What Matters Most In the Summer

It's good for us to stop for a minute and think seriously about our planet, and our use of it's resources. Slowly, we here in the western world are becoming more and more aware of our energy consumption, the waste we dispose of or recycle, and how we care for our small piece of the planet. Sometimes we think it is just too overwhelming for us to think about protecting the resources we have come to love and appreciate. So my suggestion is to start small, start in our own homes. If each of us would start there, our small differences would eventually make huge differences for our water, our atmosphere, our food, not to mention our health.
     Here in the Boise, Idaho area of the Treasure Valley, Idaho Power Company has outlined some things we can do to in our small corner of the world. Did you know that heating, air conditioning and water heating account for 46.7% of our energy consumption in the summer months? Our home appliances account for 13.6% of our energy consumption. So if we want to rein our summer electric bills, then we need to concentrate on the biggest pieces of the pie first.
     Questions we can ask ourselves:
        Are you using fans to stay cool and cooking outdoors when possible?
        Does your A/C filter need cleaning or replaced?
        Are the coils on your A/C unit dirty or clogged up?
        Can you adjust your Thermostat up or use natural ventilation to cool at night?
        Are you doing full loads of laundry and dishes, line drying your clothes if  
        possible.       
        Any incandescent that could be changed to compact fluorescent lights?
        Could you upgrade appliances or HVAC units to 'energy star' rated products?
        Do you have an extra refrigerator that could be recycled?
        Is your water heater temperature set at 120 degrees farienheit?
Most of the things I have listed from Idaho Power are fairly inexpensive to do or cost us nothing. It's just something we need to think about more often. You would think the power company would be interested in selling you MORE energy but in reality there is only so much energy to go around and so they are very much interested in our saving energy and I am sure all power companies are as well. I hope this blog causes all of us to think a bit more about our planet and to let you know that @comfortguyjerry is interested in more than just 'comfort'. For more information go to our website at www.greensheating.com.