Going Green!!

     As the title implies, this page is all about going green!! I know what you are thinking, this guy is going to tell me a bunch of BS about going green and it will be more trouble and more costly than it's worth. On the contrary, I will give advice based on my experience and be very honest about the results. I have no reason to try to tell you that you need $40,000 worth of solar panels, I'm not trying to sell anything here, just trying to save you, and myself, some "green" by going green!!

Tip #1: Take all of your incandescent bulbs and throw them away!! I see no reason to use them any longer, they use over 3 times the energy of a compact fluorescent and last only a fraction of the time. Do the math, a standard 60 Watt light bulb uses....60 Watts. The 60 Watt fluorescent equivalent uses only 13 Watts. Say you replace just 5 of your old bulbs with CFLs, that's using 235 Watts less if you had all 5 of those bulbs on at the same time. "But, the light that they put out looks blue and I think it's tacky". False! There is a wide range of options when it comes to the color of the light. Make sure that you read the label, it will show the color of light you can expect from the bulb.  "They sure are expensive!!" Wrong again!! At the current time, our local power company is giving these bulbs away FOR FREE!!! Yes FREE!! So, check with your power company and see if they are offering the same! I guarantee you will see a difference in your monthly bill after you replace your light bulbs with CFLs, just try it! I've been using them for years, very very rarely do I have to change a bulb!

Gas Water Heater Adjustment

Tip #2: My next tip is one that is very often overlooked and it will cost you $0.00 to do. First I'll ask you a question, "How HOT is your HOT water???" If it's hot enough to burn you, it's too hot and you are wasting energy! Whether it is gas or electric, turning down the heat on your water heater can save you big $$$. Just a personal experience, I know someone who moved into a house and when he got his first electric bill it was outrageous! So much so that we thought something was majorly wrong with the house. After turning everything off and using very minimal light and such, the bill was still over $300!! I asked him if he had turned off the water heater b/c I noticed the water was scalding hot. He said, "No, I don't see how that could cause the bill to be $300" So, he reluctantly turned it off while out of town for a few weeks. Behold, the next bill was under $100!! After seeing the results, we turned the water heater down to 120 degrees and his bill is much lower. So, go turn down that water heater!! Save yourself some $$$! Gas water heaters are easy, adjust the valve as in the picture above. For an electric, there are usually 2 covers that need to be removed, usually held on with 1 or 2 screws and then use a screwdriver to adjust the thermostat.