Hello, my flourishing friends! In today’s episode, I discuss several clever, inexpensive ways that you can make your home greener, including being mindful of your energy and water use as well as being selective when it comes to your cleaning and purchasing habits. It’s all about creating a lifestyle that makes sense for both you and the environment, and one that ultimately helps to preserve our planet. In this episode, I give you actionable tips for creating a green lifestyle at home for no or little cost, including being smart about your heating and cooling, leveraging your existing appliances, saving water with each load of laundry, and watering your garden at strategic times of the day. I also make suggestions for purchasing according to your environmental values, cleaning and disinfecting without harmful chemicals, re-using rather than buying new and thinking differently about the source of true happiness. Be sure to tune in for much more!
Key Points From This Episode:
• Learn how homeowners and tenants alike are affected by energy and water costs.
• Save energy by adjusting the temperature on your thermostat and switching it off at times.
• Program your thermostat to warm or cool your home before waking up or returning home.
• Consider leveraging natural ventilation or using a ceiling or whole-house fan.
• Run your ceiling fan clockwise for heating and counter-clockwise for cooling.
• Combating the stack effect and reverse stack effect in multi-story buildings in each season.
• How your blinds and curtains can save you money.
• Using cold water, full loads, maximum spin, and other energy-saving laundry tips.
• Advice for maintaining clothes dryers and other appliances.
• Seal your doors, windows, and cracks with weather stripping and caulking.
• The benefits of using Energy Star certified LED or compact fluorescent lightbulbs despite their higher price points to save in the long run.
• Save water by fixing dripping faucets and running toilets and not letting the water run.
Key Messages:
1. Be smart with your energy use by heating and cooling efficiently.
2. Save water by stopping leaks and monitoring water use indoors and outdoors.
3. Simple household products are great for cleaning and disinfecting.
4. Let your purchasing decisions reflect your environmental values.
5. Repair, repurpose and reclaim before buying new.
6. Understand that lasting happiness does not come from material goods.
Quotables:
“Energy tends to be one of the greatest costs associated with homeownership and it’s one that we can affect.” — Kristina Hunter [0:02:41]
“We need to close those blinds and curtains on our windows in the hotter months and open them in the colder months. There can be really significant savings from doing this simple action.” — Kristina Hunter [0:09:32]
“Toilets can be huge water wasters. They can use anywhere from 3 to 6 liters up to 26 liters per flush for those really old toilets.”— Kristina Hunter [0:16:50]
“Somehow we have come to the erroneous belief that we are all but flesh, blood, and bones, and that’s all. So we direct our values to material things.” — Maya Angelou [0:26:02]
“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” —Albert Einstein [0:28:18]
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