Zero Waste Road Trip - Can It Be Done?

Its funny how receiving one little blog comment or email can create a huge new idea. I was all hopped up on caffeine and chocolate (the two great tastes that taste great together and fuel the Condo Blues creative writing machine) all set to draft my Haiku Friday post when I got a nice comment on from Almost Mrs. Average about my wine glass chandelier. I checked out her blogs The Rubbish Diet where she's trying to make her household zero waste and Bin 101 (a wonderful play on Room 101 from George Orwell's book 1984.) She describes Bin 101 as

Things that are too good to be condemned to landfill, but not good enough for
recycling... or silly things, annoying little things, frustrating big things
that shouldn't be thrust on us in the first place.

What was in Bin 101 at the time I peeked at it? Condiment packets. I have a few of these in my refrigerator. Not a lot because Husband and I try to be health conscious, cut out hydrogenated oils, transfats, and high fructose corn syrup from our diets - there's a lot of that in fast food. But I will not lie; sometimes I must heed the Syrian call of Taco Bell. I don't' know (and honestly, I don't' think I want to know from a health standpoint) what it is about their Fire Sauce or taco seasoning that sends my tummy into a happy tizzy but it just does. Therefore, I have a few condiment packets in my fridge. Maybe you do too. I keep them around because they're convenient when we take food with us on road trips. 

It's confession time gentle readers, I'm planning a road trip. Me, Husband, and the Blitzkrieg (but don't worry, I've thought of you and scheduled lots of wonderful, wacky, and helpful posts to appear on Condo Blues, while I'm officially MIA from my computer) are hitting the road. Since we've got the Blitzkrieg with us and Husband's training for a half marathon relay, it's easier to do picnics with healthy food at a rest stops than leave the pooch in a hot car and duck out for fast food on the road. (And suffer the very real possibility of having bad things happen to the dog in an empty car in the hot sun - a definite pet safety no no!) As such, I was going to take those soon to be trash condiment packets with me on the road. Then I stopped and thought, "What if I followed Mrs. Almost Average and Green Me's example and tried to do a Zero Waste Road trip?"

Twenty Percent Home Energy Reduction Challenge – Summer Update

I conducted a DIY Energy Audit using the using the Energy Star Home Energy Yardstick to determine my home’s Energy Performance. My home energy performance grade was Below Average with a score of 3.7 out of 10. The Yardstick suggested I cut my electricity and natural gas consumption by 20%. I decided to do it.

I gave myself the additional goal to make the reductions as sustainable and inexpensively as I could, meaning that things like changing habits, light bulbs, and sealing air leaks with caulk and insulation were in. Replacing everything I own with the newest most expensive Energy Star equivalent or installing an array of solar panels on The Condo were out.

“It can’t be done!” many people cried, “You need to replace those three-year-old appliances with Energy Star equivalents! You need to install solar, wind, geothermal to get low green energy bills!” (Personally, I’d love to install such alternative technologies but it’s not going to do much good until I reduce our energy consumption first.)

So how am I doing? Pretty darn good. The Condo’s electrical use is down for January through July of this year, in some cases I cut our electrical use by 50%.

Save Water with Shorter Showers

I grew up in a house with three women and one tiny bathroom. I learned early on how to make good use of what little quality bathroom time I was allotted every morning by taking short showers. Of course, during that time in my teenage life I was more concerned about maximizing my allotted primping time in the bathroom mirror time than saving water, reducing the water bill (much to my mother’s dismay), or saving the planet.

However, now that I am an adult who now pays the water bill, I want to find ways that will reduce my water usage, reduce amount of money in the water bill, and save the planet (you're welcome.) The first thing most water-saving how-to type articles tell you to is save water by taking shorter showers. However, in the grand scheme of green things, I couldn’t find much information on how many minutes in the shower are considered water-saving short. Or, for that matter, I couldn’t find much information on how many minutes in the shower are water-wasting too long. Crunchy Domestic Goddess has some answers and a water saving challenge. She writes:

Did you know that the average shower length is 8 minutes*? By reducing that to 5
minutes, you can reduce the amount of water you use by nearly one-third, or
roughly 10 gallons per day. And that’s where this challenge comes in. I’m
challenging all of my readers to reduce their shower time to 5 minutes. If you
already take a 5 minute shower, perhaps you’ll consider cutting back a little
bit more? Reducing the length of your shower by just one minute could save you
up to 1,825 gallons** of water each year.

*GreenPrint Denver ** Utah.gov

I like this challenge. It’s one of those simple sustainable ideas that won’t cost you anything but time (well, actually, it should save you time) and will help you save money in the process. Give it whirl for the summer. If you can’t stand short showers, try to find another way to save water, such as showering with a friend. What water-saving tips do you have?

