Palm | Kelapa Sawit

Posted By: Renee Castillo

Are you still trying to avoid switching to more energy efficient fluorescent light bulbs? Well, I visited Energy Star’s website and found a few facts about the bulbs that may convince you to do the simple switch.

· If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an Energy Star qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gasses equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars.

· Energy Star qualified bulbs use about 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer.

· Fluorescent light bulbs save about $30 or more in electricity costs over each bulb’s lifetime.

· Fluorescent light bulbs produce about 75 percent less heat, so they’re safer to operate and can cut energy costs associated with home cooling.

Although fluorescent light bulbs are great for energy saving, they do have a downside. Fluorescent light bulbs usually contain 8 to 14 milligrams of mercury in the form of vapor, liquid or sold form (www.epa.gov). The compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) must be disposed in a responsible manner due to mercury’s harmfulness. You can find information about your local household hazardous waste collection facility, to see if they will accept CFL bulbs, by following the link below.

http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/hazard/wastetypes/universal/lamps/live.htm

Most sites will not charge any fees but those who do are usually minimal. It is important you find out how often your local hazardous waste collection program accepts hazardous items because some only offer a once or twice a year drop-off.

More efficient low-mercury light bulbs are available and only contain 3.5 to 4 milligrams of mercury. Some manufactures of the low-mercury bulbs have conveniently identified the bulbs with a metal end cap that is painted green and the bulbs are sometimes referred to as “green-tip” bulbs. Others have been identified with a green etching on the lamps, while others are not identified at all.

Now that you have decided to switch from your more expensive and energy sucking traditional light bulbs visit Energy Stars' website for more information to determining which CFLs are best for your home.
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=cfls.pr_cfls

Posted By: Renee Castillo

By Amy Padilla

The state of California uses 19% of its electricity in handling their water. This means in pumping, moving, treating and watering their homes. There is also diesel and natural gas that is used in handling their water. When I think of energy consumption the use of water is not something that I have ever considered. However, I believe that 19% of the electricity being used in California is reason enough to look at how I use water.

The Alliance to Save Energy created a website called Watergy that addresses the issue of water use and its direct relationship to energy consumption. They believe that we could save as much as 25 percent of our energy consumption in water systems. Considering that 2 to 3 percent of our world energy is used in the pumping, treating and moving of water this could be an incredible savings worldwide. We need to be aware as a community that our water use isn’t just taxing our water supply, but it is also dipping into our other energy sources.

From a homeowner standpoint what can we do where water and energy consumption is concerned? Did you know that our water heaters can be responsible for up to 30 percent of our monthly electricity bill? The water is being heated 24 hours a day, but we only use it for a few hours each day for our showers, dishes, and miscellaneous use. We can reduce our electricity by making sure our pipes are insulated, our water heaters wrapped and lowering the thermostat.
As I looked around for more information on how water systems and energy use are intertwined I found that the Environmental Protection Agency have documented some very important basic information. Such as:

• “The ENERGY STAR program estimates that about $4 billion is spent annually for energy costs to run drinking water and wastewater utilities. If the sector could reduce energy use by just 10% through cost-effective investments in energy efficiency, collectively it would save about $400 million annually.” (http://www.epa.gov/waterinfrastructure/bettermanagement_energy.html#basicone)
• “If one out of every 100 American homes retrofitted with water-efficient fixtures, we could save about 100 million kWh of electricity per year and avoid adding 80,000 tons of greenhouse gas to the atmosphere.” (http://www.epa.gov/waterinfrastructure/bettermanagement_energy.html#basicone)
  

By taking just a little bit of time we can begin to make a difference in our daily lives. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has created an organization called WaterSense that is a great location to begin looking for what we can do to make a difference. They have created a label for products that are water efficient so we can make smarter choices from the beginning. They also have links to educational materials and an online calculator to figure out what your water usage savings could be if you install a WaterSense labeled faucet(s) or toilet(s). Why not tackle two serious environmental issues at one time. Let’s save our water resource while also saving a bit of electricity!

Posted by Renee Castillo

Wasted energy is a topic I am very familiar with but conserving energy is one I am not as informed about. Over the past few weeks I have noticed my everyday tasks that are victims of phantom energy and I had never even thought about or paid attention to. I have a bad habit of leaving my computer on overnight, falling asleep with the TV on, leaving lights on in an empty room and less obvious habits such as not unplugging the coffee maker, cell phone charger and other such items.
I thought it would be a good idea to check out Energy Star’s website and see if there was any energy saving techniques I could pick up. I browsed the products page and clicked on battery charges. I learned that energy efficient battery charges are able to save 1 billion kilowatt hours of energy per year, which amounts to more than $100 million, each year, in America alone. The energy efficient battery chargers also prevent more than 1 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions, which is the equivalent of emissions produced from 150,000 cars. Americans have approximately 230 million products at their disposal that use battery charging systems and 11% of the national electric bill is from those systems. It is surprising how much energy is wasted from such a tiny unit and when we have a simple solution available to us. I guess the main reason is that we are uneducated about our everyday wasteful habits. I recommend you check out Energy Star’s website: http://www.energystar.gov/ and learn how you can save money and energy. It is difficult to be completely committed to energy conservation but if everyone makes small efforts towards reducing their own waste, it will add up to a big savings.