Hello friends. I don’t
know guys I was watching rascals just now when the idea stuck into my head for
writing about my eco-friendly habits. first I thought that they will look like
I am bragging about myself but later on a second thought I realized that in
this way many people can know that how a common person like me can save energy
in his common day to day life. so here I am writing about them I hope you will
like them.1st I thought I should post them on fb in form of small
instalments as it is evident that I have more readers and critics in Facebook
than in whole net but later I realized that it is not possible for me to write
all about in those instalments of status updates and statuses should be kept as
statuses otherwise people will feel bored.
Well In near future war
wil nt hapn fr power bt fr energy.b energy efficient and eco-friendly nw. because
we r living in an island which we cnt leave... Save nature. save energy. save
resource and u may save humanity which is ever sinking. plz frnds
You know what ,a laptop
can save electricity upto 72% when compared 2 d most energy efficient desktop 2
it while delivering d same performance fr work. and apple set a benchmark in it.
they r d most energy efficient company. so d apple is surely green J
Here I think people
need to know some thing very specifically that what is eco-friendlism and why
to do it? What’s the need? so read below ..
Energy
conservation issues
The use of telecommuting by major corporations is a
significant opportunity to conserve energy, as many Americans now work in
service jobs that enable them to work from home instead of commuting to work
each day.[6]
Electric motors consume more than 60% of all electrical
energy generated and are responsible for the loss of 10 to 20% of all
electricity converted into mechanical energy.[7]
Consumers are often poorly informed of the savings of energy
efficient products. The research one must put into conserving energy often is
too time consuming and costly when there are cheaper products and technology
available using today's fossil fuels.[8] Some governments and NGOs are
attempting to reduce this complexity with ecolabels that make differences in
energy efficiency easy to research while shopping.
Technology needs to be able to change behavioral patterns, it
can do this by allowing energy users, business and residential, to see
graphically the impact their energy use can have in their workplace or homes.
Advanced real-time energy metering is able to help people save energy by their
actions. Rather than become wasteful automatic energy saving technologies,
real-time energy monitors and meters such as the Energy Detective, Enigin Plc's
Eniscope, Ecowizard, or solutions like EDSA'a Paladin Live are examples of such
solutions [9]
It is frequently argued that effective energy conservation
requires more than informing consumers about energy consumption, for example
through smart meters at home or ecolabels while shopping. People need practical
and tailored advice how to reduce energy consumption in order to make change
easy and lasting.[10] This applies to both efficiency investments, such as
investment in building renovation, or behavioral change, for example turning
down the heating. To provide the kind of information and support people need to
invest money, time and effort in energy conservation, it is important to
understand and link to people's topical concerns.[11]
Some retailers argue that bright lighting stimulates
purchasing. However, health studies have demonstrated that headache, stress,
blood pressure, fatigue and worker error all generally increase with the common
over-illumination present in many workplace and retail settings.[12][13] It has
been shown that natural daylighting increases productivity levels of workers,
while reducing energy consumption.[14]
Recently I have started
two things which will reduce some carbon footprints which in otherwise will be
caused by me.1st I started to use mobile for doing Facebook which is
the prime website I use and 2nd I am doing some works to repair
automatic watches which were my father’s to wear them as they use no energy
source other than kinetic body motions they will use no battery and thus
reducing a very tiny amount of footprints.
Apart from them here are
list of 20 things which we can do to save energy…
Home
appliances
- Turn your refrigerator down. Refrigerators account for
about 20% of Household electricity use. Use a thermometer to set your
refrigerator temperature as close to 37 degrees and your freezer as close
to 3 degrees as possible. Make sure that its energy saver switch is turned
on. Also, check the gaskets around your refrigerator/freezer doors to make
sure they are clean and sealed tightly.
- Set your clothes washer to the warm or cold water
setting, not hot. Switching from hot to warm for two loads per week can
save nearly 500 pounds of CO2 per year if you have an electric water
heater, or 150 pounds for a gas heater.
- Make sure your dishwasher is full when you run it and use
the energy saving setting, if available, to allow the dishes to air dry.
You can also turn off the drying cycle manually. Not using heat in the
drying cycle can save 20 percent of your dishwasher's total electricity
use.
- Turn down your water heater thermostat. Thermostats are often
set to 140 degrees F when 120 is usually fine. Each 10 degree reduction
saves 600 pounds of CO2 per year for an electric water heater, or 440
pounds for a gas heater. If every household turned its water heater
thermostat down 20 degrees, we could prevent more than 45 million tons of
annual CO2 emissions - the same amount emitted by the entire nations of Kuwait or Libya.
- Select the most
energy-efficient models when you replace your old appliances. Look for the
Energy Star Label - your assurance that the product saves energy and
prevents pollution. Buy the product that is sized to your typical needs -
not the biggest one available. Front loading washing machines will usually
cut hot water use by 60 to 70% compared to typical machines. Replacing a
typical 1973 refrigerator with a new energy-efficient model, saves 1.4
tons of CO2 per year. Investing in a solar water heater can save 4.9 tons
of CO2 annually.
Home Heating and Cooling
- Be careful not to overheat or
overcool rooms. In the winter, set your thermostat at 68 degrees in daytime, and
55 degrees at night. In the summer, keep it at 78. Lowering your
thermostat just two degrees during winter saves 6 percent of
heating-related CO2 emissions. That's a reduction of 420 pounds of CO2 per
year for a typical home.
