Living Green?
Do you remember, when green was just that, a color? But now it is associated with improving our indoor and outdoor environment for a healthier lifestyle.
In one of this week's episodes, a world-famous expert and founder of The Green Design Center expounded on the importance of being aware of green building products used in our home, otherwise, we expose ourselves to toxic or harmful chemicals.
In this blog, I hope to share what we can do to mitigate the exposure of deleterious products and how to save financially, and of course, I will share my personal perspective or humble opinion of whatever it is worth.
The Green lifestyle means the embracing of an ecological friendly way of living that centers on living sustainably and with a sense of responsibility by utilizing natural resources. This include Recycling, minimizing waste, and employing efficient energy saving practices. Many will argue that it is a huge inconvenience, but this lifestyle of living green does not require a total revamping of our lives. Instead, going green encompasses small but meaningful actionable steps to safeguard our health and our natural environment of which we were entrusted. However, like many other things, there is a balance we need to strike, otherwise, it gets to a point where it becomes unreasonable, inane and senseless.
For example, the initial expense needs to be considered and weighed carefully in terms of your personal situation. The problem is that the savings that come from going green are often much less than we expected because it takes time to recoup the initial expense quick enough to warrant the cost.
Let us say your situation is living for five or six years in your home for whatever reason, therefore, how long will it take to recapture your initial investment? If you were going to install a solar system, and considering all the variables that come into play, the return on investment is an average of eight years. In your view, does it make sense economically?
Another scenario of which is more my bailiwick, field of knowledge, the real estate industry. Let us say you purchased a home and intend to sell it in ten years, would it make sense to acquire a higher fixed interest rate loan where a lower adjustable rate is available as a fixed rate for the first ten years? It is a matter of being practical and weighing all your options.
Not too long an acquaintance was telling me he purchased an electric vehicle and is paying $800.00 per month and feels good about doing his part in reducing the pollution produced by not using petroleum. This is fine, however from an economic perspective, do you have a current vehicle payment? And would you be hard pressed to spend close to $800.00 on gas per month? By the way, he also informed me that when he takes his electric car to the shop, it costs him almost a thousand every time. What I am saying is not to denounce anyone, but the purpose of going green is to improve the environment and to save money, in some cases it falls short of doing both.
Yet, there are straight forward ways we can save such as replacing appliances to save from 10-50% on your utility bill, like ovens, stovetops, and refrigerators with the label ENERGY STAR is one way to go green without impacting your lifestyle. Recently, we purchased an energy-efficient washing machine and ENERGY STAR dryer combination to cut down on water usage and electricity, but that was not the sole purpose, the previous washer and dryer were looking worse for wear.
In the past, I have been asked what I thought about tankless water heaters and my response to that question is mixed because in one hand it has a high rating in energy efficiency, and my research revealed that Americans waste 9,400 gallons of water annually, what a waste! However, here I go again, there is a disadvantage in having a tankless water heater. How so? When your water source or utility company for some reason goes down, what do you do for much needed hydration? If you get rid of your 50-100 water gallon source, you too would be left looking worse for wear.
Again, going green is not just about improving the environment, but it also includes being practical, and includes your finances where it makes sense.
Speaking of conserving precious water, we can stop pre-rinsing, and that is right, hand -washing your dinner plates and forget the automatic heating dry cycle on your dishwasher. Did you know you can save about 11% on your electric bill by just cleaning your refrigerator coils once a month? and Did you know you can save $10-20 each month simply by forgetting the automatic ice maker and starting using ice trays instead?
These simple tactics prevent the fridge from working so hard as well as you to meet your monthly obligations.
For those that spend time in the kitchen, stop preheating your stove too prematurely, and make sure to keep the oven door shut while cooking my dinner, otherwise, you will lose Up to 25 degrees of heat. I hope you got my intimation when I said my dinner.
Here are some additional ideas to cut back on this life-giving element, water. We can wear our clothing such as pants, shirts and so forth a bit longer, providing they are still presentable, and wait until you have a full load of laundry to wash. We also use cold water, and since washers use 75-90% of their energy to heat water, so, if you can get away with it, use the coldest cycle as an alternative.
Another eco-friendly laundry idea is to air dry your clothing on clotheslines or anything other than your front porch.
The foregoing are just a few ideas to go green and save on your hard-earned money, and we have not touched on toxic chemicals we have in our home. Some individuals are very sensitive to synthetic chemicals, therefore before your next spring cleaning, give thought to changing to cleaning products that are eco-friendly, or better yet, use alternative homemade cleaning solutions.
Studies have shown artificial cleaners can be toxic to our health and to our natural environment. Even disposing of these products can potentially cause water and air contamination. So, using green cleaning products mitigates substance related health risks, it improves our air quality which is one of my pet peeves when dining out and all of a sudden a strong wave of cleaning chemicals hits your face.
