Other Ways to Help the Environment?
In addition to driving an eco-friendly car, ride sharing, and walking when possible, there are other things that you can do to help with the environment. One thing that you can do is to help prevent energy leaks at home by making sure that you insulate your home so that it will be cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. You can also make sure that all your ducts are sealed and weatherized your home.
Make sure that you lower your home thermostat which means not only the thermostat on your furnace, but also the one on you hot water heater and refrigerator. With your furnace, set your thermostat at seventy-eight degrees or higher in the summer and in the winter set your thermostat at sixty-eight degrees or lower. It might help to have a programmable thermostat put in your home.
Set your thermostat on your hot water heater to one hundred forty degrees or lower and use the energy-saving settings in your refrigerator. The next thing that you can do to help the environment is to switch the light bulbs in your home to LED or compact fluorescent bulbs because when you use regular light bulbs you are using up to twenty-five percent of your average electricity that you use. Switching light bulbs will help to make a big difference in your energy uses.
To help reduce the amount of water that you use you should start to use a low-flow shower head plus you will also use less energy and reduce your water heating costs by almost fifty percent.
When you mow your grass use an electric or reel lawnmower. A reel lawnmower is the type that only uses human power to move it and is the type that the older generation used before power lawn mowers. If you have a big lawn this might not be advisable so it would be better to use a non-polluting electric mower.
To help reduce your energy bill in the summer and the winter you should replace your windows with double panel windows although it can be an expensive home improvement project, but the savings in the end is worth it. Besides looking for double pane windows you should also be looking for other energy efficient features such as multiple layers of glazing and tinted glass coatings.
When you are not using them make sure that you turn off electronic devices and lights in order to save energy. This does not mean just turning off the switch because they can still use some energy. Buy a power strip and plug in several appliances and when you are leaving the home for an extended period of time, turn the power strip off so you devices are completely turned off to see a real difference in energy savings.
To help use water efficiently switch to a low-flow toilet because approximately forty-one percent of the water use indoors is from flushing the toilet. Make sure that you fix any water leaks that you see because that is one way to protect the freshwater sources and help the earth.
These are just some of the many ways that you can help the environment.