Alternative Ways to be Green:

Most people are familiar with turning the tap off whilst brushing your teeth, or having a shower instead of a bath, standard recycling protocol. But there’s a lot more to be done if you’re aspiring to be greener.

Change your bulb

Compact fluorescent lightbulbs save you money every year in energy costs as well as the Environmental Protection Agency’s statements regarding the reduced energy consummation of the CFL bulbs being 75% less than incandescent light bulbs, lasting on average 10 times longer.

Energy saving accessories

For those people who have a habit of leaving electrical devices , lights and heating on there is now a solution for them to be eco-friendly even when they forget to turn something off. Home Automation is where you connect household devices like light, power supplies, and heat all to your mobile phone. Home automation allows you to control everything remotely, so you can check you have turned off the tv and lights while your at work. Home automation also means you can turn things on before you get home like the heating. This means you don’t have to leave the heating on all day to keep the house warm. You can find more out about home automation and the Lightwave RF at Alarm Traders Direct.

Stock your freezer

The energy that goes into keeping the freezer at such low temperatures is higher when there is more empty space as there is less kinetic energy. So as well as saving time, money and stress planning meals is great but also keeps your freezer full and that’s great for the environment because less energy is required.

Don’t do the dishes!

Dishwashers are proven to use half the energy, one-sixth of the water and less soap than washing dishes by hand. Of course this assumes that the dishwasher is fully loaded before turning it on. This process reduces carbon dioxide and money for households.

Cold washing

90% of energy consumed by washing machines goes towards heating the water, they are very non-energy efficient, however the increase in quality of washing detergents is remarkable which means that washing your clothes in cold water saves energy and the detergents and the motion of washing machines mean they are superior enough to be able to remove stains without the high heat energy.

Tumble drying

You can decrease the energy used by these machines by up to 40% if you take out clothes as they dry, no doubt thinner and smaller items will dry faster so removing these means that there is more room in the dryer to work on the larger, thicker items which take longer to dry. This will also avoid clothes looking so creased when you’re finished!

Reduce the brightness

Computer, laptop, and TV screens are often set to a high picture brightness as protocol which is great for making them stand out in shops, but when you’re at home it’s simply not required. Selecting ‘standard’ picture settings on these devices will consume 10-20% less energy and therefore save you money.

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“Greening Sussex by Sussex families”