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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.

If you remember a few months ago, I wrote about how I was going to donate my wedding gown to Brides Against Breast Cancer.  Today, while I was sitting at work, I looked up at my post-it notes to see that the days to donate in the Philly area were yesterday and the day before.  I missed it.  So I checked their calendar to see if they were headed to another location that would be within driving distance.  Turns out I didn’t miss it, they are rescheduling the event for sometime next year (date TBD). 

I really wanted to donate my dress before we officially moved, just so I didn’t have to move the dress one more time.  They do have a form to fill out for donation and mailing.  So I think on my “to do” list this weekend will be to mail my dress to them.  I also wanted to get the donation done during this tax year so I can handle so many of the items I’ve donated at once.

I did notice for all my friends back in Cleveland that they are holding an event March 26-28.  These events are for donating and purchasing, so if you are a bride-to-be check them out!  They also have events across the country, so if you want to find an event near you check out their website.  Or you could do what I am doing, and mail in your donation.

So with our move to a new city, we had to find a new bank.  It was just getting to be a huge problem with the closest branch being 4 hours away (one-way).  With the banking sector in the state it is in, I was very careful as to where I was willing to put my money.  After much debate, we opened an account at Citizens Bank.  They are one of the larger banks in the Philly region.

This is a green blog, so why am I telling you where I opened a bank account?  The reason is because they have a new feature for their checking account that I wanted to talk about.  The name is called Green$ense.  Green$ense, to me, is a type of rewards program. You can earn up to $120 a year, depending on the number of non-paper payments you make.

So I was trying to figure out what makes it “green”.  Most of it you can do with any account and I’ve already been doing it.  They require you to do eStatements, so no paper is being generated to mail you a monthly statement.  You do not earn rewards on paper checks, again to try to reduce the amount of paper.  They provide online bill pay, again eliminating the paper.  That seems easy enough and something you can probably accomplish with just about any account.  The one thing different that they are doing with this type of account, which I’m not aware of another bank doing, is to give you a debit card that is made of recycled plastic.  They will also send you a monthly email with green tips and  your positive environmental impact by doing so much electronically, instead of using paper.  I haven’t gotten the email yet, so I don’t know how good the information is, but I’m hopeful.

While Citizens is marketing this with the green spin, I’m sure it is saving them a ton of money in not having to handle the paper.  Truly, most of this you can do with any bank and I encourage it (if you haven’t already).  Get your statement emailed to you.  Take advantage of online bill pay.  The less paper you use, the better.

A few months ago, my mom asked me if there was anything she could do to reduce the amount of water that was being used from washing hands in the bathroom.  She was looking for something she could either attach to the faucet or replace the faucet all together.  Living in the desert of Arizona, water gets very expensive.  When she asked me, I didn’t find anything right away online.  However, while recently doing some research into products that I want to put into my next home and stumbled into something called WaterSense. 

WaterSense is a label put out by the EPA to promote water-efficient products. By installing a WaterSense labeled bathroom faucet or accessory, you could reduce the amount of water by 30%.  Now pay attention, because I said faucet or accessory.  What I mean there is, my mom can go to the store and buy an aerator (with the WaterSense logo), then simply unscrew the old aerator from the faucet and screw the new one on.  No tools required.  This also means, that when I go to do all the upgrades on my new house (and there will be a lot of upgrades), I can buy a faucet with the WaterSense label on it.  If they tend to be more expensive, I’ll just buy whatever faucet I want and then spend a couple bucks on the aerator.

I don’t know why this WaterSense concept isn’t being promoted more.  This even goes beyond just faucets, but also toilets, showerheads, landscape irrigation and even just every day practices for water conservation.  For me, the faucet one is by far the easiest to do.  It takes less than $5 and less than 5 minutes.  Even if you don’t consider yourself handy at all, give this one a try.  I think of the task being similar to replacing a light bulb and I know you can do that.  I actually had a hard time finding instructions on the web because it is so easy, but these are decent.  If you aren’t sure if your product is already a WaterSense labeled product, you can look up products that qualify on the EPA website.