Going Green: Pass It On

As you know, I enjoy recycling, repurposing, and rehoming items rather than sending them to the landfill.  

One little thing I keep out of the dump is magazines.  Subscriptions are so expensive these days that it is just a shame to read and toss!  There are so many things to do with magazines.

Pass them on to a friend.  Better yet, have a swap with friends where you each take a different subscription and pass them round robin so everyone can read many magazines for the price of one.

Bring them to waiting rooms.  It is especially nice if you bring some ladies magazines to the auto shop and men's to doctor offices and hair stylists.  

Schools sometimes want magazines for projects.

Or you can send them to missionaries for them to have in their fellowship/recreation areas.  

I'm boxing these to send up to a missionary friend in Alaska.  All these and a few more fit in a large flat rate box.  Because of the weight make sure you tape it very heavily!!

Before you box them, make sure you clip off all the address labels.

Then pack away!  After getting the main stack in, I curled another stack over on itself (like 2 'U's that are interlocked).  This gets more in the space than just rolling them.  Then at the top I put small 'Guidepost' to fill that area.  This box it packed TIGHT.

And for $17.90 I will get about 50 good magazines off to folks who will look forward to reading them over and over.

What do you do with the magazines you finish?

Frugal Doings: Energy Hogs

In working on cutting our energy usage (both for saving money and for the environment), we’ve been looking at all the things in our home that are energy hogs.  I thought we might find a few… but oh my goodness… we – and you – are living in an energy draining piggery!  And it is time to cut out some pork.  

Some of the big pigs we have discovered are:

The hot water heater:  These really gobble up electricity.  When it is time to replace, go for the best energy efficiency you can manage.  We have a heat pump water heater.  There are several settings to help with changing demand.  Hybrid setting uses both the heat pump and regular electrical settings to meet flexible needs.  High demand can be used if you have company and need to keep those showers going.  Vacation setting drops it down to just barely warm until you get home.

There are ways to save energy with an old model too. 

If it was made before ’04 it needs to have an insulating jacket.  You can find these at home supply stores for about $15. 

Also, insulate your hot water pipes so they don’t cool your water as it comes to your faucet. 

You can lower the setting on your hot water heater.  Most sources say 120* is hot enough.

Drain the sediment.  Check out this link for more on that: http://www.houselogic.com/home-advice/water-heaters/water-heater-energy-saving-tips/3/ 

Electronics: One night turn off all your lights and look around.  See all those glowing places?  They are being run by electricity.  It is estimated that consumer spend about $100 a year running electronics when they are NOT being used.  That’s right… just light a match to a $100 bill because that is the benefit you’ve gotten. 

And if you have a plasma TV… better sit down.  When turned OFF, they can still draw up to $150 a year in electricity!! 

The easiest way to deal with them is to just unplug when you are not using them.

However, since a lot of these have hidden outlets or are just a pain to reach, you can install a power strip with an on/off switch.  Make sure it is rated for the amount of amps that will be pulled!  Then you will just have to flip a switch to cut the power and save.

The plus side of this is it is much safer… there is less chance of a fire starting when the electronic device has no power.  And don’t forget lightning as I recently learned!  

And there are some little piglets too.

 By themselves they don’t use all that much electricity, but together they help put quite a dent in the budget. 

Little piggers like:

Battery chargers (phone, tablets, etc).

Anything with a clock, such as microwaves.

Routers. 

These don’t use all that much by themselves, but when you add all the little piggies together… Oh my!

What can you do to reduce the number of energy hogs in your home?

Buy Local: Natural Mulch

In getting our yard under control we use wood mulch... and we need a lot of it.  Fortunately just 4 miles down once you get to the main road, there is a company that does natural mulch and composting.  They are called "The Compost Company"  http://www.compostcompany.com  

They take this... 

...and turn it into THIS!

  

No loading, they do it all.

He does a great job getting it packed in.

See... I told you it was packed! (It's darker than this sun exposed photo shows - the below shows it better).

That is one cubic yard of mulch.  It cost just $25.  If we had bought it in bags at a big box store it would have taken almost 14 bags and would have cost us about $46.  And those bags would have had dyes and chemicals in them.

Here's a sneak peek at one of our projects that we will finish this week with the coming round of cool mornings. 

To find out if there is similar business near you, contact your local agriculture extension office or a nursery that does not sell mulch.

Clean Up Your Own Backyard

Have you heard of the “Great America Clean-up”?  It’s part of the ‘Keep America Beautiful’ campaign.  And today is the date my county selected to organize the clean-up here.

However, I’m busy today!  (There will be several blogs coming out of today’s activities!)  So yesterday Himself and I went out to the along one of the last two roads (just 1.4 miles worth) leading to our house and picked up trash out of the ditches.  Himself regularly picks up along the 1 mile stretch that is our road. 

