Environmental Benefits of Programmable Thermostats

The environmental benefits of digital programmable thermostats are undisputed. Having greater control of the indoor climate control of a home and office greatly improves energy efficiency.

This means that programmable thermostats also save money. According to Energy Star figures the typical home in America can save $150 a year by installing a programmable thermostat. The reduction in electricity consumption also means a reduction in carbon emissions because most electricity in the world is still generated by burning fossil fuels.

Programmable thermostats are not simply for lazy people. Rather they allow you to fit your schedule in with the heating and cooling so that money and power is not wasted heating or cooling an empty house. Good programmable thermostats will offer 4 periods to set up a day. Thus the thermostat turns the heating/cooling up for when the house occupants wake up in the morning. When the occupants go to work or school the thermostat sets back the settings; and then it makes the home comfortable for the evening when people return home. Finally, the thermostat reduces heating/cooling for the night when people are in bed.

It is important to remember not only to match your schedule with the thermostat settings but also to use realistic set points. These are the recommended programmable thermostat settings:

Recommended Thermostat Settings

Summer

Morning – 78 degrees Fahrenheit (25 degrees Celsius)

At work – 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29 degrees Celsius)

Evening – same as morning

Night – 82 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees Celsius)

Winter

Morning – 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 degrees Celsius)

At work – 62 degrees Fahrenheit (16 degrees Celsius)

Evening – same as morning

Night – 62 degrees Fahrenheit (16 degrees Celsius)

If you insist on wearing sweaters in the summer and shorts in the winter inside then frankly you won’t save money and you are contributing to a blighted planet for future generations (including your own).

Types of Programmable Thermostat

There are 4 main types of programmable thermostat. They are as follows:

1) 1 week thermostat – offering just 1 program slot.

2) 5+2 thermostat – offering 1 program for week days and 1 for the weekend

3) 5-1-1 thermostat – offering 3 programs – one for weekdays, one for Saturday and one for Sunday

4) 7 Day thermostat – offering a program slot for each day of the week.

Naturally, 7 day thermostats are the most expensive and 1 week thermostats are the cheapest. Your choice will depend on your budget and your schedule. Most people with a regular ‘9 to 5’ job can manage with a 5-1-1 or 5+2 thermostat.

Energy Star and Buying Tips

It is important to do your homework before buying a programmable thermostat. There are lots of programmable thermostats on the market. The best have the Energy Star certificate. This is a guarantee that the device will save you energy and thus money. There are also a variety of different functions on programmable thermostats some of which you will find useful and others less useful. It is a good idea to read reviews of programmable thermostats to find what functions are offered and how accurate and reliable the thermostats you are considering are.

Bamboo for the Home

One great way to make your interiors more sustainable is to use renewable resources. Renewable resources are those things that grow quickly enough to keep up with consumer demand. Hardwood trees take over 100 years to reach maturity and so don’t fall in this category. There are over 1,400 species of bamboo, the quickest take just 3 months to reach full height. The average time is about 5 years to be ready for harvest.

Not only is bamboo fast growing, it is also a hardy plant that can withstand nearly any climate. There are native types of bamboo in every continent excepting Europe and Antarctica. Bamboo can be grown organically because it is naturally resistant to bugs and pests. Moreover, it doesn’t drain the soil of nutrients. Bamboo has successfully be used to reclaimed land damaged by agriculture. Finally, bamboo doesn’t need to be planted since it propagates through a root system.

The great thing about bamboo from the perspective of utility for the home is that it is a very hard material that can be used in the same way as hardwood. Bamboo can be carved, pressed together and thus can be used to make furniture, flooring, kitchen utensils, mats, roofing, blinds and a hundred other items for the home and garden. It is also possible to make clothes from bamboo.

Bamboo Flooring

There is now a wide range of bamboo flooring styles commonly available. The most popular are horizontal, vertical and strand woven bamboo flooring. Of these three types of bamboo flooring, strand woven bamboo is the hardest and is suitable for high traffic situations and heavy furniture. It looks great – just like hardwood flooring – and is easy to maintain and clean. Bamboo is antimicrobial and also antiallergenic and so bamboo flooring is great for people with dust mite allergies.

Bamboo in the Kitchen

There are many ways to use bamboo in the kitchen. Bamboo is odor proof and water resistant and so bamboo mats are a good addition to the kitchen. Bamboo kitchen utensils such as bowls, tongs, steamer, knife block, drawer organizer, chopsticks and placemats are all cheap and good earth friendly products for the kitchen.

Bamboo shoots can be used for cooking. Bamboo charcoal can also be used to keep oil used for deep fat frying clean. The Japanese use ground up bamboo charcoal to improve the taste of noodle soup dishes.

Bamboo charcoal also makes a great water filter to remove excess chlorine from faucet water.

To replace dangerous and toxic surface cleaners in the kitchen it is possible to dilute bamboo vinegar 1 part to 20 and use it in a spray bottle to clean and sterilize surfaces. Bamboo vinegar can also be used to clean windows. Bamboo vinegar for cleaning is much better both for the inhabitants of a home and for the environment.

