An Evolving Plan for "Going Green" in all areas of our home and life

Like so many Americans; we have worked hard for many years
but find our selves in debt without the extra money for the changes we would
like to make in our home and in our lives in our personal effort to go green
and save our planet. Having said that I firmly believe where there is a will
there is a way and we have the will to go green so this effort is part of my
planning the way to succeed in our dream.

• Lighting: I have
  been changing the light bulbs in the house as they need to be changed with
  energy efficient bulbs. I still need to make an inventory of all the
  lights in the house and what bulbs and the cost of those bulbs will be needed
  to replace them all. When I have completed this project I can compare our
  old energy bills with the new ones and the cost of the old incandescent
  bulbs and the new fluorescents as our light source. During the day when I
  am at home alone I simply leave the lights off.

• Sunday Sept 30th A funny thing happened last night, John came in the bedroom and I said "Guess what? The bulb in my bedside light just blew out! He dashed down to the pantry and back with 2 different sizes of the new fluorescents. Pretty funny for us to both be jazzed to have a bulb blow out just so we could change one more bulb. I decided to keep a list of the dates bulbs are installed so that we can see how long they really last.
• October 22nd, I have found a new ENERGY SMART bulb I just can't live with. It is the candle base bulb 9watt = 40 watt designed to replace a very small, almost dainty bulb used in candle base chandeliers. I seem to be playing both Ed and Rochele out in my head on this one. The Ed in my head bought them and the Rochele said "You've got to be kidding!" once I saw them in the lamps. We have light fixtures in the kitchen, dinning room and downstairs hallway that use this size bulb. I decided this weekend that I will have to replace these light fixtures with ones that can use sizes of other Energy Smart Bulbs. These bulbs are NOT a design that looks good on the lamps they are intended for.

• Thermostats: September 30th, John installed our new programmable thermostat for our heat
  and air conditioning like the one Ed showed on his show last season. It
  has cycled though it's 4 programs all day. Very interesting...October 14th, John just installed the second thermostat for the 1st floor and basement the first one was for the second floor bedrooms and attic. The outstanding attributes of using these Energy Star programmable thermostats here in the Mid West are:

  1. Number 1 has to be saving energy
  2. Number 2 has to be ease of use, in this part of the country there are many days in the Fall and the Spring were it is so cold at night you need heat and some times heats up in the day so that you need air. These thermostats work together on the same 4 rotating schedules to regulate the temperature in the house using both your heat and air as needed with out you touching it.
  3. We adapted very quickly to the change in temperature in our house and actually it is a lot more comfortable. Usually at this time of year we are freezing because we haven't turned the heat on yet, or we are too hot because we turned the air off for the year. Now I feel like Goldie Locks, its just right

• October 11th, well our fall
  weather finally came, but before it did we had replaced one of our
  thermostats. It automatically
  programs the thermostat to its built-in energy star complaint program
  settings. The first night or two we were a little too warm while sleeping
  and adjusted the temp by 2 degrees for a few hours, ala Rachelle, (It goes back to the energy star setting after the cycle it is on. You don't even need to remember to reset it.) Since then we seem to
  have adjusted; now it is cold at night and we have added another blanket
  to the bed. We heat with natural gas so it is clean
  burning. In Indiana our
  electricity is produced by burning coal. People who heat with electric pay
  less $$$ but add to the problem of pollution. Hopefully our solar
  conversion will come next year.
• October 13th we bought the second thermostat today, it is just like the first one. This one is for the first floor system, the heater is in the basement. John will install it this weekend.
• October 22nd, the 2 new Programmable Thermostats are wonderful, the house is comfortable all the time and they have made it effortless to maintain! For the first time ever the two big gas heaters for the central heating are working together. Tell Helen Hunt that there is nothing to be afraid in using a programmable thermostat, she will love it with those cool California nights and hot days. Besides, Helen, a woman who can track tornadoes shouldn't be afraid of a thermostat. We watch that movie once a year to get us ready for the tornado warnings. There are so many each year it would be easy to just ignore them, but we don't. While the experts say the movie didn't portray the real violence of the tornadoes it did enough to make us seek shelter when we are told to. Thank you, Helen, for a fun movie that shakes the house enough to make us remember to seek shelter! and watch for cows...

• Solar Power: I have
  signed us up with Citizenre’ for our Solar Service in the future.
  Unfortunately we do not live in a city that will be a part of the initial start
  up in 2008. However, I remain confident that we will be a part of the plan
  in the future as other areas are brought on board.

