Bridget's Green Living: November 2012

Monday, November 19, 2012

Should you upgrade your appliances? An energy metre can help you decide

For years now I have wondered if it’s time to update our appliances. They were in the house when we bought it ten years ago and work well, but after reading about efficiency gains in many appliances over the years, I was curious about whether or not it would be worth our while (and our carbon footprint) to buy new.

The energy savings stats sounded good but there was always the nagging question: is it really more eco-friendly to toss our current fridge, stove and chest freezer and replace them with new, when they’re working perfectly well?

Make your home more energy efficient & stay warm this winter

Visit Efficiency NB for tips on ways to keep your home cozy and save money, including rebate programs.

Every fall when the temperature dips and the house starts to feel a little chilly we start to think about new ways to keep our house cozy. We don’t want to spend more than necessary to stay warm, and we don’t want to waste energy. Heating can account for up to 60% of your home energy bill and most of a home’s carbon footprint so our goal is to search out the most efficient tools and tweaks for the winter months.

This year’s wish list – a wall mounted air-to-air heat pump for the bedroom area of our home, the chilliest part of our house.

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Tips: cellphone safety

-Buy a low-radiation phone. Look up your phone, or search for a new phone, in this handy guide. (Check under your battery for the model number.)

-Use a headset or speaker. A headset emits much less radiation than your phone and using speaker phone mode keeps that radiation away from your head.

-Less radiation is emitted when you're texting compared to talking, and texting keeps the radiation away from your head.

-Stay off the phone if you don’t have a strong signal. Your phone will emit even more radiation when it’s working hard to get the signal to the tower.

-Limit children’s phone use. Young children’s brains absorb twice the cell phone radiation as an adult’s.

Tips: Steer clear of bottled water

Fill water bottles at home before you head out on a road trip. Even if you’re just out and about for the afternoon.
Make sure you have enough bottles for everyone in your family (and maybe a couple of extras).
Bring an empty bottle with you when you travel. Fill it from the bathroom tap in your hotel room (so you’re not buying the expensive bottle of water in the room and can steer clear of plastic.)
Buy a carbon filter for your kitchen tap if you don’t like the taste of your tap water. Or buy a filter jug to keep in your fridge.
At restaurants ask for tap water if they offer bottled water.

Tips: Packing eco-friendly lunches:

- Reduce (or eliminate) prepackaged foods.

- Pack food in reusable containers.

- Pack stainless-steel spoons and forks. (Plastic utensils can’t be recycled).

- Use stainless steel water bottles.

- Only use plastics with 1, 2, 4 or 5 on them (inside the recycling symbol). These are food-safe numbers & recyclable.

- Don’t put food items in any containers marked #7. (It contains Bisphenol A, a hormone disruptor banned from baby bottles.)

- Don’t heat food in plastic containers, no matter what number is stamped on it.

- Reuse plastic sandwich bags & then recycle them.

- Better yet, use plastic containers and fabric snack bags instead.