with recipe books to help you get started!  And here’s a quick four-minute video of pressure cooker basics.

Save money, energy – and WORK!

Dare to wear clothes more than once between washes 

By habit, most of us are accustomed to throwing all our clothes into the laundry after we’ve worn them once.  But unless we work in situations where we sweat a lot or get physically dirty, most of us could easily get away with wearing clothes at least twice between washings.  The advantages are MANY:

1. Clothes will last longer, because washing is a pretty punishing process
2. Clothes washers and dryers will last longer because they’ll be doing fewer loads
3. Much less detergent will be used
4. Much less water – particularly that energy-intensive hot water – will be used
5. Less dryer use means lots of electricity will be saved, because a single dryer uses as much power as 350 CFL light bulbs
6. IMPORTANTLY: wearing clothes more than once will greatly reduce your washday workload!

So – to save money, energy and work, dare to wear your clothes more than once between washes.  (Logical exceptions: socks and underwear)

A disease we need to eliminate

Cut out unnecessary idling to save money, energy and the environment 

The disease: It’s the Idling Disease, still commonly seen in driveways, parking lots and drive-throughs.

The prognosis: According to Natural Resources Canada, Canadians burn over 2 million litres of gas every day idling in winter and over a million litres every day in summer.

The potential: If every Canadian idled just 3 minutes less per day, we would save 640 million litres of gas a year.

The cure:  1) The best way to warm up your vehicle in winter is to drive it, not to let it idle;  2)  Even on the coldest day, 2-3 minutes of idling is enough time for an engine’s oil to circulate; then you’re good to go.  (Personal note: I still go by the old rule of 30 seconds and have never had a hint of car trouble.);  3.  When an engine is warm, idling for over 10 seconds uses more fuel and produces more CO2 than restarting your engine.

A SURE cure:  One business owner I know has developed an interesting way to demonstrate he’s serious about his company’s zero-idling policy: he just takes the keys out of any company vehicle found idling.  No words needed when the wrongdoer sheepishly visits his office to retrieve them…

Spread the cure:  Start a campaign in your workplace, school or community, or even the local coffee shop.  NRCan’s Idle Free Zone website offers awesome resources (including FAQs, videos, signage and more) for individuals, businesses and communities.

A new holiday?

Take part in National Sweater Day (February 9) 

One of the biggest slices of Canada’s carbon footprint comes from heating homes and workplaces – because most Canadian heating systems run on fossil fuels or fossil fuel-based electricity.  And one of the easiest ways to reduce that footprint is really simple: just turning a thermostat down 2°C can reduce heating bills by 5%.  Turning it down by 4°C saves 10%.  Savings just don’t come easier than that!

What about comfort?  Perhaps it’s time to fall in love again with that sweater your Grammy gave you.  In support of that notion, tomorrow is National Sweater Day – designed to encourage Canadians to wear a sweater and turn down the thermostat.  An initiative of the World Wildlife Fund, it has a fun side too – you can call ‘the Granny Call Centre’ to learn more about why you should wear that sweater.  More info and a fun video at www.sweaterday.ca.

So please spread the word among your colleagues: wear a sweater and turn down the heat on the planet!

(PS: When it comes to climate change policies, I find myself frequently disappointed by our current federal government – but I KNOW our Prime Minister has what it takes to participate in this campaign…)

Light up your night without running up your bill

Nightlights that use virtually no power

If you like having a little bit of light in your home at night, you can save by switching to electroluminescent nightlights.

Typical nightlight bulbs use 4 or 7 watts.  That’s not a lot – but they’re often on for long periods of time, and many homes have more than one.

Electroluminescent nightlights, like the one shown, are incredibly efficient: plugged in 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, they use just two cents worth of power.  Yep, two cents a year, or about 99.5% savings over a 7 watt bulb.

They do provide a bit less intensity and a different glow than standard nightlights – but the savings are worth it.  Ask for them at your local hardware store.  (Mine have a lifetime warranty, and were purchased here.)

Measure, then manage – and save!

A portable power meter can save you energy and money

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it” goes the expression.  It applies to electricity too, where our only indication of consumption is the monthly bill we get.  But by then, it’s too late to do anything about it.  As well, power bills tell us nothing about what’s running up our bill – so we have no way to distinguish the power hogs in our homes and workplaces from the power misers.

Portable power meters to the rescue!  They’re simple devices that provide a real-time readout of the power consumption of anything that plugs into an outlet.  Once you know how much power is consumed by the different things in your home or workplace, you can zero in on actions that will make the biggest difference in your power usage – and bill.

Portable meters like this one, this one or this one (a bit more expensive, but very good and easy to use) are available for loan at many public libraries, or at many hardware stores.

Don’t egg the planet this October 31

An eco-friendly Halloween

Halloween is a much-awaited highlight for kids everywhere: a chance to dress up, spook the neighbours and get tons of tasty loot!  But Halloween has a pretty big carbon footprint, and that’s a bit like egging your mother’s house: not nice.

Here are five tips to make your Halloween celebrations a little greener:

• The single most important thing you can do: leave the car home, and have trick-or-treaters walk (escorted if necessary) around the neighbourhood
• Use stuff you already have, plus a bit of imagination, to create your costume.  It saves money and results in less trash.  Everybody should have a ‘tickle trunk’ like Mr. Dressup had!
• Don’t distribute junk food or cheap low-quality treats from questionable distant origins.  Strive to give away treats that are healthy and nutritious, as well as good tasting.  (A challenge, I know – I clearly remember not being impressed with apples in my treat bag when I was a kid!)
• If you want to be a real eco-hero, look for fair trade chocolate.  Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Minis qualify, and you can find other brands here.
• Be sure to compost your pumpkin when it starts to melt away!

Stop at the first click

Overfilling that gas tank costs you money!

When filling our gas tanks, most of us ‘top it up’ a bit: after the gas nozzle clicks to signal the tank is full, we add a bit more, to round it up to the next full dollar.

But usually that’s not a good thing: it results in fuel dollars being lost as vapour coming out of the tank; it can result in a spill of some of that fuel we’ve paid for (and sometimes we don’t see those spills because our vehicle may have a hidden overflow pipe); and on hot days it can result in spills later since gas expands as it warms.  Bad for the wallet, bad for the environment.

The solution is easy: believe the gas nozzle when it clicks, and choose not to top up your tank.  It will save you money, conserve precious gas and reduce damage to the environment.

Fresh air can save you fuel and money

Roll down the window, turn off the air conditioner…

Air conditioners make cars bearable in the heat of summer, but they are HUGE energy users, increasing a vehicle’s fuel consumption by 20%.  That means a vehicle that normally goes 800 kilometres on a tank of fuel will only go about 675 kilometres with the air conditioner on – and many of us have it on by default all summer.

The best solution is to just turn your AC off.  When driving 60 KMH or less, roll down your window and enjoy a bit of fresh air.  (Wise dogs have known the pure joy of fresh air for years.)  At speeds above 60 KMH, keep a comfortable airflow moving by using the fan to bring in fresh air and keeping a window or sunroof open just a crack to let it out.

On really hot days when that’s not enough, alternate the AC on and off to get just the amount of cooling you need.  Just remember: it costs you every time you turn it on.