There was a lot to pick up.

Himself’s pick-up method was to flip them into his bucket with “the claw”.  I preferred to use a pick-up gripper/grabber (or whatever you call them!). 

These two weren’t sure they approved of our activity but we got big waves from most of those who passed us in their cars.

You know what?  It was kind of like taking an anonymous poll. 

Top two favorite sodas?  Mountain Dew and Coke.

Top two favorite beers?  Well… the northbound litterers favored Miller Light while the southbound litterers like Michelob Light.  (The good ol’ boys seem to be watching their waistlines!)

Favorite fast food for drinks?  Sonic.

In fact, 95% of the litter we picked up along our route had to do with beverages.

What else did we discover? 

There is a lot of ice being bought and the bags let fly into the ditches.  (Filling up coolers?)

Only two candy wrappers were along the road… a Snickers and an M&M.

And one car bumper!

Keep America Beautiful states that people are more likely to litter in a littered environment.  We hope since it now looks nice AND since a lot of people drove by us, that maybe there will be less trash thrown out. 

At least that is what we want to happen.

Because THIS is just disgusting…especially for only a mile and a half!

Going Green: Recycling Simply

My next “going green” project has been to start recycling.  We don’t have curbside recycling here… we don’t even have curbside trash service!  Nope, out here at The Sticks we have to take our trash 6.5 miles to the “convenience center”.  And all that is, is a bunch of dumpsters in a fenced in area run by the county landfill.  But it’s not a bad thing since we drive past it every time we go into town and it is open 5 days a week.

However, while one dumpster is for general unsorted trash, there are many others specifically for recycling! 

Each one is labeled so it is easy to sort.  There are plenty of categories too so a wide variety of items can be recycled.

I’ve set up a recycle area in the garage so we can participate.  Each drawer corresponds to one of the bins at the center.  Large boxes are stacked on the top of the drawers (that’s my kitchen compost bin sitting there now).  

To the right of my recycle area is an area  to hold our burned out florescent tubes.  All the downstairs lights are florescent tubes, as are the closet and bathroom in our master suite.  The big box hardware stores have an area for recycling compact fluorescents but not the big tubes. 

A couple times a year the landfill holds a special event called “hazardous waste day”. 

This is when you can get rid of anything you have that is considered ‘bad’…chemicals… cleaners…

… old paint.. batteries… computer things… microwaves…anything and everything.  All you have to do is to get it down there.  They unload it for you and send you on your way quickly.  I had a load of really old paint and about 15 florescent bulbs. 

It was great to get them cleaned out of the garage!    

Frugal Doings: Cutting Trips to the Pumps

As I continue my efforts to have better stewardship over my belonging, I am looking for ways to be more frugal and environmentally aware.

We travel a lot.  So it was only logical that I needed to learn about ways to make our car more efficient.  Good for us, good for the environment.

The thing most people look at first is how to cut down the trips to the gas pump.  I am tired of funding obscenely rich dudes fifth vacation home.  Some adjustments are being made around here.

First, living out here in The Sticks means driving to town is 45 minute round trip.  Not making a list and bundling trips is just dumb.  We have a dry erase board on the fridge just for noting where we need to go on our next trip to town.  Not only does it save gas money, it saves a lot of time too!

We have taken all the excess stuff out of the back of the truck.  Why haul the weight around – burning fuel – if you’re not going to use it?  Likewise, roof racks, bug and wind deflectors and the like can eat into your gas mileage.  

Replace your gas cap every few years.  When they get loose, fuel will start vaporizing and you lose it into the air.  Also, it will mess up the intake to your engine, causing a hit to your gas mileage and it can damage engine sensors too.

It is fairly well known to keep tires inflated properly.  More resistance, less fuel efficiency.  On a similar note, a dirty car is actually drops your gas mileage too.  (But to save water, when you wash your car use a bucket for the washing.  Only use a hose to dampen and rinse.)  Keeping the car clean also protects your finish and under carriage. 

How you fill up makes a difference too.  Several sites I looked at spoke against ethanol fuels.  They said that ethanol doesn’t provide the same energy power and therefore it takes more to burn.  It is getting pretty hard to find gas without ethanol added, so this is a hard tip to follow.

Fill up when you are at a half tank.  There will be less vapors produced that can leak out thru that old gas cap.  And when the crud on the bottom gets dredged up it can really do a job on your fuel pump.  And it adds to bad emissions. 

One site stated you shouldn’t “squeeze the trigger to the fastest setting – pumping at a higher velocity results in more of your gas becoming vapor, which the pump is designed to suck back into the underground tank. Pumping at a lower velocity means you’ll get more gas for your money and less fuel will escape into the air.”

Also, don’t top off.  That messes up even more sensors.  And sensors are expensive to replace. 

