Incandescent bulbs are extremely bad for the environment. Not only do they use a huge amount of energy for the pathetic amount of off yellow light they put out but they are also a horrible source of pollution. We’ll get to the pollution later. If you want to increase your efficiency you may want to look into compact fluorescent bulbs. They are commonly known as CFL bulbs and they produce a much larger amount of light for every watt they use when compared to incandescent bulbs.

The net step up from there is LED lighting. These are not simply bulbs but rather an array of tiny light emitting diodes that have the highest efficiency of any lighting solution when you compare the lumens produced to how many watts they use. LED lighting is hundreds of times more efficient than incandescent bulbs. It’s time to replace those horrible incandescent bulbs with CFLs at the least. That means it’s also time to throw away a glass bulb and pollute even more. That’s no good.

CFL bulbs have a longer life than their incandescent brothers but they are still made of glass and they are filled with toxic chemicals, including mercury, which you don’t want released into the world. LED lighting is, once again, the solution here. LED lighting has a ridiculously long working lifespan and there is no glass to worry about or toxic chemicals to concern yourself with.

For the best LED lighting solutions you are going to need specialized fixtures but the LED arrays that can be used in standard sockets are amazing as well and are ever increasing in quality.

The tow truck driver mentioned getting my hands on some solar driveway lights. After getting them installed and seeing how well they worked, an idea popped in my head. What if I made my whole house run on solar energy? I know now that I was thinking a little ahead of myself at the time. But after looking around online I found some people who will come to your house and help you find out how many solar panels you need of this and that to power your home.

I said “why not” and dug into my nest egg. We started to install more and more green energy around my house. It did take a little bit of time but the people were so friendly and curious. I guess I had bought enough to receive some free panels and they installed those to tell me my meter would hopefully spin backwards and I would receive a check instead of paying for my electric.

After a few months of this, I started to enjoy the lack of bills appearing on my doorstep and started to save for a new car. I thought maybe I could get one of those electric cars and power it off my panels. Then I could reduce my gas bill every month as well.

It’s all said and done now and they have paid for themselves in a few years alone, and my retirement is going a lot better than I thought. Now the only concern is the kids fighting over who gets the house now that it has doubled in value.

There are many things you can do in your home to conserve energy while using alternate forms as well. But there is also a great opportunity in your own backyard that can further the process even more. A lot of people forget about alternative energy in the backyard because it’s not usually associated with heavy energy use. But if you take a look at outdoor lighting, lawn care, patio heating, or gas grills, there are lots of ways you can use alternative energy in these fields. With a bit of creativity there’s no reason why you can’t improve the look of your backyard as well using some of these green energy saving measures.

There’s lots of people turning to their own green gardens as a food source that can additionally complement a compost heap. This is a great way to grow your own food taking a lot of stress off the environment in key areas. Another alternative energy source is natural gas that you can use to heat your home as well. In addition to saving on energy bills, it can be used successfully for gas grills and barbecue in your outdoor cooking area. By throwing away your old charcoal grill, you can end up with a money-saving measure that is better for the environment as well.

This is not the assumption in the rest of the world.  I spent several years working in the temperate climates of South America, in particular, Chile.  For people in this part of the world, space heating is not the first choice.  Instead, they just add another sweater.  That being said, space heating is important in the US so it is something that solar energy proponents are really pushing.

One of the most cost effective ways to heat a home is with radiant floor heat.  Combining solar and radiant floor heat makes a very affordable heating medium.  It is very easy to incorporate in floor heating systems into a new home because whether the home has wooden floor joists or is on a concrete slab, the polyethylene tubing required for the hot water is easily added during construction.  For an existing home it may be a little more difficult.

If an existing home has a crawl space then the tubing can still be strung between the existing joists. But, if it sets on a slab, about the only two options are to either cut into the slab or to lay out the tubing and then install a 2″ layer of floor cement over the top.  Both of these are expensive and probably won’t offer a payback period that is acceptable.  Most people who go this route do it because of their belief in alternative energy as opposed to the financial benefits to be gained. 

Considering the load that space heating puts on the US energy grid, combining solar and radiant floor heat can add to a lot of savings.

For example, home heating oil prices are about 50 cents higher this year than they were last year. That takes a lot of money out of consumer’s pockets and sends it overseas. To combat that, many people are looking at solar heating an also at switching over to natural gas and propane gas. Both are produced in the United States, so that would help cut down on our reliance on foreign oil. Natural gas production is at its highest levels now. Besides it being cheap and plentiful, it burns cleaner that crude oil.

A by-product of natural gas production is propane gas. The price of propane per gallon is lower than heating oil; so many people are now switching over to that. Not only is it cheaper than heating oil, but also it is also much cheaper than gasoline. This has led many police departments to switch from gasoline to propane-powered vehicles. This serves 2 purposes. One it will lower the cost of fuel, plus propane is cleaner burning than gasoline, thus helping the environment.

Let me give you an example.  For many years I groomed myself each morning with an electric razor.  I plugged it in each night so it’d have a fresh charge by morning, and for years I just didn’t think about where the energy was coming from.  I didn’t consider how much I wasted every day with my morning shave. 

So one day I had an idea.  I’d stop using every electrically powered device in my home if there was a more energy neutral way to achieve the same goal.  I packed away my blender and bought a hand whisk.  I put away my electric razor and learned how to use a straight razor (I can just sharpen it on a whetstone, rather than buying new blades all the time).  Finally – and I was quite pleased with this one – I found the best nose hair trimmers I’ve ever seen. 

em>Yes we can

The Groom Mate is a fully manual device.  It’s a slim tube, just like any of the other best nose hair trimmers on the market, but this one doesn’t require batteries or mains.  All you have to do is push the tip of the tube gently up your nose, where the hair will push through the blade shielding.  Next, simply rotate the base of the tube to turn the blades, and they’ll cut through the hairs with no problem.

It’s funny how we never consider these things.  For years I just used battery operated devices for this kind of job, but the fact is that even the best nose trimmers that run on batteries will take us one step closer to Armageddon.  Do yourself (and the earth) a favour and follow my example.