10 STEPS To Convert Over To Green Electricity

1. Find out how much energy each appliance uses and where energy is lost. Home Depot and Lowes both have energy guide sheets in their generator sections for free that show you about how much typical home appliances use in energy. You can compare their sheet with your appliances and look into possibly upgrading some items that may be old and inefficient. You can save energy this way by picking and choosing which appliances to upgrade and what to wait on. A home efficiency expert can also come into your home and do an energy leak test using perhaps the Blower Door Subtraction Method to see how much air conditioning is getting away through the cracks. You may also want to try using EnergyStars.gov Do it yourself Energy Audit. If you have an energy expert do it they will close off the cracks they find and do another leak test showing you the amount of leaks they were able to close and the percentage of energy you will be able to save. This is a very valuable test to perform and the government will give you credits back. 2. Find ways to use less energy There are several cheap and easy ways to start the process: a. There are these new LED light bulbs that are cheap and will save you even more then the compact fluorescent bulbs available in most stores. The LED light bulbs may have to be bought online. You can turn off your lights when you are not home but this will not save a substantial amount of electricity. b. Many electronics although turned off may still be sucking energy from the power outlet. TV’s and radios are a couple examples of appliances sucking power even while turned off. You can plug them first into a surge protector and then turn the surge protector off to keep this from happening. If you have laptops and large HDTV flat panel TV’s you will find that they have a standby mode. This mode takes electric current so be sure to turn the TV and radio all the way off to avoid loosing this extra energy. c. Laptop power cords that have a boxy AC adapter will pull current as well as many other    similar power cords so make sure to remove these from the wall. A power strip surge protector can be used to go directly into the outlet and you may then leave the clunky AC adapters plugged in (Just be sure to turn off the power strip). d. Clothes driers are one of the main energy hogs in a house. By having a clothes line you can save most of your potential energy by hanging the clothes up to dry. e. Refrigerators use a large amount of electricity as well but a new cooling technology that uses magnets to cool will soon be changing this energy hog into a green energy cooling device. Don’t expect to see this new product in stores for about 5 years as it is in the early stages of development. 3. Heating and Cooling Houses use most of their energy through heating and cooling. As said earlier, magnetic cooling will soon be changing the inefficiency of current cooling systems but until then there are certain easy steps to take to improve upon current conditions in the home. Homes consume an enormous amount of energy, especially in heating and cooling. America uses 26 percent of the energy in the world and quite a bit of this consumption comes from homes.As a reminder, be sure to audit your homes energy use here – Energy Audit. After auditing your home be sure to follow some of the easy guidelines below to make some of the more dramatic impacts in energy savings. If you live in a very humid location then natural cooling and ventilation will not work. If you don’t then you will want to buy a evaporative cooler.Air conditioning uses so much electricity you would need to buy about $30,000 worth of solar power equipment just to power a 3 ton air conditioning unit to cool your house.This being said, try to never use your air conditioner. Ceiling fans (Energystar rated) are an added way to move the cool air throughout the house and keep you away from turning on that Air conditioner. When it is hot outside be sure to block the sunlight as much as possible. Have energy efficient window blinds or tented gas filled windows. You can let the sunlight in some but just keep it out during the really hot part of the day. If you power your water heater with electricity you can wrap your water heater with an insulated blanket and then double wrap that with radiant barrier (Can be bought at Lowes).

4. Choose Energystar rated devices

Of course, cooling and heating is the main hurdle but if you are finished there you should move on to things that plug into the wall outlets around the house. Although there are different types of energy rating guides it’s hard to go wrong with a government program as they have no vested interest. Keep an eye out for Energy rated devices as this is the US government’s stamp of approval. If you believe in those conspiracy theories and that George Bush or Dick Cheney is behind Energystar for oil money or something then you will want to find maybe a Canadian rating organization . You will start to notice in many stores there is a yellow EnergyGuide label showing the consumption in kWh per year. Computers and audio equipment can be energy hogs so keep an eye out for those that have the Energystar logo.