At this point as I excuse myself, allow me to say “do what you can to stay healthy and be conscious of the natural environment.”Do you remember, when green was just that, a color? But now it is associated with improving our indoor and outdoor environment for a healthier lifestyle.
In one of this week's episodes, a world-famous expert and founder of The Green Design Center expounded on the importance of being aware of green building products used in our home, otherwise, we expose ourselves to toxic or harmful chemicals.
In this blog, I hope to share what we can do to mitigate the exposure of deleterious products and how to save financially, and of course, I will share my personal perspective or humble opinion of whatever it is worth.
The Green lifestyle means the embracing of an ecological friendly way of living that centers on living sustainably and with a sense of responsibility by utilizing natural resources. This include Recycling, minimizing waste, and employing efficient energy saving practices. Many will argue that it is a huge inconvenience, but this lifestyle of living green does not require a total revamping of our lives. Instead, going green encompasses small but meaningful actionable steps to safeguard our health and our natural environment of which we were entrusted. However, like many other things, there is a balance we need to strike, otherwise, it gets to a point where it becomes unreasonable, inane and senseless.
For example, the initial expense needs to be considered and weighed carefully in terms of your personal situation. The problem is that the savings that come from going green are often much less than we expected because it takes time to recoup the initial expense quick enough to warrant the cost.
Let us say your situation is living for five or six years in your home for whatever reason, therefore, how long will it take to recapture your initial investment? If you were going to install a solar system, and considering all the variables that come into play, the return on investment is an average of eight years. In your view, does it make sense economically?
Another scenario of which is more my bailiwick, field of knowledge, the real estate industry. Let us say you purchased a home and intend to sell it in ten years, would it make sense to acquire a higher fixed interest rate loan where a lower adjustable rate is available as a fixed rate for the first ten years? It is a matter of being practical and weighing all your options.
Not too long an acquaintance was telling me he purchased an electric vehicle and is paying $800.00 per month and feels good about doing his part in reducing the pollution produced by not using petroleum. This is fine, however from an economic perspective, do you have a current vehicle payment? And would you be hard pressed to spend close to $800.00 on gas per month? By the way, he also informed me that when he takes his electric car to the shop, it costs him almost a thousand every time. What I am saying is not to denounce anyone, but the purpose of going green is to improve the environment and to save money, in some cases it falls short of doing both.
Yet, there are straight forward ways we can save such as replacing appliances to save from 10-50% on your utility bill, like ovens, stovetops, and refrigerators with the label ENERGY STAR is one way to go green without impacting your lifestyle. Recently, we purchased an energy-efficient washing machine and ENERGY STAR dryer combination to cut down on water usage and electricity, but that was not the sole purpose, the previous washer and dryer were looking worse for wear.
In the past, I have been asked what I thought about tankless water heaters and my response to that question is mixed because in one hand it has a high rating in energy efficiency, and my research revealed that Americans waste 9,400 gallons of water annually, what a waste! However, here I go again, there is a disadvantage in having a tankless water heater. How so? When your water source or utility company for some reason goes down, what do you do for much needed hydration? If you get rid of your 50-100 water gallon source, you too would be left looking worse for wear.
Again, going green is not just about improving the environment, but it also includes being practical, and includes your finances where it makes sense.
Speaking of conserving precious water, we can stop pre-rinsing, and that is right, hand -washing your dinner plates and forget the automatic heating dry cycle on your dishwasher. Did you know you can save about 11% on your electric bill by just cleaning your refrigerator coils once a month? and Did you know you can save $10-20 each month simply by forgetting the automatic ice maker and starting using ice trays instead?
These simple tactics prevent the fridge from working so hard as well as you to meet your monthly obligations.
For those that spend time in the kitchen, stop preheating your stove too prematurely, and make sure to keep the oven door shut while cooking my dinner, otherwise, you will lose Up to 25 degrees of heat. I hope you got my intimation when I said my dinner.
Here are some additional ideas to cut back on this life-giving element, water. We can wear our clothing such as pants, shirts and so forth a bit longer, providing they are still presentable, and wait until you have a full load of laundry to wash. We also use cold water, and since washers use 75-90% of their energy to heat water, so, if you can get away with it, use the coldest cycle as an alternative.
Another eco-friendly laundry idea is to air dry your clothing on clotheslines or anything other than your front porch.
The foregoing are just a few ideas to go green and save on your hard-earned money, and we have not touched on toxic chemicals we have in our home. Some individuals are very sensitive to synthetic chemicals, therefore before your next spring cleaning, give thought to changing to cleaning products that are eco-friendly, or better yet, use alternative homemade cleaning solutions.
Studies have shown artificial cleaners can be toxic to our health and to our natural environment. Even disposing of these products can potentially cause water and air contamination. So, using green cleaning products mitigates substance related health risks, it improves our air quality which is one of my pet peeves when dining out and all of a sudden a strong wave of cleaning chemicals hits your face.
At this point as I excuse myself, allow me to say “do what you can to stay healthy and be conscious of the natural environment.”