6 DIY Recycling Ideas for Non DIYres

It only takes a short drive to go from my city that has a formal recycling program for glass, paper, metal, and plastic to tiny rural town America that tried and failed to make their city recycling program pay for itself. They reluctantly canceled the program.

In a situation like that I would take the DIY approach to recycling and reducing my household waste. But what do you do if you aren’t a DIYer, don’t have the skills, or time? Don’t worry; you can easily recycle items if you put your mind to it. Here are six DIY ways to reuse items even if you are not a DIYer.

Six Ways to Recycle When You Don't Have Time

1. Paint Halloween pumpkins instead of carving and use as food later. This year I painted my pumpkin which means it didn’t uh, self compost early like Husband’s carved pumpkin. The day after Halloween, I cut the pumpkin in half, scooped out the seeds for roasting, composted the goop, and then roasted, drained, and pureed the pumpkin for food. I froze 8 cups of puree from that pumpkin – that will make a lot of pumpkin soup!

How Much Attic Insulation is Enough?

I wondered exactly how much insulation I had in the attic. It’s a good thing to know because the proper amount of insulation improves your home's energy efficiency, it’s environmentally friendly because good insulation allows you to use less energy from the power plant to heat and cool your home, and it also saves you money.

And I’m all about saving energy and saving money even after I completed the 20% Energy Reduction Challenge Project.

I grabbed a flashlight and a yardstick and climbed into the attic. My plan was to stick the yardstick next to the insulation and find out how many inches deep it is. Then I can determine the insulation’s R-value. R-value is a rating that indicates how effective the insulation is. The larger the number the more effective the insulation.

Turns out I didn’t have to go to all that trouble. My builder had a yardstick of sorts stapled to a rafter. It was easy to see that I have 13 inches of loose fill insulation in my attic.

But what is the R-value of the insulation in my attic?

2 Ways to Preserve Fresh Herbs

I love cooking with fresh herbs. Unfortunately, when the winter snows come, there goes the fresh herbs I have growing right outside my kitchen door in pots on my patio. This year, I decided to take my cue from the small furry squirrels that are currently gathering nuts for their winter siesta and try my hand at preserving fresh herbs from my herb garden for winter.

The two main methods for preserving fresh herbs are drying and freezing. I’ve done both. Here’s how.

How to Dry Fresh Herbs

10 Ways for College Students to Go Green on the Cheap

I learned a lot of my own green and thrifty ways during college, mostly due to thrift because I was responsible for paying my way through college. I quickly learned that by changing habits and reusing things I could save money in order to pay for the more expensive items in my budget: rent, books, tuition, and food, while still reducing waste.

That’s why I try to present options for green living and money saving tips. I’ve been doing the green and simple living thing long before it was fashionable and before many environmentally friendly items were available or affordable for the average working adult, let alone the average starving college student.

Here’s a list of 10 tips for college students who want to go green and save money doing it.

How to Save Electricity While Heating Your Hot Tub

One of my very best friends is now the proud and happy owner of a hot tub thanks to Craigslist. His partner on the other hand, isn’t as happy because he said that he was concerned about how much more electricity this little extravagance was going to cost them.

I get questions about saving electricity a lot because I now have quite the reputation among by friends and family as an Energy Savings Maven (hey, there could be worse things, right?) I wondered if there really was such a thing as an energy efficient hot tub. I asked J Williams of Hot Tub Works that same question and one of his staffers offered to write a guest post on the topic for me.

Here you go my friends, this post’s especially for you!

Sink Yourself into an Energy-Efficient Hot Tub

By Jayne Hawkins


With the cost of electricity skyrocketing, it’s no wonder that we are constantly looking for ways to cut our utility budget. Saving money does not have to be difficult, and often requires just a few small changes within our homes. Even if you are new to the latest techniques, it’s never too late to make changes to keep your hard-earned wages in your wallet. Unfortunately, cutbacks and downsizing are causing many of us to reconsider our dreams and goals for the future. For many, this means saying no to a remodelled kitchen, summer patio, or relaxing hot tub.