Bamboo Charcoal

Bamboo charcoal can be used in any room in the house. Instead of using air fresheners that contain VOCs that cause respiratory problems bamboo charcoal can be placed in a room to suck out the unpleasant smells. To replenish bamboo charcoal and its ability to absorb unwanted odors it just needs to be left in sunlight for a few hours.

Another property of bamboo charcoal is that it can regulate humidity in a home. It also emits far infrared rays that are called the ‘rays of life’ and promote cell growth. Furthermore, bamboo charcoal also emits negative ions that help to neutralize the positive ions given off by electrical appliances that cause nausea in some people

Bamboo Charcoal Soap

Bamboo charcoal is exceptionally porous and when it is made into soap it cleans to the bottom of the pores. Also it doesn’t leave a layer of residue on the skin like normal soaps. This means that after washing with bamboo charcoal soap the body’s natural oils can moisturize the skin properly. Bamboo charcoal soap is a great treatment for eczema and acne.

Bamboo in the Office

The office at both home and work is a room that is used a lot. It is thus a good idea to make it more people and environment friendly with bamboo. It is possible to buy bamboo desks, coffee tables and chairs. A bamboo mat under an office chair protects flooring. Various types of bamboo office equipment is easily found online or in good shops such as bamboo space savers, bamboo file holders, bamboo pen holders, bamboo laptop holders. Bamboo shades are anti-allergenic, easy to clean and can add a stylish look to an office. Asus make a bamboo laptop computer with high specs that reduces the use of plastic on the computer by 15%.

Bamboo Shades and Blinds

Curtains are difficult to install. They are also a pain to clean. The chemicals used for dry cleaning are bad both for the environment and for people’s health. The most eco-friendly window treatment is bamboo blinds and shades. They are made from a renewable resource that biodegrades. They are easy to install and easy to clean.

There are a variety of bamboo shades and blinds available – roman blinds, vertical blinds, big slats and matchstick bamboo blinds. A style of bamboo shade or blind can be found to suit any décor style.

Outdoor matchstick bamboo blinds add privacy to a veranda, patio or balcony. They also filter out dangerous UVA and UVB rays. Often outdoor bamboo blinds are what are needed to make an outdoor space more inviting.

Bamboo in the Garden

Bamboo can be grown from seeds or from small plants. It is easy to grow. Bamboo clumpers add a striking adornment to a garden and also help to fertilize the soil. Running bamboo can be used to mark a boundary and to create privacy and shade in a garden.

Bamboo makes an ideal material for stakes for the garden and for fencing. The Japanese use bamboo charcoal as a fertilizer for green tea.

Bamboo Conclusion

The limits of bamboo in the home and garden seem to be only limited by our imagination. Bamboo can be used for furniture, flooring, window treatments and for a wide range of every day products. Bamboo can also be used to make a home cleaner and healthier. It can even be used to make us more beautiful. Bamboo truly is wonderful and should be at the heart of attempts to make a home or office more sustainable.

Benefits of CFLs

CFLs are not New Technology

Compact fluorescent light bulb technology has been around for over 100 years, but it has only recently been made available to the general public. For a long time the technology was held in check by light bulb manufacturers who thought it too costly to switch over their machines to make this new kind of light bulb.

CFLs are now made so they don’t flicker. They are made to fit nearly any light fixture and are made in a variety of watt strengths to suit any lighting mood (remember that CFLs are a lot more powerful than regular incandescent light bulbs and need about a third of the wattage. Moreover the spectrum given off by CFLs is virtually the same to the naked eye as the spectrum from incandescent light bulbs.

Why Buy CFLs?

The great advantage of CFLs is that they save you money. They do this by using far less electricity and by lasting longer. Earthmate CFLs use 75% less electricity and last 13 times longer than standard incandescent light bulbs. That is an incredible saving. Energy Star calculates by switching 5 incandescent bulbs over to CFLs you save $100 a year. Although CFLs cost a bit more to buy than incandescent light bulbs they more than make up for the added cost. Whole regions in America and Europe are moving over to CFLs for public buildings and communal lighted areas.

Mercury and CFLs

The only environmental concern with CFLs is that they all contain mercury. Mercury is a heavy metal and rated in the top 5 pollutants by the US Environmental Protection Agency. It is most important that used and broken CFLs are not thrown out in the regular trash. They must be suitably disposed of. Home Stores plc. in the USA now has free CFL disposal at most branches.

The CFLs with the lowest amount of mercury are made by Earthmate. Earthmate CFLs typically have 75% less mercury than other CFLs.

CFLs can lower Mercury Levels

The US Department for Environmental Protection has done tests to show that in areas where coal is burned in power plants to generate electricity, using CFLs actually lowers mercury levels. This is because burning coal is the main cause of mercury in water supplies. By using CFLs electricity consumption is reduced and so less coal is burned.

LEDs

LEDs are the future. They use a fraction of the electricity of incandescent light bulbs and last longer than both incandescent and CF light bulbs. They also don’t contain any mercury. Compare:

• Incandescent light bulb life span: 1,000 hours

• CFLs life span: 8,000 hours

• LED life span: 25,000 to 100,000 hours

LEDs are great in some places in the house, but they tend to be a bit weak. CFLs are the best eco-friendly bulbs at the moment, especially where brighter light is needed. If LED technology continues to improve (as no doubt it will) then they will replace CFLs as the greenest form of lighting.