On Friday, the New York Times Andy Revkin directed his readers to the new column, “The Green Home” by Julie Scelfo. The column he linked to, “Five Beginners’ Steps to a Greener Home,” is not terribly useful at all — indeed I would say it is counterproductive.
Only one of her five steps make part of my top 5 list. A number of readers have asked me to write more about personal energy and climate solutions. Since the traditional media is clearly not doing a good job, here goes.
The first thing to say is that the exercise is pointless if you don’t define what you mean by “green.” We aren’t — or shouldn’t be — trying to take actions to impress other people or even to make us feel good. We are trying to reduce the pollutants and resource consumption that threaten the health and well-being of ourselves, our family, the rest of the nation, the entire human race, and future generations.
Second, beginners especially should focus on that which is easy and high impact. After that, people can decide for themselves if they want to pursue hard and high impact action or easy and low impact action.
With that in mind, let me go through the NYT’s five steps and then, at the end, offer my own. By way of a teaser: From browsing around the Internet, I see that virtually all of the lists leave off what are arguably the two most important steps to greening your home.
As an aside, the most remarkable about the NYT‘s advice is that it is based on an interview with Eric Corey Freed, the author of Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies, who was asked for “five must-do steps.”
Q: What’s the first and most important thing every green-minded dweller should do?
A: Look at all the vampire loads that are sucking energy even when you’re not using them.
Q: You mean like the toaster with a digital clock and the cellphone charger?
A: Yes. Anything with a ready light. Collectively, vampire loads cost Americans about $3 billion a year. The biggest culprits are stereos, DVRs, game systems and plasma TVs. Simply unplug them when they’re not in use. Or purchase smart power strips, which cost about $25 and shut off automatically.
No and No. First and most important? Not even close.I f we are dealing with beginners, we don’t want to start with something that is both hard and low impact. The first research on vampires began at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory funded by DOE (and EPA) I believe, starting when I was at DOE. It is worth worrying about after you’ve done a lot of the other stuff. But $3 billion is maybe one half of 1% of US energy consumption. Not even a vampire can get much blood out of a tiny stone.
Plus, constantly unplugging and plugging your stuff is a pain. The fastest way to convince any newbie that greening their home is hard and pointless is to ask them to do this and look for any change in their electric bill whatsoever. The power strips are a better idea, but you would probably need a lot of them since electronics tends to be scattered all over the house. And in any location where you don’t have several appliances together, I doubt the strips would ever pay for themselves.
Also, the first time Dad puts his phone into an unplugged charger overnight and ends up at work (or on the road!) with a cell phone that is out of juice — this particular green home strategy will pollute the waters for all the others. [Note to self: Doh!]
A much better idea for beginners is simply to turn off a few appliances (when not being used) that consume a lot of electricity 24/7 (like your computer or your DVR).
Q: What’s the second step for making our homes greener?
A: Take an empty two-liter soda bottle, wash it out, fill it with water, screw the lid on tightly and set it into your toilet tank, as far away from the flapper valve as possible. This prevents two liters of water from being used every time you flush.
Q: Will it leave enough water for a proper flush?
A: A new low-flow toilet uses 1.6 gallons per flush. Older toilets go up to seven gallons a flush. Two liters is only half a gallon, so there’s still plenty of water left for most bathroom visits. Besides, you can always flush twice for those rare occasions when it’s truly needed.
First, I would wager that the vast majority of the readers of the New York Times or this blog already have low-flow toilets in their houses. It is pretty much automatic for a new home or major rehab in the past 15 years. If so, you have really done most of your job in the toilet [Note to self: Poor word choice].
If you don’t live in a part of the country where there is a water shortage, this measure may not even make the top 100 list. Yes, in the future, water shortages will become the norm over most of the southern part of this country, especially the SW
But I would note that the “Water Use it Wisely” website put together by a bunch of Arizona cities has a “100 Ways To Conserve” list on which appears:
#81: If your toilet was installed before 1992, reduce the amount of water used for each flush by inserting a displacement device in the tank.
