Six Ways to Save Water and Energy (and One Electricity Saver)
Water and energy go hand in hand. It takes significant resources to prepare and deliver tap water, more so for bottled water. When you heat that water, you’re using even more energy. These simple tips can help you save water, energy and money.
- Use less hot water.
- Hot water is doubly bad. Not only does filtration, treatment and delivery use energy, heating uses even more!
- If you really can’t use less hot water, consider a tankless water heater. Where a standard water heater uses energy to heat water and maintain its temperature, even when not in use, a tankless heater heats the water as it’s used.
- Replace aging appliances with newer, EnergyStar certified units.
- All EnergyStar certified appliances certainly use less energy than your existing aplpiances.
- EnergyStar certified water appliances, such as washing machines, use less water.
- Redesign your bathroom water usage.
- Consider a newer toilet, which will require less water per flush.
- Install a shower head with smaller, higher-pressure nozzles. This will provide you with the same feel as your existing shower head, while using less water.
- Look for hands-free, automatic faucets. There are several on the market that use the force of running water to charge a battery, so they don’t require any power. They also save a lot of water by shutting off automatically when not in use.
- Eat less meat.
- Fruit, vegetables and grains require water to grow and energy to harvest.
- Animals require water and vegetation to raise and energy to slaughter. Meat requires energy to process, transport and store.
- Not only are fruit, vegetables and grains healthier, they require much less energy to produce, as well as prepare.
- Shrink your lawn, expand your garden.
- Watering.
- Fertilizing.
- Mowing.
- Did I forget anything?
- Use locally sourced water.
- Water is heavy. It takes a lot of energy to transport water.
- Bottled water uses energy in the bottling process; then, uses more to get to a warehouse. From there, more energy is used to track and count the bottles before even more is used to ship them to your local store. Then, you get to use your own energy to go get your water and to store it in your fridge.
- Much less energy is used to simply filter tap water and pour it into a bottle or pitcher.
All of these steps are simple and, when you really think about it, make a lot of sense. Some of them require an up-front investment but, rest assured, they will pay for themselves many times over, in the form of reduced water usage and lower energy bills. Combining these ideas with the use of compact fluorescent bulbs (they’ve come a long way in the last couple of years, try them again if you didn’t like them a few years ago) could reduce your overall energy bills by 20-50%!
Improving the environment and saving money? That’s a no-brainer.
June 29th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
These are excellent ways to go green and save energy
Some others to consider are green electronics. In general, electronics, like computers, printers, televisions, telephones and others, make great gifts; however, now, there is a wide selection of green electronics available by all of the leading brands, including Apple, Sony, HP, Panasonic and more.
Green electronics are those which are ENERGY STAR® qualified. ENERGY STAR® is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy helping us all save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices. Energy efficient choices save families about one third on their energy bill with similar savings in greenhouse gas emissions. An ENERGY STAR® product does not sacrifice features, style or comfort.
Green electronics would make great gifts, but really help the environment and save you money by conserving energy. Please visit http://www.whichgreenelectronics.com for more information on these products.