I created a CFL bulb testimonial 6 months ago and now I'm updating the status on my orginal claim. I replaced an incandescent bulb with a CFL bulb the week of Thanksgiving in 2008. The previous incandescent bulbs needed to be replaced every month.
I'm happy to report that the CFL bulb is still going after 12 months on the job. I am very happy with these results. The light bulb is in the outside lamp post and is on for a few hours each night.
Orginal CFL testimonial blog post:
For the last few years I’d used incandescent light bulbs in my outside lamp post. They would burn out every month, like clockwork. The light was on about eight hours every day. It was highly annoying to replace a bulb every month. I have since gone to the wonderful world of CFL bulbs.
I replaced an old incandescent bulb with a CFL bulb during the last week of November in 2008. As I’m typing this on May 27, 2009 the CFL bulb is still working. That is six months, which is six times longer than any of the incandescent light bulbs I used. That’s pretty cool, but I haven’t even gotten into the energy I’ve saved. EnergyStar.gov claims that CFLs “will save about $30 over its lifetime and pay for itself in about 6 months. It uses 75 percent less energy and lasts about 10 times longer than an incandescent bulb.” I’m a believer.
I’ve replaced all of my old incandescent bulbs in the house with CFLs now. If you haven’t already replaced your old bulbs with CFL bulbs, I would urge you to do so. You will be conserving energy, saving money and saving time of having to replace bulbs.
So, if you still haven't started to use CFL bulbs, I would urge you to do so. At least try out one and put it in one of your most used lights. I bet you'll be happy with your new investment as well. You'll be saving energy and saving money.
I'll post again on this CFL testimonial topic again when the bulb burns out. If that happens.
Louisville Gas & Electric (LG&E) in their never-ending attempt to educate and help customers to be more eco-friendly and save money has added a CFL Program to their arsenal. Under their CFL Program customers receive a mailer identical to the image above. The customer just needs to mail in the little reply card attached and they will be sent four CFL bulbs. Just like that. I just received my mailer and you know I will be taking advantage of this opportunity.
So if you are not a customer of LG&E are you jealous? Well, contact your electric company and let them know that these programs exist and they too can do more for their customers by providing green programs.
I look forward to receiving my free CFL bulbs. I have many CFL bulbs in my home, but I do believe I have 4 bulbs left which are not. They are the lights in my garage door opener. Wow, my garage is about to get more eco-friendly.
Do other electric companies have similar programs? I would like to hear about them.
Have you seen the guy at your local greeting card aisle standing there forever not able to choose which card to get? That guy is me. I hate looking for greeting cards. It takes me forever to choose between the really sappy cards, the low brow cards and the really low brow cards. It doesn't matter the occasion it is hard for me to find a card for anyone I know in less than ten minutes. With all of this time spent the last time looking for a card I noticed a few cards with a note on the back with 'This card is made from sustainably managed forests'. I, of course, have seen cards which had been printed on 100% recycled paper, but not quite this story. I wanted to find out more about what exactly are sustainably managed forests.
From the Sustainable Forests Products website:
The particular greeting card that had this 'paper from sustainably managed forests' note was a Hallmark card. I wanted to find out a little more about Hallmark and being Green. I found out Hallmark has being making eco-friendly strides for decades.
From the Hallmark corporate website:
Facts
Hallmark began recycling paper in the 1940s.
The company first introduced recycled paper into select greeting card lines and packaging in the 1970s.
Hallmark established corporate-wide energy conservation and waste reduction programs in the 1990s.
Hallmark intends to obtain 50 percent of the paper it buys for greeting cards from recycled stock and 100 percent of the paper it buys for products from sustainable sources.
In 2008, Hallmark developed a “green” icon with four arrows revolving around the Hallmark crown. The arrows represent the four areas of Hallmark’s environmental efforts – water, waste, paper and energy.
In mid-2008, the Hallmark “green” icon started appearing on greeting cards and other product lines. Products made with paper from sustainably managed forests, recycled paper content, or other eco-friendly materials will bear this special icon, along with relevant labeling.
With all of this talk of greeting cards printed on 100% recycled materials and made with paper from sustainably managed forests don't forget about the other eco-alternatives to paper greeting cards. They are hand-made cards from hand-made paper as well as e-cards. Come to think of it, e-cards would probably save me time and get me out of your way as you look for a funny card for your third cousin twice removed. Happy card hunting.
There are ways to make your thermostat be more eco-friendly. Raising and lowering your thermostat temperature can save you money by using less energy. When it is warm and your air conditioning is kicking on raise your thermostat a couple of degrees. Lower your thermostat temperature when your heat is working to warm your home. You can save up to 3% on your bill for every degree you lower or raise the temperature. You will be using less energy without losing comfort. For instance during the summer we have our thermostat set to 73 degrees, while during the cold months our thermostat is set to 69 degrees. We don’t feel any loss in comfort, but we sure see the savings in the monthly utility bill.
If you have an older thermostat you should look into a programmable thermostat because they are very energy-efficient and can save you even more money. From the Energy Star website on programmable thermostats:
Did you know that properly using a programmable thermostat in your home is one of the easiest ways you can save energy, money, and help fight global warming? An ENERGY STAR qualified programmable thermostat helps make it easy for you to save by offering four pre-programmed settings to regulate your home’s temperature in both summer and winter — when you are asleep or away.