5. Making your own green power

Many power making enthusiasts exist on the internet for some reason. I believe it is the easy accessibility of new and innovative technology and instructions to assist in alternative energy projects. I must admit I have become lost in several forums learning about different ways of making energy from the wind and other sources. There is even such a thing as a turbine you can hook up to a water source that will produce electricity. Check out eBay for some of the new and old wind turbines available on the market. Wind turbine technology is by far one of the cheapest ways to produce electricity over solar. The wind turbine is not even the main cost. The tower to put it up in the air and the deep cycle batteries to store the energy is mainly where it will cost you. If you can hook up directly to the city utility you will be able to bypass needing to use deep cycle batteries and instead feed extra energy back into the utilities poles and wires. In Texas the utility must buy the energy you feed back into their system. By doing it this way you could actually make money instead of having an electric bill although that would require some very energy efficient living. The Skystream is recommended by many as well as consumer reporting companies as the superior wind turbine on the market. Another home alternative energy system that is relatively new is buying a diesel generator and converting it to run on vegetable oil. The downside is you would need to get your used vegetable oil from restaurants in town but the upside is they will give it to you for free. This free energy would be the cheapest way to go but would be a little extra work. The main cost would be the deep cycle batteries to store the energy and the generator. Together you would most likely pay about $4,000 – $5,000 for enough batteries and the generator.Solar systems are the most expensive but have government subsidy programs to reduce the cost. If you want a solar system plan on paying about $20,000 just for the equipment to keep your air conditioner going. Solar panels are now being manufactured in thinner plastic layers which is reducing the cost of these things. It may only be 2-3 years from now before solar panels are in most people’s budget. I think it is a stretch to say that solar can provide all the energy for a home for most people but this is not too far off. Small, home-sized, wind turbines are a rapidly growing field.

6. Charge up that laptop with a solar charger

You wouldn’t think it’s possible since you haven’t probably heard about it but you can buy a solar charger to charge your laptop battery as well as many other electronic devices. The ipod, zune, radio, and many other similar items can be charged in this way. Look below for companies and products who offer this unique niche charging option.

7. Build it efficient and save it for retirement

If your building a new home or commercial building take time to hire someone who will design it with energy efficiency in mind. Radiant Barrier on the floor, ceiling, and walls will keep out 98% of the radiant heat. You could reduce the average electric bill by 40% by doing this once thing. Other considerations can be taken in the design to bring the builing as close to a net zero energy consumption as possible. You can also make use of daylight in a way that will heat the home during the winter or hit directly on solar panels during the hot summer. Take a look at the EnergyStar government site which has a home certification program that will allow you to properly rate the energy efficiency of your house.

8. Change to a green energy provider

Most electric provider’s offer green electric power throughout the country. The way they are able to do this is through government credits.They may be buying energy that was produced using coal fired power plants but they also buy green credits from the government. By buying the green credits they are trading in the coal generated electricity they bought for wind energy. It’s a way to keep those windmills turning so the wind generating plants keep on producing their kind of energy. There are some electric providers out there that have the word’green in their name. Think of this as a marketing gimmick. They still buy their energy from the same energy markets as everyone else. The green credits are bought by all the electric providers so don’t let one provider sell it to you for more. Several hundred United States of America electric utilities provide green electricity generation through credits and wind energy. Green credits are the in thing these days and there are not many electric provider’s that are leaving this out of their energy products so be sure to ask.

9. Green energy credits can be bought by individuals

Green energy credits also go by renewable energy credits. These allow you to make up for the pollution you do cause by contributing back to the environment. The Texas government has approved some renewable energy credits although not all of them are legit. Some of the electric provider’s in Texas buy green energy credits to offset the energy they sell that comes from coal and natural gas. This is not always the case but it is done. There is a non profit company that certifies the Renewable credits that go by the name of Green-e Green Credits. 10. Many green advertised products are not so green There are several solar and wind products out there for sale that contributed harshly to the environment in their own production. When buying green energy products like a wind turbine you want to check and see just how much care went into preserving the environment during the process of making the device you’re buying. It could very well be that the company manufacturing the green energy product is also a large industrial polluter. Don’t buy from the hypocrites.