From CNN via Oprah.com
1. Compact fluorescent lightbulbs
These energy-efficient bulbs cost less than $4 and are produced by major corporations like GE. If every household in America switched five regular light bulbs for five fluorescent bulbs, it would be the equivalent of taking 1 million cars off the highways for a full year.
2. Outdoor solar lighting
These yard or patio lights cost less than $20, and they don’t burn any electricity or produce any CO2.
3. Programmable thermostats
Though these thermostats cost from $50 to $100, they can actually cut your heating and cooling costs. Set the setting so it’s a little bit cooler in the winter and warmer in the summer when you’re not in the house. A difference of 2 degrees can reduce a home’s CO2 emissions by up to 9 percent over the course of a year.
4. Air filters
Changing the air filters in your heating and cooling systems regularly can knock 2 percent off of your CO2 output each year.
5. Electric water heater blanket
Water heaters use a lot of energy and generate a lot of CO2. A blanket costs less than $18 and can cut your home’s CO2 emissions by almost 4½ percent.
Keep green in mind!
Actually, I don’t see anything here that I’m not already doing, but not because I am going green, but because of other reasons.
I don’t have outdoor lighting, so I don’t have to worry about that… I don’t have air conditioning, and the heat is still turned off, so at the moment I don’t have to worry about needing a programmable thermostat.
I don’t have to worry about air filters, when the heat isn’t on.
And for whatever reason, I like the full spectrum compact fluorescent bulbs.
So I guess all I should think about doing is getting a water heater blanket. Or maybe just replace it all together with a Rinnai tankless water heater.
I suppose the only question left is, how much of this stuff does Al do?
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Guest Contributor
Thomas J. Jefferson
08/27/2007
What a crock of bullshit, and what a hypocrite Gore is. The man who is coming up with all these idiotic ideas won’t even agree to sign a pledge to his own plan and live what he says. He uses more power in a month than the average household uses in an entire year, and yet he has the audacity to preach to the rest of us about what “we” should stop doing. What a phony!!! Oprah is just as bad as he is. No one mentions the fact that all those compact fluorescent bulbs require special disposal methods to comply with the mercury contained in them. What about that, huh Al and Oprah? Blankets for water heaters and instant water heaters have been around since the 70′s folks, long before Gore and Winfrey came onto the scene to save the world. I’m really sick of all this stupid hype that has no value added worth……….three sheets of toilet paper? C’mon Cyndi Crowe, or whatever your name is, why not just rinse it out and reuse it all you tree huggers? Or better yet, pass it around to at least 10 other users before disposing of it? Do you people have a life, or do you just lay around waiting on some hero such as Gore, Winfrey, or the latest brilliant genius of the day to plant some earth-shaking idea in your otherwise empty heads?
Politcally_Incorrect
08/27/2007
I assume that he heeds his own advice and uses all of these energy saving suggestions. Yet, he (A. G.) still manages to use over 500% more energy than the average American family. I guess the rich folk can go on wasting energy while making themselves feel better by planting some trees to offset their so-called carbon footprint. If everybody followed his example, we’d all be wealthy and living in 10,000 sq. foot houses using 5 times more energy (even with compact flourescents)
Time to find a better example for going green…