I’m on MSN Smart Money!

Thursday was a very, very good day. First off I spent the afternoon at the Columbus Auto Show courtesy of Ford. They invited seven local bloggers to the car show and showed us their new hybrid cars (I’ll blog about this later.) Oh and they took us out to lunch. Free lunch and car talk – cool. Included the local bloggerti – AWESOME! (Which only happened because I know Christina of A Mommy Story and she wrangled me an invite. She’s the big name local bloggerti. I just ride on her coattails.)

So I get home, thinking that’s a nice little perk and am feeling pretty happy. Then I open my email and find a message from MSN. They wanted to check some facts about my 20% Energy Savings Reduction Challenge because MSN Smart Money wrote an article about how I reduced my electricity use by 32% last year!

You, know it’s a good thing that I sit down when I use the computer because I think I would have fallen down otherwise.

This article couldn’t come at a better time. It’s a big reminder to keep up with the energy saving habits because American Electric Power (AEP) will be raising our electricity rates 8% in 2009, decreasing them to 7% in 2010 (how kind), and then jacking them back up to 8% in 2011.

Ouch!

Since it’s the first day of Spring – hurray! – it’s time to switch over from winter energy saving habits to summer energy saving habits. I’ve blogged about mine. Tell me, what are your energy saving habits?
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10 Green Decorating and Craft Projects

I’m searching around the Condo and the Internet for ideas on what to write about for St. Patrick’s Day. I have the Scotch-Irish bloomers that I made for a show. Not historically accurate by any means, but still fun way to hide my unmentionables in case my skirt flew up during a fast and vigorous Scottish Country Dance turn during the show.

I can’t believe I just showed my underwear to you people!

(Granted it’s underwear that goes over my underwear but it’s still underwear.)

But as the subject of a whole blog post - meh.

I think I’ll take it another way and
be lazy
do a recap of some the green (literal) and green (figurative) things we have around The Condo because I like to decorate with both types of green.

1. I made chew toys for Blitzkrieg’s dog cousin Chopper from scrap fabric. I’m also responsible for his festive t-shirt.

2. Blitzkrieg has he own green blanket I made from a cast off baby blanket and paw print scarves.

3. My first attempt at organic gardening! Sadly it doesn’t look this nice anymore. I replanted a couple of diseased plants and they spread pestilence throughout the garden bed . However, on the bright side, this year I get to completely redo the flower beds and make them 100% organic.

4. A green/green project. I repainted and recovered these old doctor’s office chairs that Husband had in his bachelor apartment. The chairs now sit on our front porch.

5. Organic gardening gone right. Once I figured out the nuances, I got a bunch of tomatoes from the plants growing in my upside down tomato planter .

6. Another double green project. The light fixture in my craft room I made from old stemware!

7. Don’t forget my green/green burlap rice bag turned shopping tote bag . I was so happy to find a good reuse for those old faded green curtains.

8. Something I see everyday – the green tissue paper wallpaper behind my desk in my computer room!

9. A row of green halogen desk lights on top of these bookshelves works as energy efficient overhead lighting in my computer room. Our builder didn’t install junction boxes in the ceiling of this room. This was a much easier fix. Cheaper too because I scored these sweet lights on sale at Target.

10. Lastly, Husband’s childhood Mego Hulk stands guard over the washer and dryer in the laundry room. He’s green/green too because I decorated the laundry room with what I already had. Yes, it looks like a dorm room but fun for visiting kids.

Now if only I could convince those visiting kids to do a load a laundry while they’re at it….


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How I Slashed my Electric Bills without Moving into a Yurt

Last March I started my own personal 20% Energy Reduction Challenge . My goal was to reduce the amount of electricity in my 1500 square foot free standing Condo used for the year by 20%.

Everything in The Condo runs on electricity except for the natural gas hot water, fireplace, and furnace.

