The most recent Ways to Save covered how you can save money and the environment while in your kitchen.
In continuing with our room-by-room theme, we’ll go to the living room this week.
We all know to close the damper in our fireplace. However, did you know by doing that you will be saving 8 percent of your heat from escaping, or about $100 a year?
Something else to consider — use matches instead of a lighter to start that fire. The butane fuel and plastic for lighters are both made from petroleum, and 1.5 million lighters go into our landfills each year.
When using matches, use match sticks as they are usually made out of recycled paper products, while stick matches are made of trees.
You’ve heard about compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL) and how they can save us money and energy as well as cut down on greenhouse gas emissions. Well here’s some more interesting information about compact fluorescents.
Did you know lighting accounts for close to 20 percent of the average home’s electric bill? An Energy Star-qualified CFL can use up to 75 percent less electricity than incandescent light bulbs and can last up to 10 times longer.
If every home in America replaced just one incandescent light bulb with an Energy Star-qualified compact fluorescent, in one year it would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes. That would prevent the release of greenhouse gas emissions equal to that of about 800,000 cars.
One thing people may not know about CFLs is what to do when they break or how to dispose of them once they have burned out.
In 2006, the state of California prohibited disposing of fluorescent light bulbs in the trash. You must recycle them.
To find out more go to recologyauburnplacer.com to learn where and how you can dispose of compact fluorescents, and how to clean one up if broken.
Junk mail has certainly slowed down with the economy, but it still exists. The average household can receive 1.5 trees-worth of junk mail per year. By going online to www.dma
consumers.org/cgi/off
mailinglist you can register with the Mail Preference Service (cost is a dollar) and reduce the amount of junk mail you receive.
Remember to recycle the mail you do get, even the envelopes with plastic windows. If we all did that, $370 million dollars in landfill dumping fees would be saved.
The last way to save in the living room is to keep your drapes closed at night in the winter and during the day in the summer, thus reducing your energy needs by 25 percent.
Here’s to wishing each one of you a year of savings in ways you’ve never thought of before.
Remember, your thoughts and ideas are always welcome.
Kristi Meyer is a real estate agent with HomeTown Realtors in Auburn. She has been serving the Placer and Sacramento counties for the past six years. Contact Meyer at seekristi@see
hometown.com.