That’s right. On a website just focused on saving water for people who have chosen to live in the desert, this as Number 81.
Q: Moving right along. Your third recommendation?
A: Install an ultra-low-flow shower head. A 1992 federal law requires all shower heads to be “low flow,” which means 2.5 gallons shoot out every minute it’s on. Switching to ultra-low-flow means you could go anywhere from two gallons all the way down to half a gallon a minute.
Q: But how’s the water pressure?
A: Ultra-low-flow shower heads mix outside room air into the water so the pressure is surprisingly good. The technology has really advanced. The old stigma of not having enough pressure — do you remember the old “Seinfeld” episode where Kramer couldn’t get enough water, so he switched to an elephant hose? — that doesn’t really apply.
At least this is a water and energy saver combined. But again, you probably have a pretty efficient water showerhead already. If you don’t, then this probably might make top 10, at least in arid climates. But I just don’t see this as a place for beginners to start. It can be quite frustrating replacing your showerhead — and again the gains for most will not be huge.
What do the desert dwellers say?
#16: If your shower fills a one-gallon bucket in less than 20 seconds, replace the showerhead with a water-efficient model.
Use a water-efficient showerhead. They’re inexpensive, easy to install, and can save you up to 750 gallons a month.
Not high on the list — but they do seem to feature it with a larger sized number and a picture.
[Note to desert-dwelling web folk: Sorry, but a list of a hundred things to do is also not terribly helpful, especially if you highlight some higher-number recommendations, leaving people with the impression that they are in fact more important than the lower number recommendations.]
Q: So far, these projects sound really manageable. What’s No. 4?
A: Install a gray-water system that collects soapy water and diverts it to the toilet. Instead of clean water, you flush with soapy water. WaterSaver Technologies (watersavertech.com) makes AQUS, a $300 system that installs under the sink.
Q: Is there a simpler way to capture and use gray water?
A: Actually, there is. It’s a toilet-topped sink called SinkPositive (sinkpositive.com). You replace the toilet’s heavy porcelain lid with this sink basin, which has a built-in faucet. When you flush, fresh water comes out of the faucet and you wash your hands with it. The soapy water collects in the toilet tank for the next flush.
Q: Forgive me for asking, but how does the SinkPositive look?
A: Like something you might find in a dentist’s office.
No and no — and another “no” just for good measure. Seriously, Scelfo and Freed — maybe one water-saving measure in your top 5. Or perhaps two, but only for those people living in a drought. But three?
And this one is so obscure it doesn’t even make the desert dweller’s top 100 list. Why? Because you don’t use bloody much water when you wash your hands. So why go to all the trouble of buying a $300 (!) device to reuse it.
I’m gonna call this recommendation a “green home newbie killer.” It is guaranteed to suck the life out of almost anyone’s newfound green enthusiasm.
Q: What’s the final step people should take?
A: This is probably the most important: replace old thermostats with a programmable one. It’s kind of like a TiVo of thermostats. It lets you turn the heat down when you sleep and back up before you wake. It can also tell the difference between Monday and Friday, so you can turn down the heat while you’re at work. A good one costs about $20, and saves about $180 a year on energy bills.
Q: So we don’t need to go home and install solar panels or put down bamboo flooring tonight? That’s a relief.
A: These five projects aren’t sexy, but everybody can do them.
Uhh, is dealing with vampires “the first and most important thing every green-minded dweller should do” as Scelfo asked in #1 or is this the most important?
In any case, this isn’t the most important, although it could make (part of) a good top-5 list.
On the other hand, I have a programmable thermostat, but I didn’t even remember to include it on the long list of things I do to reduce my carbon footprint (see “Is Climate Progress ‘low carbon’ and does it matter?“).
