You can hear them rattle in the winter, and rumble in the summer. Whether they’re underfoot or overhead in the attic, these unseen monsters can really make a difference in your home’s heating and cooling bills. Yes, we’re talking about your ducts or duct work, and we don’t mean to be personal when we say, you’d better have your ducts in order when it comes to saving on cooling costs.
Quick Links
Most Popular
- Consumer Reports picks best water filters to replace bottled water
- A North Carolina McDonald's goes McGreen
- MIT program will help companies develop sustainable supply chains
- Goodwill, Dell expand computer recycling program to Canada
- Walmart plans to lower carbon emissions across its vendor network
- Target placing recycling stations in all stores
- Governors want strong wind policy to build green jobs and energy security
- It's time for a BIG idea
- Cars.com’s list of 2010 green cities
- Wisconsin wind blade facility to create 600 jobs
‘Dirt! The Movie’ warns us to not become dirt poor
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
Dirt! The Movie warns us to tread more lightly
You can become a green gardener
Sunday, March 28th, 2010
Use your garden to produce your own food.
By Brigid Rafferty
Buck Consultants
With spring around the corner, many of us are looking forward to planting and tending our gardens. This is a great opportunity to be “green” in more ways than one.
Whether or not you have a green thumb, you can become a green gardener by keeping the environment in mind as you nurture your plants, flowers and vegetables. Not only will you help conserve natural resources, but you’ll often save money and promote better health, too.
You can take a green approach to gardening before you even touch the soil. When planning what to grow in your garden, select plants that are native to your area. They will be easier to maintain and generally require less fertilizer and water because they’ve adapted to the area’s natural water supply.
New program steps up the PACE on getting a clean energy home
Friday, March 26th, 2010
Rooftop solar panels (Photo: Michael Hieber/dreamstime)
Soon after Aaron Mann and his wife bought a 3,500-square-foot home overlooking San Francisco Bay, a friend looked up from the driveway with envy.
He noticed that the house in the Berkeley Hills had south-sloping and west-sloping roofs, unobstructed by trees or other buildings. It would be perfect, he said, for photovoltaic solar panels.
The visitor planted an idea for the Mann family: Why not cut their power bills and reduce their carbon footprint by investing in a solar electric system?
This spring, make it green cleaning time
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010By Melissa Micka
Buck Consultants
It’s spring cleaning time again—time to clean up the clutter and start fresh. But before you get to work, take a few minutes to consider these tips for making spring cleaning green cleaning.
Out with the old, in with the new
(Photo: Green Right Now Network)
Traditional household cleaning products contain dangerous, toxic ingredients that can cause or contribute to serious health issues including cancer, respiratory problems, reproductive abnormalities and allergic reactions. So, if your cleaning supplies are along the traditional lines, it’s probably time to start considering greener alternatives. On your next trip to the store, stop in the cleaning aisle and look for products labeled as non-toxic, biodegradable or made from renewable resources. And, check to see if your community has toxics recycling days, so that you can safely remove your old cleaning products from your home. (If you just throw them out in the trash, you run the risk of contaminating the environment.)
What you need to know: Composting
Sunday, March 14th, 2010By Chris Reinolds
Composting can be as simple or as complicated as you make it. From piling green and brown things in a corner of the yard
Compost bins need aeration, like this metal mesh enclosure. (Photo: Bureau of Environmental Services, Howard County, Md.)
to buying that perfect compost bin, you’ll generate the same end result. Those of us who turn and nurture our piles can expect more compost in a faster time period, but regardless our gardens will benefit from a little or a lot.
Common herbicide atrazine emasculates male frogs in study
Thursday, March 4th, 2010
African clawed frog (Photo: Columbia University)
Blame lawns. And Big Ag. A new study looking at the effects of the common pesticide atrazine has found that it emasculated three-quarters of the male frogs exposed to the chemical.
It turned one in ten of the male frogs into females.
The study suggests that a key reason for the vast worldwide decline of frogs could be their exposure to atrazine and similar pesticides. “The 75 percent that are chemically castrated are essentially ‘dead’ because of their inability to reproduce in the wild,” says Dr. Tyrone B. Hayes, a University of California-Berkeley professor and lead researcher of the study.
What you need to know: Household cleaners
Monday, March 1st, 2010
Greener cleaners are non-polluting, indoors and out
Not so long ago, Mr. Clean and company were considered the good guys, the go-to-gang for a deep house cleaning. But in the past several years, alarms have been sounding about chemicals used in conventional household products.
Be they phosphates, sulfates, bleach, ammonia or phenols, certain ingredients are causing strong concerns among consumer-protection groups, federal and state governments, and even a few manufacturers. The new conventional wisdom asserts that many household cleaners contain compounds that pose environmental risks and can lead to health conditions such as asthma, nerve damage, reproductive damage, even cancer. (See our GRN guide below.)
A Clean Air solution to lawn care
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010As you get ready for the annual war on weeds in your front lawn this spring, you can choose to load up on conventional weed-and-feed and launch a chemical offensive, or you can call the local lawn service to begin the assault on your behalf.
Clean Air truck with solar panels charging lawn mowers (Photo: Clean Air Lawn Care.)
Or…you can skip the harsh chemicals and the usual services and find an organic lawn service.
Organic lawn care companies are pushing into the market. So much so, that even Chem Lawn, a king of the old guard, now goes by TruGreen and offers an all-organic plan. These days a check for “organic lawn care” will usually pop up someone in your region, if not your exact town. And a search for do-it-yourself organic lawn care products, like corn gluten pre-emergent weed killer or composts for fertilizing, will turn up products at hundreds of online and off-line retailers.
‘Smart’ meters will help consumers track electricity use
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010A sudden cold snap creates a spike in consumption. Christmas lights are fun at the time, but they, too, keep that meter running. Kids routinely leave electronics on, even when they’re not in the room.
Advanced Metering System
Sure, you try to do all those little things that, in a perfect world, can help keep cost and environmental impact down. Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world, and a big number on that electric bill each month can come as a shock to both the system and the budget.
But what if your world was just a little more perfect? What if you could log on to your computer and check consumption down to, say, a 15-minute period? What if you could figure out that your teenager is running the TV, stereo, a game player (or two) and every light in his room — all despite the fact that he’s spending the night at a friend’s house?
That’s the future of the Advanced Metering System (AMS), and that future is closer than you may think.
ITLC BIG Blog
Featured Bloggers
Barbara Kessler
Other VoicesNews by Category
- Barbara Kessler Blog (16)
- Business (75)
- Don Sanford Blog (3)
- Environmental (254)
- Carbon Footprint (17)
- Climate (47)
- Energy (68)
- Recycling & Waste (20)
- Transportation (48)
- Water (17)
- Financial (45)
- Economy and Green (17)
- Green Investing (22)
- Green ROI (7)
- John Wasik Blog (3)
- Other Voices Blog (12)
- Social (109)
- Community (41)
- Food (25)
- Health (32)
- Home & Garden (22)
- Uncategorized (31)
- Work & Play (64)
- Products (25)
- Shop (20)
- Travel & Nature (17)