The Eco-Friendly Thread

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Jun 23, 2007
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Hello all! I was just thinking, our society these days is always thinking about the environment and ecosystem. So I'm proposing a thread where you can post your ideas on how to save power and water and use it more efficiently and maybe in doing so, us as a clan can help the environment! :)

Here are some ideas:
1. Turn off your computer at night if just idling.
2. Unplug big electrons at night such as TVs and computers. They still use power when off.
3. Turn off water while brushing teeth. (When water isn't necessary)
4. Flush toilet every other time. (Unless its really bad :P)
5. Use fans more effectively to move air. (other than using AC)
6. Walk if close, rather than using car. (This way you get some exercise in as well)
7. Turns lights off in the house if lights are not needed.

If you guys have more ideas on how to save/conserve power and water, post it! And if you could, try some of these ideas everyday! If our whole clan did these things who knows how much power/water we would save!
 
TIP (from the internetz):

Instructions
Fill a 2-Liter Soda bottle with water
Place it inside your toilet tank

Results
Everytime you flush you will be saving 2 Liters of water.
 
Great idea! Here's some the top of my head:

1. Coast and idle your car's engine as much as possible for better gas mileage, and less burning of fossil fuels.

2. Take showers, not baths. They use much less water (A five-minute shower will use about 7.5 gallons of hot water, while filling a bathtub can use up to 20 gallons.)

3. Use the dishwasher more than hand-washing dishes. They use much less water.

4. Make sure you have enough home insulation, your heater should work as little as possible.

5. Use ceiling fans more than AC, they use electricity too, but much less.

There's hundreds more!!

MOZ
 
TIP (from the internetz):

Instructions
Fill a 2-Liter Soda bottle with water
Place it inside your toilet tank

Results
Everytime you flush you will be saving 2 Liters of water.

Thats a good idea! Every time you flush its around 1.6 to 3.5 gallons, so doing that would really help!
 
If your car is idling for more then 15 seconds, turn off the engine. It uses less gas, modern fuel injected engines dont require a lot of gas to start.



Also, use cruise control instead of going fast coasting and going fast again, the rpm change uses more gas then keeping a steady pace, esp if its more then a 5 mph speed increase.


Also, keeping all the windows up will increase your fuel effiencey by about 10% and keeping the ac off will give you another 1-3 mpg depending on the car


Ill think of some more later. Search "hyper-milers" on yahoo and they will show you some great stuff for driving :)
 
Also, keeping all the windows up will increase your fuel effiencey by about 10% and keeping the ac off will give you another 1-3 mpg depending on the car
Forget that, it is over 100 degrees before noon in the summer. I'm either rolling down the windows or using AC. Not worth sweating and having my hands stuck to the steering wheel to get an extra mile per gallon.
 
turn off the computer and go outside, this saves anywhere between 400-1200w and there is stuff to do outside
 
Forget that, it is over 100 degrees before noon in the summer. I'm either rolling down the windows or using AC. Not worth sweating and having my hands stuck to the steering wheel to get an extra mile per gallon.



don't we all just love texas? same in denton. Ac in the apt is always on with fans too. sadly. I try to take quick showers though and the lights thing i do to.
 
Forget that, it is over 100 degrees before noon in the summer. I'm either rolling down the windows or using AC. Not worth sweating and having my hands stuck to the steering wheel to get an extra mile per gallon.

Amen, thatguy
 
As regular light bulbs burn out, replace them with Compact Fluorescent Bulbs
Include a clean dry towel in your dryer load, this will dry the load 20% faster
 
As regular light bulbs burn out, replace them with Compact Fluorescent Bulbs

Even if you switch out the bulbs before the old ones burn out, this can be huge. Just by replacing the lights in the common areas of my house I save about $30 a month on my electric bill. You get a small savings in hvac as well since fluorescents do not generate as much heat either.

All the savings you get in a car by coasting, windows up etc. is a drop in the bucket to the savings you can get by reducing the total amount of miles you drive. Combine trips or do like they used to do in the old days....only go shopping once a week or every other week.

Another big energy saver is a tankless water heater. They are still somewhat pricey but the return is still pretty fast. Usually 12 months or less to pay for itself. These only heat the water that you use and do not sit there heating the same water all day while you are at school or work. They are much more efficient.
 
My Tips

  • If you have your iPod, Cell-phone recharger in a socket with the power on you are wasting power.
  • Recycle paper.
  • Reduce you waste by buying products that have less packaging than other products in a supermarket.
  • Turn off heater when it is not cold.
  • Plant a tree.
Eire.32
 

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