I certainly do recommend that people get a programmable thermostat, but of course most of the time you can just turn your thermostat up and down without much difficulty. The main benefit is that it means you don’t have to think about what you’re doing and you can start warming your house before you get up or get home.
STEPS TO A GREENER HOME
Let me offer my suggestions. It is, however, hard to create a one-size-fits all list, since it so much depends on your individual circumstances — where you live, do you have children, are you planning a major remodeling anytime soon, and so on.
For instance, if you do live in an area suffering from drought, then should probably take some water saving measures. But, of course, if you do, you probably already are.
#1. Get your home tested for dangerous pollutants. This goes double if you have kids. I’m talking lead (and other things) in your water, radon in the air, a carbon monoxide detector. Yes, you probably don’t have one of these problems, but if you do, it is infinitely more important to abate this problem than save the planet. And the tests are very cheap. Sometimes, some of this testing is done when you purchase a home, but sometimes not.
Unless you know the house has been checked for all of these when you bought it or since, this should be your top “green” prioirty.
Once you’ve eliminated dangerous pollutants in your home, the most dangerous pollutants you want to address are the air pollutants associated with power production, which cause cardiovascular illness, mercury poisoning, and dumber kids (see “Study: If you want smarter kids, shut coal plants“). And, of course, the same power plants that emit those pollutants are in the process of causing catastrophic global warming which will incalculably harm the health and well-being of the next 100 billion people to walk the planet (see “Hadley Center: Catastrophic 5-7°C warming by 2100 on current emissions path” and “NOAA stunner: Climate change “largely irreversible for 1000 years,” with permanent Dust Bowls in Southwest and around the globe“).
So the remaining “first steps to a greener home” should focus on greening your energy use.
#2. Buy 100% renewable power for your home with as much coming from new renewables as possible. No, this isn’t the cheapest thing you can do, but it is certainly the highest impact and easiest — assuming that you live in an area where such green power can be purchased.
You can find service providers in your state from the Green-e. However, do NOT buy renewable energy certificates (RECs). Those are basically rip-offsets (see “Schendler Part II: Good RECs vs. Bad RECs“).
#3. Green your appliances. If you have a really old refrigerator in your basement or garage, start there — replacing it could save you $150 a year. In fact, you should probably replace any appliance that is more than 10 years old with an Energy Star appliance.
#4. Wrap your hot water heater. This is just the simplest and fastest-payback first step in greening your heating and cooling system, which is probably 40% of your home energy bill. If your existing equipment is old, upgrade them with highly efficient (Energy Star). The average US home has 5 squre feat of leaks, including the ductwork. Sealing cracks, penetrations, and heating and cooling ducts can provide savings of 10% or more.
#5. Get ceiling fans. This is part of a strategy of changing your temperatures setpoints. With a ceiling fan, even an 80°F setting on the AC can be comfortable. I have 4. Okay, you can throw in a programmable thermostat here — but only after you get the ceiling fans.
#6. Compact fluorescent lightbulbs. But then you’ve already done that haven’t you?
#7. Turn off your computer (and DVR) at night. And don’t used a screen saver — your screen doesn’t need saving anymore and it’s just wasting energy. This single step will probably save you more money (and much more angst) than unplugging and replugging your other electronics.
#8. Do some water-saving stuff. Yeah, go back to “Water — Use it Wisely” and pick a couple of favs. Tip #2 is “When washing dishes by hand, don’t let the water run while rinsing. Fill one sink with wash water and the other with rinse water.” When you need a new washing machine, be sure to get a (good) horizontal axis washer — it saves energy, water, and detergent.
#9. When you repaint the roof, use Energy Star white (or high-albedo) paint, especially if you have a flat roof. How else can you do “geo-engineering and adaptation and CO2 mitigation” all in one? While we’re on paint, do use low-VOC paint for any new work around the home.
Okay, I overshot 5 and didn’t cover everything — I will do a later post on how to lower your carbon footprint.
