25 Ways to Green the World #8-9

#8: Put Efficiency First

We're doing pretty well with this one. Except for a few mistakes, we've chosen energy-efficient appliances (refrigerator, front-loading washer, CFLs, etc.), and when we have a choice, we use them as little as possible. For example, we're pretty good at turning off lights when we're not in the room. One mistake is that we chose a small (5 cu. ft.) freezer that wasn't Energy Star-qualified. Since the store where we bought it had no small Energy Star freezers, we thought that perhaps there weren't any in this size category.

We've also tested our appliances with the Kill-A-Watt meter to see how much energy they use.

One of the most important ways we've saved energy is by not using our electric clothes dryer. We hang clothes up outdoors in the summer, and indoors in the winter. This has the bonus of humidifying our chronically dry air in the winter. We're lucky to have found a very convenient clothes rack that folds up easily, then expands to hold a whole load of laundry. It has metal rods, so I can use my regular clothes pins. Once you get used to it, hanging laundry really doesn't take much longer to do since you're essentially straightening out the clothes when you're hanging them up as opposed to straightening them out when you take them out of the dryer.

An interesting website: Project Laundry List.

#9: Advance Green Energy

We've purchased 100% wind energy for almost seven years now. We were one of the first customers when this option became available.

We looked into solar panels - and even paid for the $300 evaluation for its suitability - but it just doesn't work for our location. Partly, it's a problem with the orientation of the roof, though that's not insurmountable. The main issue is trees. We would have had to cut down the tree on the south side of the house that shades our house in the summer. And even that wasn't insurmountable. I would have done it, though I would have been sad. The real problem is that we would have to ask neighbors never to plant a large tree (which would have made our solar installation worthless). This would be a lot to ask of people, and for that matter, we would have had to ask neighbors to sign a solar easement, adding to the cost and complication of the project. All in all, we decided that there would have to be other ways for us to advance green energy. Maybe some day, there will be improvements in PV panels that would make this feasible.

We also checked out solar hot water heating, but given the pipes in our house this would have been prohibitively expensive.