When you are sitting for a while, cut off the engine.  After all, at that time you are getting zero miles to the gallon!  While driving, keep the RPMs low to save fuel.  An example is when you are on cruise and head up a hill.  Many cars will have the RPMs shoot up as it kicks in for more gas.  Recognize your car’s traits and tap off the cruise til you top the hill.  It’s better for your engine too.

Not turning on the AC until it’s really needed saves a lot of petro.  Roll down the windows and/or use the vent as long as you can.

Finally, using the right grade of oil will increase fuel efficiency as will keeping the air filter clean. 

"Green" Light Special

We’ve decided it is time for us to embrace a more ‘green’ lifestyle – both for the economical reasons and for the ecological reasons too.

 

Light bulbs are an example where both reasons come into play.  We well realized that incandescent and halogen bulbs are not a good choice except for the fact they are convenient.  Screw it in and flip the switch for instant bright light.  Expensive, hot bright light.

 

We decided it was time for a change.  But to what?  The choices are between CFL (compact fluorescent lights) and LED (light emitting diodes).  Time for a bit of research so to make the best choice as there are pros and cons to both.

  

CFL light bulbs PRO:  they are cool burning light, they last longer than incandescent, they are easy to find and relatively inexpensive to purchase, they are four times more efficient and last up to 10 times longer than incandescent use 50 - 80% less energy than incandescent.  

 

CFL CON:  they are sensitive to frequent on/off cycling. Their rated lifetimes of 10,000 hours are reduced in applications where the light is switched on and off very often (like a closet), they need to be on at least 15 minutes, they take longer than other lights to become fully lit, and you have to buy special CFL to use on a dimmer switch, they might not fit into lamps with a small/shallow area for a bulb. 

 

And the biggest con… All Fluorescent Lamps and Tubes Should Be Recycled or Disposed as Hazardous Waste due to their mercury content.  That means you do NOT throw them in your household trash.  Lowes, Home Depot, and IKEA accept CFL bulbs for recycling…but it varies store by store if they will accept the long tubes. 

 

And if you break one remember that there is mercury in compact fluorescent bulbs: 

 

- open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes or more (mercury can be breathed in) 

 

-put on gloves to clean up (mercury can be absorbed thru the skin)

 

- use a wet rag to clean it up and put all of the pieces, and the rag, into a plastic bag

 

- place all materials in a second sealed plastic bag 

 

 

Another thing, those big florescent tubes (T12) are no longer being made.  “This July, U.S. lighting manufacturers will cease production of many T12 lamps in order to comply with Department of Energy (DOE) regulations. First announced in 2010, the DOE planned to phase out magnetic ballasts used in T12 lamps in favor of more energy-efficient T8 and T5 lamps.”  

 

That means those of us with florescent tube lights in our homes, basements, shops, and garages will soon have to buy all new light fixtures and make repairs to our ceilings from those replacements.  The smaller T8 and T5 bulbs do not fit in the T12 fixtures.

 

The other choice in efficient lighting is LED bulbs.  I’m still not totally clear on how they work but I do know that there is nothing ‘burning’ – filament or gases as in the incandescent and CFL.  So they don’t really ‘burn out’ or fail.  What happens to them is that they get dimmer over time. 

 

LED light PRO: they last up to 10 times as long as compact fluorescents, they are very durable, cool to use so the room does not heat up with use, no mercury, they use only 2-17 watts of electricity (1/3rd to 1/30th of Incandescent or CFL).  Because of their extremely long life, they are excellent choices for areas that are hard to replace bulbs. 

 

LED light CON:  they cost $24 to about $36 per bulb (!!!!).  One report I read states there is development of a cheaper LED that in a few years should bring them down to roughly the cost of a CFL bulb.  Also, they are very directional in their light and aren’t a good fit for general lighting (like a table lamp). 

 

I made our first change because of our can lighting.  I really worried about the heat build-up and the possibility of an attic fire.  Because we have a LOT of can lights I went with the CFL spot lights.  It would have cost $500 plus to replace all of them.  

 

My next changes were in a couple of light fixtures.  They were made for halogen lights but were way too hot; one actually made the fixture ‘crackle’ and the other made Himself’s small office hot.  Any time I get a good coupon or find a sale, I snatch up bulbs to replace (still need 2 more for his office).  

 

I’ve tried putting CFL bulbs into most of my lamps, but have several that the bulbs are just too large to fit within the space allowed.  And Himself doesn’t want CFL in his personal lamps because he doesn’t like the ‘warm up’ time.  When he wants light, he wants it now.  

 

To handle the issue of disposal of the florescent bulbs, I’ve put a special collection area in my recycling center to handle them.  I hope to soon have all the light bulbs in my home switched over to green light.

 

 

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