The average household spends more than $2,200 a year on energy bills — nearly half of which goes to heating and cooling. Homeowners can save about $180 a year by properly setting their programmable thermostats and maintaining those settings. The pre-programmed settings that come with ENERGY STAR qualified programmable thermostats are intended to deliver savings without sacrificing comfort. Depending on your family’s schedule, you can see significant savings by sticking with those settings or adjust them as appropriate for your family. The key is to establish a program that automatically reduces heating and cooling in your home when you don’t need as much.
Choose the right programmable thermostat — There are three types of programmable thermostats designed to best fit your daily schedule. Learn more about the energy saving features that each model offers.
Do you have a programmable thermostat? How is that working out for you?
Below are things to know when preparing your things for recycling. Your local recycler will thank you.
- checking to see what is able to be collected at curbside in your area; for most areas that means
plastic items with Plastic Identification Codes of #1 and #2. For more info:
Plastic Identification Codes
- sorting your plastic carefully; including removing caps from bottles (most caps cannot be recycled)
- attached labels are acceptable
- rinsing, cleaning and flattening plastic before it goes going curbside
So what can be usually recycled at curbside? Below is from http://www.recycleright.org:
Help to close the loop - buy products with recycled materials in them. Remember to reduce, reuse and recycle. For more information:
For more information: The Green Cycles: The green cycles: recycling, precycling, freecycling, upcycling, downcycling and e-cycling
I just saw the movie 'Away We Go' with John Krasinski (of "The Office") and Maya Rudolph (of "Saturday Night Live") are expectant parents who go in search of the perfect place to start their family in this low-key comedy from director/producer Sam Mendes ("American Beauty" & "Road to Perdition)". I thought it was a really good movie and I would recommend to every adult. It is rated R for a reason; especially the opening scene. You'll see what I mean. The cast also includes Catherine O'Hara, Jeff Daniels, Allison Janney, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Josh Hamilton. The story and the actors caught my eye, but also the Special Features of the DVD. It mentioned the eco-friendly things that Sam Mendes did on the set of the film.
From the FilmInFocus website:
Away We Go’s achievements can be broken down into four main areas: energy, transportation, catering/craft/water, and waste. Specific achievements include:
* For energy, biodiesel fuel was integrated into generators, using blends ranging from B-5 to B-99, resulting in substantial emissions reductions at point of combustion as well as through life-cycle analysis.
* For transportation, hybrid vehicles were driven 45% of the total miles driven during the production, and also reduced carbon emissions through their reduced idling policy and charter flight avoidance policy.
* For catering/craft/water, the production shifted its sourcing to local and organic sources for more than 50% of their meals and craft services, and eliminated plastic water bottles from their set.
* For waste, the production redirected 49% of its waste from landfills into recycling and composting.
Other achievements included consolidating shooting locations so as to reduce travel miles, adopting sustainable habits in the production office, and eliminating all those wasteful little plastic water bottles. The production switched to branded reusable bottles and, when it came to dinnerware, served with corn and sugar-based utensils.
Filmmaking while being eco-friendly is possible. Let's hope that other directors and producers get onboard and become more eco-friendly. With all of the movies that are made these days, that could make a huge impact. If you don't see this movie, I urge you to see a movie soon. Movies are a great 2 hour escape. And don't we all need escapes?
Many people have closets similar to the one above. No, you may not have a robe with duckies on them, but you probably have at least one closet that needs to be decluttered. Don't just dump all of your unwanted clothing into the trash, however. You have the opportunity of doing something green, get yourself a little more organized and receive a tax deduction. How cool is that?
You can combat a messy closet by going through your used clothing and put them into four piles.
1. Clothing you still wear and that you will keep - this will be clothing that you have worn in the past 12 months or you know you will wear in the next 12 months
2. Clothing you don't wear, but is in good condition which you can donate - there are many great choices when it comes to donating your clothing. Just a few are:
3. Clothing you don't wear, but may be cleverly reused - find out some ways to reuse used clothing here
4. Clothing that is falling apart, which can't be worn or reused and needs to be thrown away
Clothing donations are needed by many of the 600,000 homeless families in the United States. But the need doesn't end there: more than 28 million children living in low-income families and their parents could also benefit from donated clothes.
Clothing donations should be clean, undamaged, and reasonably wrinkle-free. Clothing can be folded and packed in sturdy boxes or bags; avoid hangers. Items that come in pairs (shoes, gloves, socks) should be kept together (shoe laces can be tied together, gloves and socks can be stuffed inside each other). Pockets should be emptied and any belts should be securely fastened to their appropriate items.
For tax purposes, you should keep a list of the clothing you donate. Donation centers usually give you a tax receipt, but if you mail your clothing or shoe donation to a charity, also send a self-addressed, stamped envelope so it can send you a receipt. Shipping costs are tax deductible as well.
Take all the time you need: whether it be two hours or two weeks. You'll be doing something great and eco-friendly for yourself, your spouse and possibly your local community.