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I didn’t want to add solar panels or wind turbines to my home because they are a poor return on investment where I live. I also wanted keep all of my current non-Energy Star appliances. Everything I had still worked and it would be too costly and wasteful to replace. But most of all I wanted to see if I could meet my goals this way because a slew of Greenzillas insisted that I couldn’t do it without alternative energy and installing new energy efficient everything. I thought I could.

How to Make a Gas Fireplace Chimney Balloon/Chimney Pillow

Even after caulking the windows and adding draft strips to the outside doors of The Condo the living room was chilly during the winter. No matter how high I set the thermostat, there was a mighty draft coming from somewhere in my living room. I set out to find it. I didn’t have to go very far, because according to the US Department of Energy 15% of the heat loss in a home is through an open fireplace damper when the fireplace is not in use.

I put a hand in front of the gas fireplace grill and felt a cold breeze. Caught ya you little energy napper!

You can easily solve this problem if you have a wood burning fireplace by just closing the damper. Boom. Problem solved. Unfortunately, I have a gas burning fireplace and the dampers on a gas burning fireplace are permanently kept open.

Since we only use the fireplace during power outages and for entertaining, I wondered if there was a way that I could close the damper when it wasn’t in use to keep the heated air from escaping up the chimney, and save money on my utility bills, and reduce my natural gas usage.

Fortunately, you can stop drafts in a gas fireplace with a Chimney Balloon, or Chimney Pillow . It looks like a Mylar balloon that that you stuff up your chimney when it’s not in use. You can buy one of those or make your own version.

Do I have to even have to tell you that I made my own DIY version? Of course not.


Keep Heat and Utility Bills from Going Up the Chimney

Make a No Slip Stay Put Door Draft Dodger

I installed metal draft blockers on the front and back doors of The Condo. Then I noticed that some areas of The Condo were still cold and a bit drafty – around the doors to my coat closet and pantry, which are both on outside walls. These drafts meant that my heater needs to work a little harder to keep the Condo warm in winter and the air conditioning needs to work a little harder to keep the Condo cool during the summer.

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 These drafts were wasting energy and costing me money – something I try to avoid. I like to save energy and save money on my heating and cooling bills.

What to do? I needed something to block the drafts on those interior doors. I didn’t think a metal draft plate would work on my wooden hollow core doors. I didn’t like how traditional fabric door draft dodger/door draft blocker/door draft stopper/door draft snake won’t stay in place. So I made a no slip stay put door draft dodger. Here’s how I did it.

Not only is making this no slip door draft blocker quick and easy project, but it is also a great stash buster!

Sew a No Slip Stay Put Door Draft Blocker 

Why Solar Panels Won’t Work Year Round in Central Ohio

Recently I was discussing how to reduce city energy costs on an online forum. A user offered the opinion that once everyone had converted to producing electricity using only solar and wind energy that we would end our dependency on fossil fuels forever. Many others chimed in, everyone agreed solar, and wind for everyone is the way to go.

Great idea until I looked out my window and saw this.

The branches and what's left of leaves on the tree in my front yard are encased in ice from an ice storm

I noticed that the person who offered this opinion was from Costa Rica, where they have sun in abundance.

How to Heat a Room using Passive Solar Heat in Winter. Works Anywhere!

My bedroom has a pitched ceiling. It was a selling point and I thought it was a very nice feature when I bought The Condo. That is until I tried to heat the bedroom because, well, heat rises. Now of course I could replace the bedroom chandelier with a ceiling fan and run the blades in reverse during the winter to pull the warm heated air from the pitched ceiling to the lower part of the room where the people live. That’s a very good idea if it weren’t for one thing.

I find almost all ceiling fans with lights horrific and UUUUUUUUUUGLY!

I wanted to heat the bedroom up in winter but I was hesitant to use a space heater to do it. Since I was trying to reduce The Condo’s use of electricity, I really didn’t want to use an electric space heater. I didn’t want to use a propane or kerosene space heater either. I didn’t want an accidental case of hot burning Pekingese on my hands if you know what I mean.

