AttemptGreen.com

We’ve been doing a lot of work on our house lately but haven’t moved in yet.  While we were working on things we noticed that we haven’t been getting any hot water.  Turns out the pilot light needed lighting on the hot water heater.  In doing so we had to reset the temperature on the hot water tank.  When setting the dial, my husband asked where it should be set.  Great question.  Do you know what temperature your hot water heater is set to?

The Department of Energy says that the average household should be set to 120 degrees.  I don’t know about your dial, but mine doesn not have numbers to know what temperature it is set at.  This is when I turn to one of my favorite magazines, The Family Handyman.  This article explains how to find that magical temperature setting and has a picture of the dial, so you know what you are looking for.

The other thing I want to point out is the vacation setting on your hot water heater.  When I go on vacation, there are a number of things I turn down or off.  The temperature gets turned down (in winter, up in summer).  The water gets shut off.  I would also recommend an additional item to turn down, the hot water heater.  On the temperature dial of the hot water heater, there is the word “Vacation”.  By setting the dial to vacation, it turns down the amount of gas being used to the bare minimum without turning it off completely.  You could turn it off completely, but keep in mind you may have to relight the pilot light if you do.

Now that the temperatures are getting colder, it is time to turn the furnace on.  That also means it is time to consider any kind of maintenance that needs done to your furnace.  Most of the stuff I don’t know a whole lot about, but I do know about filters.

Replacing the filter in the furnace is extremely important.  The filter’s job is to collect little particles of stuff in the air before it gets pushed into the rest of the house.  All of these little particles accumulate on the filter and eventually build-up.  The air that is being heated by the furnace is blown into the filter (and the build-up) and into the rest of the house.  If there is enough build-up on the filter, the furnace is going to run longer than it needs to just because that air can’t flow freely into the house to heat it up.  This is why it is so important to replace your filter regularly.

Confession time.  A few years ago, we were working on updating our basement.  This included a lot of patching and sanding the mud used for drywall.  This stuff creates a ton of small particles in the air.  It was summer time and the air conditioner was running (the air conditioner uses the same filter as the furnace).  I started to notice that the air conditioner seemed to run forever and eventually it was actually hotter inside the house than outside.  I thought our air conditioner had broke.  Turns out, we just had to replace the filter.  All the little dust particles had built up in the filter not allowing the cold air to pass into the rest of the house.  So this just proves how important it is to replace the filter.

I know I have been bad about blogging lately.  We recently purchased a house and I have been very busy with making updates.  However, it is providing lots of topics for me to write about.  Today I want to talk about a new purchase I just made, a new washer and dryer.

The previous owner’s washer and dryer were in pretty bad condition and we knew we weren’t going to keep them.  So with yesterday being Veterans Day, and all the huge sales, I purchased a new washer and dryer.  There were a lot of factors that went into picking out what to buy.

First, I looked for the Energy Star rating.  With the washer, there were a couple of features that were important to me.  I was looking for the ability to set the temperature of the water.  I also wanted the ability to set how large the load is.  This way I could minimize the energy to heat the water and how much water is used based on the laundry I was putting in.  Having these options on a washer, and using them, can really help with energy consumption.  The biggest different between washers though is a top-loader versus a front-loader.  I went with the front-loader based on the fact that it uses drastically less water than a top-loader does (nearly 40% ).  There are many other features you can look for in a washer, but what I’ve found are that these are the important ones when it comes to being green.

I started out being a little frustrated with the dryer.  I couldn’t find a dryer with an Energy Star rating.  Then I found out that Energy Star does not rate dryers “since there is little difference in the energy use between models.”   Once I figured that out, I felt better.  The one feature in a dryer that is important to pay attention to is the moisture sensor.  The moisture sensor will sense how wet the clothes are and adjust the run time accordingly to how wet the clothes are.  This means that the dryer will only run the necessary amount of time and minimize the amount of energy used.  The biggest difference between dryers is gas versus electric and for the most part anyone will use which ever their house is setup for.  Our house happens to be hooked up with gas, so naturally I bought a gas dryer.  A gas dryer is more expensive to buy, but less expensive to run.  I couldn’t find any numbers as far as what is more energy friendly.

So once you have all the features you want, brands I believe are more of a personal preference on how much you want to spend and what level of quality you want to buy.  I personally choose the LG brand, but was in debate with Maytag and Whirlpool as well.  I also considered GE for a less expensive option. 

For more laundry tips to save energy, check out the department of energy’s website.

Before making the decision to change my life style, I used to use some pretty strong cleaning products, especially in the bathroom.  My favorite was Tilex Mold and Mildew remover.  After spraying down the shower, I would turn the fan on, open the window, and close the door.  This was all so that the fumes from the ammonia would not go into the rest of the house.  I would let it sit for about 15 minutes before going back in and wiping down the tub and rinsing it all off.  While I would be scrubbing the tiles and tub, I would hold my nose to stop the ammonia from burning the inside of my nose.  Once I was all done, I would close the door again with the window open to let the bathroom air out. I can’t imagine what the harshness of the chemicals is doing to the environment. 

So the last time I bought a bathroom cleaner, I decided to try the Green Works Natural Bathroom Cleaner product by Clorox .  I really like this product.  There are no harsh smells.  It is easy to use.  Most importantly, it works.  I simply sprayed it in the shower, used the scrub brush for a minute or two, and rinsed it off.  I admit, I was skeptical at first that it would be hard to truly get the shower clean without a lot of elbow grease. 

I haven’t tried the rest of the Green Works product line, yet.  I will be trying more cleaning products in future, and this one has inspired me to go on trying more.  In case anyone is wondering, as far as my dish washer soap goes, I’m still using Palmolive Eco+.  I haven’t found what I’m looking for yet in a dishwasher soap, but I feel it is a step in the right direction.

I was reading an announcement by the EPA today about tightening up standards on lawn equipment. It really got me thinking about how we maintain our yards and what kind of landscaping we put in.

In most of America, we have green grass lawns that we mow every week during the summer and always wanting the bigger yard. It seems to me that people (generalizing here) are obsessed with getting all kinds of power equipment to maintain their property. Not just lawn mowers, but weed whackers, leaf blowers, snow blowers, the list goes on. The only reason we need all these powered machines is because we strive for that larger property that we can’t take care of on our own.

I am currently in the midst of shopping for a new home and yard size is something that we have considered very carefully and put towards the top of our priority list. Now my husband agrees with me to have a smaller yard, but I think that is merely for the laziness factor. Our goal is to be able to mow and trim the entire yard in less than half an hour. We don’t want to achieve this by buying bigger machines that suck more gas and put more pollutants in the air. So we are intentionally buying a house with a smaller yard, and even then I may consider putting in more landscaping (flower beds or a vegetable garden) to keep the part that needs mowed smaller.

My brother used to have a rather small yard. Instead of buying a gas or electric powered lawn mower, he bought a push reel mower. I often think of these as old fashion, but I really think they are on to something here and much cheaper too. If you are pushing a mower using man power anyways, do you really need something powered by gas?

My parents live in the desert of Arizona. They have opted to go the landscaping route. What that means is that their “yard” is entirely made up of rocks/stones with only desert thriving plants in it. They don’t mow their lawn and they don’t water their grass because they don’t have any grass. The only yard work they have is to pull the occasional weed.

Think about the equipment you use and the type of landscaping in your yard. Perhaps it is time to consider reducing the size of your lawn, change the landscaping or changing equipment to better suit the size of the job.