• Liquidating Other Assets to make Green Purchases: I am
  putting together a plan to sell many of the things in our home in an
  effort to raise the money needed to purchase the items that we might need.
  Perhaps a wind turbine for added energy savings and a used hybrid to
  replace our Volvo. In the mean time I have been looking at the Terra
  Pass. I think that is the name
  of it…
  

  • October 15th, I posted a little over a hundred books on Amazon today. I am a little tired but happy! A hundred down and lots more to go. (I tried to write oudels there instead of lots, but my spell checker made it odd eels.)
  • October 22nd, I posted another 50 books.
• Waste management: We
  already recycle and compost but after seeing Ed a week or two ago I became
  aware of the bio-degradable garbage bags which I am getting. I am looking
  for a catchment system I can use in the spring and summer to gather water
  for use in our yard. Because we
  live in the Mid-West it would need to be some thing I could store in the
  winter months so that it would not freeze and break. I already mulch
  heavily to hold the moisture in the ground during the late dry months of
  summer.
  • October 22nd, John and I did some end of the season mowing, rakeing, watering and putting the plants to bed for the winter. Gathering the beautiful Maple leaves for the compost bin for some great soil next spring. 
• Energy Efficient Appliances: I am
  putting together an inventory of our household appliances and projected
  dates of their replacement with energy star products as they need to be
  replaced. We will be needing a new furnace in the next year or two and a
  new washing machine. I think the others will give up later.
  • October 13th we bought an insulating blanket for the hot water heater today. I had intended to buy a timer for it as well and then realized that you can only use a timer on an electric hot water heater. Some day when we have solar we will get an electric one and a timer.

• Weatherizing:October 22nd, I went on our natural gas providers web site here in Indiana to check our current use against last years and to see what we use annually to be able to project what we can save. I found out two things.

  • 1. We used 84.245 therms for the current month this year and 125.240 therms last year. Thank you Ed and thank you programmable thermostats.
  • 2. We found out that even with our use last year we were way below average and below the lowest use mark on the graft. We will be way off the bottom of the charts this year.

• I had planned on replacing the insulation in the attic this fall. The part that is in
  the ceiling is falling out and needs to be reattached. I think I have
  already insulated the floor sufficiently with peanuts. When we moved here
  in 1995 and I unpacked all of the boxes I had bags and bags of packing peanuts.
  I couldn’t recycle them and I couldn’t bear to throw them in the trash so
  I started placing the bags in the attic on top of the insulation that was
  there until I could find someone who was moving and needed them. After I
  got them up there and looked at them I decided that they added an extra 8
  to 10 inches of insulation to the attic and I still have them up there as
  insulation. Maybe this is a really good idea? Maybe I should ask Ed?
  

  • October 13th Does anyone know if this was a good thing to do? Is this a good use of used peanuts? Can we ask Ed?

  THERE IS A RESPONSE BELOW TO MY PEANUT IDEA, IF YOU HAVE ANY OTHER INFORMATION PLEASE ADD IT!

  • October 13th bought a door sweep for the back door today.

• Shopping Wise: I am
  going to explore ways to cut down on the packaging of the foods we buy to
  reduce the amount of recycling we produce and trying to determine what I can obtain
  locally so that shipping is kept to a minimum. There is a lot to do to
  create this energy make over plan of my home and our lives any ideas you have would be entertained.
  

  • Sunday September 30, I picked up some information at our Farmer's Market on Saturday morning on two different farms in our area; one that has lamb and one that has beef. I am still looking for chicken and eggs.
  • Sunday October 14th, I have been told that refrigerators run more efficently and use less electricity when they are full. To echieve this there are boxes sold by Tupper Ware and by Sharper Image that are suppose to keep our food fresh longer and fill the frig so that it runs more efficently. Does anyone know about this?
  • October 22nd, I printed up a list of locally grown produce in season now for meal planning.
    

• Water Management: I have been thinking about this area of conservation. While this issue is so important globally it is the area of least waste in our personal lives. Having said that there were still areas where we could improve. The first step I have taken is to stop purchasing bottled water. We are drinking tap water now and carry it in the same container. As I mentioned before we will put a catchment system in place next spring for watering our flowers. We already only run the dishwasher when it is full and replacing the washer now is not advisable. We will replace our shower heads and I will research my laundry day habits. The washer and dryer are probably going to be the first energy star appliances we are able to purchase because they are 14 years old. I will be switching our household to green dish washing soap, clothes washing soap and personal bath soap and shampoo.