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5 Easy Ways to Lower Your Electric Bill

Trying to reduce our electricity usage by 20% this year, without replacing everything we own, had me singing The Condo Blues. (Condo Blues. What a great name for a blog, ya think?) After a couple of months into the New Year, I checked our electric bills. Our electricity usage didn’t go down from the previous month, it actually went up!

This is after I:

1. Switched my remaining incandescent light bulbs to CFLs

2. Switched to the Short Wash cycle on my dishwasher and continued to do only full loads in the dishwasher and air dry the dishes

How Energy Efficient Light Bulbs Save Money

According to Energy Star, lighting accounts for up to 20% of the average home’s electric bill. Yowza!

They say if I switch out at least 25 % of  my incandescent light bulbs to Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs (CFLs) it is an easy peasy way for me to be on my merry way of reducing my energy usage this by 20% this year. Just by the simple act of changing a light bulb? Lazy environmentalism. Sweet. Just the way I like it.

For giggles, I counted the number of light bulbs in the house so I could calculate my current household percentage of eco-bulbs before The Great Light Bulb Switch. It took me awhile to get an accurate number because my initial count forgot the light bulbs in fixtures I don’t use very often or think about like in various closets, the back porch, and the utility room. 

I have 58 light bulbs. Seems like a lot, but some of my light fixtures use more than one light bulb. Twenty five of these light bulbs are some form of energy efficient light bulb: a combination of fluorescent, compact florescent (CFL), halogen, and Verilux Full Spectrum Light Bulbs. 

Expense yes, but the Verilux Full Spectrum Light Bulbs are supposed to use less energy and show colors more accurately than a standard incandescent light bulb, which is important when I’m designing something. They are also supposed to make me happy during those gray Ohio days and save me from putting a bid on the colossally expensive Happy House.

Now that I have the numbers, what’s my percentage of energy saving light bulbs? Let’s do some math and calculate this puppy. Well, actually, we’re about to calculate a percentage of numbers. If you want to calculate a puppy, I suggest you go to your local animal shelter or rescue group and adopt.

25 eco-bulbs divided by 58 total household light bulbs = 43% of our light bulbs are energy efficient.

Cool.

...and yet why isn’t my 43% of energy efficient lighting goodness reflected on my not-yet-lower electric bill? Time to switch out more light bulbs even before the suckers burn out. I'll make the financial hit a little less by buying one three pack of CFLs every time I go grocery shopping. It may take me a little longer to do the switchover, but at least it I wont' have to put up an extra $200 all at once to do it.

Looking for more energy efficient light bulb ideas? Check out the following options - and more! - below!

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How to Search for Air Leaks and Drafts

It’s a sad fact of life that every home has air leaks in its walls, windows, foundation, and attic. Even a newly built home like mine. How much your home leaks air will vary depending upon the design and construction of the home, where you live, what you do, and how you do it. .

Air leaks make your heating and cooling system use more energy and work harder to do the job you want it to do. This can cost you money. Big money.  In fact, experts say that if you don't seal all of the little air leaks in your home, you might as well keep a window open during the winter.

Don't worry. It's easy as pie o find those little and sometimes big air leaks in our home. Once you find them, seal them. Then put that extra money to good use, celebrate by buying yourself a pie. Nom....pie...

How to Find Exterior Air Leaks and Drafts

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How to Conduct a DIY Home Energy Audit

It started innocently enough when I saw the gas bill on the kitchen table and opened the envelope. We used 108 CCF (centum cubic feet) of natural gas last month for heating and hot water?! We’re two people in a new build, 1500 square foot, freestanding condominium (looks like a house, acts like a condo.) We don’t crank the heat up to tropical heat levels in winter or set the air conditioning to polar cold in summer. We have a programmable thermostat; surely, it is supposed to protect us from high heating bills?

It’s not as if we can’t afford to pay the gas bill, we can. But honestly, if I’m going to pay for something that is in the hundreds of dollars I’d much rather buy a Nelson bubble lamp than something that’s here today and gone tomorrow like heat. Yes, I know heating is important and that you can die without it during the winter. However I wanted to know what was going on with the higher utility bills when our home is supposed to be energy efficient. I decided to conduct a home energy audit.

Unlike some areas of the United States, my local gas and electric companies do not offer free home energy audits to their customers. After much digging on the customer unfriendly Columbia Gas Website, I found a link to the Energy Star Website that allowed me to conduct my own DIY home energy audit using their Home Energy Yardstick . Best of all this service is free. I like free. Free is good.

How to Do a Free Home Energy Audit