Brian is obsessed with putting a solar array on our roof ($20,000, um ouch), but for now, our other energy + earth saving efforts will have to do. Looking at him, you would have no idea he is really a tree-hugging hippie.
1. We have owned our hybrid car for three years, and will never look back. It gets up to 50 MPG on road trips, 30-35 MPG in cold winters, and will get back up to 40 MPG when the weather gets warm again. Brian wants our next car to be all-electric or biodiesel hybrid. Used vegetable oil! The car is gonna smell like fries. I am kind of torn on this idea.
2. Many of the lights in our house use compact fluorescents. We have the TV plugged into a powerstrip so that when it’s off all day and all night, we can switch off the power so it’s using no energy. If your TV is plugged into the wall, it’s still using electricity even when it’s turned off. We keep the thermostat set to 68 degrees instead of 70.
3. We recycle paper, plastic, and glass (this one’s pretty common for everyone in WA).
4. We have started using biodegradable kitty litter. It looks like rabbit food and turns to sawdust when it gets peed upon. It does not stink and does not track all over the house. Brian dug a pit in the backyard behind the shed and deposited a kitchen-sized trash can into the bottom, with holes drilled into the base. The used kitty litter will be composted there, though the compost will not be used in the garden or anything. It will just degrade and stay out of the landfill.
5. We got a countertop compost container — basically a ceramic cookie jar with a charcoal filter in the lid. I fill it with kitchen scraps and other biodegradables, and then every few days dump it into the compost bin outside.
6. The compost bin is a barrel-shaped container that spins around on an axis so the stuff inside can be easily mixed. It’s where we will put all yard waste, lawn clippings, and food waste, as well as wormies I find while gardening. The worms do most of the work. Eventually we will have real compost! We will also save some money — the city charges for yard waste pickup.
7. The washer and dryer that came with our house are hateful energy hogs, not to mention they threaten to eventually ruin all my clothes. Next month we plan to sell them and replace with brand new energy star washer/dryers that have things like low heat and small load settings, and super fast spin cycles to decrease dryer time. I wonder what color I’ll pick? Blue? Red?
8. We have an electric lawnmower. It plugs in and charges like any other electric device. No gasoline needed, no emissions.
9. We don’t use the car to commute, obvs. Public transportation daily. No stress, less of a “carbon footprint”, as “they” say.
10. Most of the time, when we go to the supermarket we bring paper bags to re-use, or canvas grocery bags.
Brian also has this plan to collect rainwater from the gutters and incorporate it into our plumbing to be used in the toilets, but it turns out you actually need a permit or something for that? It’s still in the research phase.
I don’t know how much you actually will need to water your yard/garden in WA, but one easy thing that my mom (queen of the tree huggers) has done since the 70s is using your washing machine water in the yard. If you use the right/natural detergent, you can connect your washer’s outlet to a hose instead of the sink.
I am going to do rain barrels on the downspouts at Jesse’s this year, again for the yard/garden.
Our washer is off the garage so I don’t know how easy that would be, but I like the downspout idea — though it does sound like what Brian wants to do as far as connecting that to toilet tanks.
I don’t think we will have to water the garden too much in summer… depends though, maybe we’ll have a nice heatwave or two.
I started some tomato seeds in the kitchen window a couple weeks ago, so far I have one sprout. How long do those things take to come up, usually?
I don’t do warm-weather stuff (like tomatoes) from seed as the growing season here is too short – I like to just get established plants after memorial day.
Here is some good stuff on a site that I like:
http://www.yougrowgirl.com/thedirt/2008/02/15/seed-starting-and-springing-ahead/
ps – email me your new address, homeowners!!!
Yeah I could wait too, but the seeds were only $2 and I figured why not give it a shot. If they don’t thrive I’ll definitely just get some plants and put them in my big box planters on the front porch.
Try getting a front-loader washer instead of a top-loader since it uses much, much less water. We found that when we switched, it cut our water bill by over 30%.
Oh absolutely, front loader all the way. I can’t wait. I kind of want to get them ASAP so I can save my poor delicates.
About water conservation
As a previous commenter mentioned, you can get a ghetto gray-water system going to reuse water from the washing machine, the sink, and the shower. It’s ghetto because you’ll have to totally disregard such minutiae as city codes and whatnot. You’ll also either have to do it yourself or pay a plumber under the table to do it. If anybody shows up from the city, just scream the word “takings” at them and threaten to sue. That always works.
It will be a lot harder to feed water into the system from a rain barrel or cistern because your pipes are under pressure. It’s easier to just plumb it so that it goes directly into the garden without faffing around with the house plumbing.
You can add bricks to the toilet tank to make it low-flow. There’s also the tried-and-true “If it’s yellow, let it mellow…”
I don’t know a lot about solar panels other than that they’re about the most expensive form of “renewable” energy. I’ve heard that solar hot water or hot water on demand will actually save a lot more money/energy for the initial cost outlay.
Washington State probably has a rebate program for solar, but I don’t know how much that would offset the costs. Also, with the solar: don’t put your array anywhere near a tree. The dude down the street from me lost a limb off a tree and it hit his array, throwing the whole thing off-kilter and cracking a couple panels.
Y’all should ditch the lawn and “grow native.” Less water, less hassle, more habitat, more beauty. You can even get shaggy native “lawns” of wildflowers and native grasses that require virtually no care once established.
How do you like the CFL’s? Does the light quality look gross, or is it okay? Also, do you notice a reduction in your energy bill?
Good times.
Re: About water conservation
I love the growing native idea. I am not that huge of a fan of rolling hills of grass unless it’s a park or a pasture. I really want to make a brick or stone path in our backyard anyway (ooh with a birdbath for the cats’ entertainment), and also maybe clear more grass for a vegetable garden. I can do whatever I want! It’s my house! So yeah I’d like to take out some of the grass. But seriously half of our land is woods already. And a lot of it is flowers, flowering bushes, and small trees. So we don’t just have fence-to-fence grass.
I personally don’t like the CFLs for reading. I need me some bright yellow light for that. The problem I still have with CFLs is the F part. Fluorescent light is still not very pretty.
Re: About water conservation
There’s nothing so sweet as the “It’s my house, and I can do whatever I want!”
My first act when my mom bought her house: physically RIP the nasty, dirty, ugly beige carpets out of the bedrooms, exposing the beautiful hardwood floors underneath. It was frankly magical. One hard day’s labor for a really astonishing change in the whole aesthetic of the bedrooms.
My second act was to get rid of these stupid foot-high tea roses in the front yard and put in some native shrubs. (Trust me, they looked stupid.)
But your yard sounds really nice…
Thanks for the info on the CFL’s.
Re: About water conservation
I am a gardening novice. So it’s going to take me a while to get anything done.
I do want to know what’s under the carpeting in the living room and dining room.
Re: About water conservation
I have gotten used to the CFL light for everything, probably because my work has fluorescent light too. Although the cost saving is fantastic, we now have to worry about the disposal because of (mercury). gasp. but then so does all other technology. My front porch light burned 24/7 for over one year and then burned out when I turned it off for Halloween (that’s what I get for being a grinch. (actually I had choir practice and didn’t want to freak the cats with doorbells). Mom
8. even better than an electric mower, and it makes awesome sword-sharpening noises!
I’ll see your manual mower and raise you
My dad refuses to get a mower– he cuts the lawn with hedge shears!! People think he’s so strange but I love the idea!!