Instead, I tried using the free passive solar space heater that I already had – opening the curtains on the bedroom windows. According to Build It Solar:

“Windows are very good solar collectors -- they are just as efficient as a commercial solar collector you might add on your roof, and can be less expensive and less complex to install. No ducting or plumbing required.”

In addition to opening the curtains, Building it Solar also suggests adding some shading to the Passive Solar Heating System, I mean, Open Curtains on My South Facing Windows. They say:

• “Adding some form of insulating thermal shade to the window will greatly reduce night heat loss. While windows are very good collectors, they do lose a lot of heat at night, so some form of insulating shade is very important to reduce night losses.
• You should include some means to shade the window during the summer. Unwanted solar gain through an unprotected south facing window during the summer can aggravate cooling problems. There are many ways to provide shading.”

I didn't install any of the complicated (and ugly) outdoor awnings or shade screens that Making It Solar suggests on my windows. Instead, I made two insulated roman shades and put them up on tension rods in my bedroom windows. They work just fine. 

Why do the solar energy advocates have to make using passive solar heat so complicated? Yeesh.
I was very skeptical that opening the curtains on the south facing windows of The Condo would help heat up the bedroom. Sure, I sealed the air leaks on my double paned windows. That wasn’t the problem.

The problem, I thought, is that we don’t get that much sunlight in Central Ohio, especially during the winter. In Columbus, 51% of the days of the year are overcast – the same amount of sunlight that they get in Inverness, Scotland. And they aren’t exactly known for their balmy weather or big solar farms.

But, hey, the price was right – free – so I tried it. My bedroom is on the second floor of The Condo, so I didn’t have to worry about peeping neighbors or burglers. I opened the curtains on the south facing bedroom windows in the morning before Husband left for work. I let the sun shine in during the day and kept the bedroom door open to let the air circulate around the room (and I’m kinda lazy about closing that door anyway.) I closed the curtains in the evening around 6:00 or so – when I finished work.

So did it work? You tell me. Blitzkrieg by his very nature, seeks out the warmest places in The Condo during the winter, usually on the first floor or in the second floor computer room. Guess where he’s hanging out now?

That’s right. In the now much warmer solar heated master bedroom.

Yes, opening my curtains and shades and using this freebie passive solar space heater did heat up the bedroom, despite the pitched ceiling. So much so that I didn’t have to even think about buying a space heater to use in the bedroom as long as I remembered to close the curtains and lowered the insulated shade at night to keep in the heat.

During the summer, I keep the roman shades down and the curtains closed on the bedroom windows to keep the hot summer sun from heating up the bedroom too much.

It worked. In Ohio. Who knew?!

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Insulate a Hot Water Heater the Easy Way

While on the hunt for ways to reduce The Condo’s energy use, I did some poking around in my utility room. I found a big energy hog – my hot water heater.

Sure, I keep my hot water heater set at 120 degrees (F.) Set any higher and a hot water heater uses a lot more energy to heat water than I care to pay for and is a scalding risk. Set any lower and harmful bacteria can grow inside the hot water tank. That’s something you do not want.

 

 As like everything else that came with The Condo, the hot water heater was new but it is not Energy Star rated. I did some research and found that if I replaced my current practically new and working hot water heater with a comparable Energy Star model, I would only reduce its natural gas consumption by about $5-10 a year.

20% Home Utility Reduction Challenge – December Update & Tips

It’s the last month of my 2007 20% Home Utility Reduction Challenge! Let’s see how I did at reducing my home's electric and natural gas consumption by 20% in December.

December Electricity Usage

Even with putting up electric holiday lights and decorations, I significantly reduced how much electricity we used in December. I’m sure that I could have reduced that number by not putting up any holiday lights but I really didn’t want to do that. One of my goals of the 20% Home Utility Reduction Challenge was to prove that I could reduce my electricity and natural gas consumption and not have to endure major hardships or put in huge sacrifices. I like Christmas with all it’s trimmings including holiday lights. To me ignoring the whole thing, as some Greenzillas would prefer the world to do, is a major hardship and huge sacrifice for me. I think that life is a balancing act and yes, you can still have some holiday decorations if it makes you happy just try not to overdo it so that you have so many incandescent lights up that you can see your house from space. Of course, your mileage may vary on this issue.