- Clean or replace air filters as recommended. Energy is lost
when air conditioners and hot-air furnaces have to work harder to draw air
through dirty filters. Cleaning a dirty air conditioner filter can save 5
percent of the energy used. That could save 175 pounds of CO2 per year.
Small investments that pay off
- Buy energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs for your most-used lights.
Although they cost more initially, they save money in the long run by
using only 1/4 the energy of an ordinary incandescent bulb and lasting
8-12 times longer. They provide an equivalent amount of bright, attractive
light. Only 10% of the energy consumed by a normal light bulb generates
light. The rest just makes the bulb hot. If every American household
replaced one of its standard light bulbs with an energy efficient compact
fluorescent bulb, we would save the same amount of energy as a large
nuclear power plant produces in one year. In a typical home, one compact
fluorescent bulb can save 260 pounds of CO2 per year.
- Wrap your water heater in an insulating jacket, which
costs just $10 to $20. It can save 1100 lbs. of CO2 per year for an
electric water heater, or 220 pounds for a gas heater.
- Use less hot water by
installing low-flow
shower heads. They cost just $10 to $20 each, deliver an invigorating
shower, and save 300 pounds of CO2 per year for electrically heated water,
or 80 pounds for gas-heated water.
- Weatherize your home or apartment, using caulk and weather stripping to plug
air leaks around doors and windows. Caulking costs less than $1 per
window, and weather stripping is under $10 per door. These steps can save
up to 1100 pounds of CO2 per year for a typical home. Ask your utility
company for a home energy audit to find out where your home is poorly
insulated or energy inefficient. This service may be provided free or at
low cost. Make sure it includes a check of your furnace and air
conditioning.
Getting around
- Whenever possible, walk, bike, car pool, or use
mass transit. Every gallon of gasoline you save avoids 22 pounds of
CO2 emissions. If your car gets 25 miles per gallon, for example, and you
reduce your annual driving from 12,000 to 10,000 miles, you'll save 1800
pounds of CO2.
- When you next buy a car,
choose one that gets good
mileage. If your new car gets 40 miles per gallon instead of 25, and
you drive 10,000 miles per year, you'll reduce your annual CO2 emissions
by 3,300 pounds.
Reduce, reuse, recycle
- Reduce the amount of waste you
produce by buying minimally packaged goods, choosing reusable products
over disposable ones, and recycling. For every pound of waste you
eliminate or recycle, you save energy and reduce emissions of CO2 by at
least 1 pound. Cutting down your garbage by half of one large trash bag
per week saves at least 1100 pounds of CO2 per year. Making products with
recycled materials, instead of from scratch with raw materials, uses 30 to
55% less for paper products, 33% less for glass, and a whopping 90% less
for aluminum.
- If your car has an air
conditioner, make sure its coolant is recovered and recycled whenever you
have it serviced. In the United
States, leakage from auto air
conditioners is the largest single source of emissions of
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which damage the ozone layer as well as add to
global warming. The CFCs from one auto air conditioner can add the
equivalent of 4800 pounds of CO2 emissions per year.
Home Improvements.
When you
plan major home improvements, consider some of these energy saving investments.
They save money in the long run, and their CO2 savings can often be measured in
tons per year.
- Insulate your walls and ceilings. This can save 20 to 30 percent of home
heating bills and reduce CO2 emissions by 140 to 2100 pounds per year. If
you live in a colder climate, consider superinsulating. That can save 5.5
tons of CO2 per year for gas-heated homes, 8.8 tons per year for oil heat,
or 23 tons per year for electric heat. (If you have electric heat, you
might also consider switching to more efficient gas or oil.)
- Modernize your windows. Replacing all
your ordinary windows with argon filled, double-glazed windows saves 2.4
tons of CO2 per year for homes with gas heat, 3.9 tons of oil heat, and
9.8 tons for electric heat.
- Plant shade trees and paint your house a light
color if you live in a warm climate, or a dark color if you live in a cold
climate. Reductions in energy use resulting from shade trees and
appropriate painting can save up to 2.4 tons of CO2 emissions per year.
(Each tree also directly absorbs about 25 pounds of CO2 from the air
annually.)
Business and community
- Work with your employer to
implement these and other energy-efficiency and waste-reduction measures
in your office or workplace. Form or join local citizens' groups and work
with local government officials to see that these measures are taken in
schools and public buildings.
- Keep track of the
environmental voting records of candidates for office. Stay abreast of
environmental issues on both local and national levels, and write or call
your elected officials to express your concerns about energy efficiency
and global warming.
Always remember that whenever you save energy, you not only save
money, you also reduce the demand for such fossil fuels as coal, oil, and
natural gas. Less burning of fossil fuels also means lower emissions of carbon
dioxide (CO2), the primary contributor to global warming, and other pollutants.
You do not
have to do without to achieve these savings. There is now an energy efficient
alternative for almost every kind of appliance or light fixture. That means
that consumers have a real choice and the power to change their energy use on a
revolutionary scale.
The average
American produces about 40,000 pounds of CO2 emissions per year. Together, we
use nearly a million dollars worth of energy every minute, night and day, every
day of the year. By exercising even a few of the following steps, you can cut
your annual emissions by thousands of pounds and your energy bills by a
significant amount!
Another thing that people
often forget that a small move can make a difference and someday u start taking
those baby steps ,people will start follow ur positive effort.start something
today for your own planet.
Good night friends hope I am
able to ignite a little spark in you ..