However, my personal balancing act is paying off. Last December I used 641 Kwh of electricity, approximately 21 Kwh a day. This December I reduced that load to 449 Kwh of electricity, approximately 15 Kwh a day. That’s a 70% reduction in electricity for the month of December! Whoo-hoo!

How I Lowered My Electric Bill in December

20% Home Utility Reduction Challenge: November Update & Tips

My goal is to lower my home’s natural gas and electricity use by 20% in 2008. I also want to 

reduce my utilities as inexpensively as possible. Our main focus is on changing habits instead of replacing all of our fairly new and still working appliances and items with Energy Star equivalents. If our stuff wears out beyond fixability then of course, we’ll consider Energy Star items as replacements if applicable. Now that it’s getting colder in Central Ohio, we’ve turned on our natural gas furnace and unfortunately, it’s supposed to be a colder than normal winter. Winter is when our natural gas usage is at its highest, so let’s see how we did for November 2008.

November Natural Gas Usage

We use natural gas for heat, hot water, and a natural gas fireplace in our living room. Once the outside temperature dips to 40 degrees (F), we turn on the heat and switchover to some winter heat saving habits. Our habits and minor home improvements are paying off because in November 2008 we only used 28 CCF of natural gas dowm from the 37 CCF of natural gas we used in November of 20o7, that's a 9 CCF difference folks!

How I Lowered My Natural Gas Bill in November

15 Habits That Lower Winter Utility Bills

During my 20% home energy reduction challenge, I quickly found that one of the best ways to lower my utility bills was to change my household habits according to the seasons. Seriously, folks, all of the energy efficient light bulbs and sealing of air leaks in the world won’t do much to p reduce your home’s electric and natural gas use if you keep every light in the house blazing and set the furnace to the highest temperature all day every day.

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Here are some of the things I do that help me lower my winter electricity and natural gas usage and hopefully the bill (unless they raise my rates.) These habits will work also work for apartment dwellers and renters too.

15 Easy Ways to Lower Your Winter Heating Bill

Save Some Bucks – How to Seal Heating Ducts!

I am on a mission to seek out and destroy air leaks in The Condo so I can save money on my heating and cooling bills this year. According to energystar.gov it will be worth it too:

“EPA estimates that homeowners can typically save up to 20% of heating and cooling costs (or up to 10% of total energy costs) by air sealing their homes
and adding insulation in attics, floors over crawl spaces, and accessible basement rim joists.”

One place to look for air leaks is in the heating and air-conditioning (also known as HVAC) ducts in your home (or Condo.) Air leaks make your HVAC system use more fuel and work harder to do the job it’s supposed to do. And that can cost you money. Especially if those air leaks are in the unheated/uncooled areas of your home such as a basement, or in my case, in an unheated utility room.

There are generally two places where air leaks occur and that you need to seal:

How to Plan For/Survive an Extended Electrical Blackout

I’ve experienced quite a few short term and long term weather related power outages and blackouts. The worst one was in 2004, when an ice storm took down power lines and left most of my city in darkness for a week. Christmas week. With a big plan for the worst and hope for the best, I give you five things to consider and plan for when the power lines go down and electricity is out for an unknown extended period.

1. Consider Shelter

Staying at Home
· If it’s a summer blackout, it may be too hot to stay inside your house. The easiest thing to do may be to just grab an extra chair or blanket and step outside. Chances are your neighbors are doing the same. This may be a great time to get to know your neighbors a little better and do an impromptu block party, or play a game of Frisbee, baseball, or cards.

· Even if you use natural gas to heat your home, you may not have heat during a winter electrical outage. Some natural gas furnaces use an electrical fan to blow the heat through the ductwork to heat your home. Therefore, even if the heater may still be working, without electricity you’re not going to have the little fan that. And without a working fan, you may have a cold house. (I found out about this one the hard way.)

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%.

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