UPDATE: This is just my list of individual steps to make your home greener, of course. Your suggestions are welcome. My top suggestion in general has always been to get political, since the changes required can only be driven by national action.
UPDATE: You can read Freed’s response in the comments. I don’t agree with his analysis, but the key point seems to be he was quoted out of context. He provided 20 items and they took five. This is a useful advice to anybody talking to the media: Find out what they want and give it to them precisely. The more you give, the more likely you are going to be quoted out of context — trust me, it is happened to me many times. But Freed says these are “must do” things, as opposed to something for beginners. If so, I even more prefer my list to his.
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Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
Uhh, you forget
turn down your thermostat in the winter; wear more clothes!
Number One in my opinion would be get informed and involved in bringing the science into the political debate. Read Joe’s blog, send it to everyone you know. Write/call/email your federal, state and local representatives. Talk about it to anyone you meet. Join environmental groups, send them money. Support political candidates who make climate change a priority. Make climate change the most important part of your life, because it IS.
Making an impact on others is more important than changing your own lightbulbs although it certainly doesn’t preclude greening your own home, which should be done also.
What about lagging your loft, installing cavity wall insulation, double glazed windows and draught proofing? They would be my top 4.
but actually, the top answer is almost certainly: build the global warming movement so we can get a political solution–increasing the price of carbon–that causes everyone to do all these things automatically. (that is, in numbers and at a pace large enough to actually affect atmospheric concentrations of co2).
if you want to do it on a global scale, come join us at 350.org. i have a plaque saying our house was the most energy efficient in the state the year it was built–but i don’t think it makes that much difference. it’s politics that will count
bill
David: Changing your temperature set points is there, although I didn’t specify details.
Robert: Roof insulation is definitely a good idea. Part of dealing with your heating and cooling. The windows makes sense as part of a major rehab, but replacing perfectly good windows today with energy star windows is quite pricey — not for beginners.
Bill: Okay, but this is just a post greening your home. I should add that no plausible CO2 pricing strategy is going to do this automatically, particularly the energy efficiency stuff.
Just a post about greening your house but the problem is, columns like Revkin’s encourage (some) people to think that’s enough.
One of the reasons I love Obama:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/11/obama-forget-the-f-ing-light-bulbs-its-the-collective.php
Three things our group recommends:
First, Get a thorough home energy audit (with blower door test and infrared scan) and follow through on the recommendations for installing insulation, sealing leaks and systems upgrades.
Second, with every purchase you make (appliances, vehicles, food, ‘stuff’), buy the MOST energy efficient item(s) possible.
Third, become as educated as you can about climate change, teach your children about efficiency and tell your friends and neighbors what you’ve done to lower your family’s impact on the Earth. If you become a shining example of a low-energy family, others will follow suit.
It’s interesting that people are conditioned to buy stuff as a response to any situation.
Top five free things to do (admittedly requiring some behaviour changes):
1. The water-bottle in the toilet cistern Joe describes.
2. Make sure your hot-water thermostat is set at 60 degrees C (140 F) – but no lower, as legionella can survive lower temperatures.
3. Turn out lights when you leave a room.
4. Close windows and doors when using heating or AC.
5. Dry laundry on the line, not in a drier, whenever possible.
These are all pretty basic, but it’s amazing how many people don’t practise them.
Low cost and big impact:
Fix leaking taps and toilet cisterns, and overflowing header tanks.
(To see if your toilet leaks, put food colouring in the cistern and wait 10 minutes. If the colour shows up in the bowl, you have a leak. If you have a ‘wet spot’ and/or a perpetual drip outside your house, you probably have an overflowing header tank.)
consumer reports has their “complete guide to reducing energy costs.” illustrated and much DIY.
“eat (non-processed) food; not much; mostly plants,” as michael
pollan says. huge home energy loss through meat consumption. eating less meat also saves water and pollutes less.
buy used furniture. buy second-hand clothes. buy recycled goods. use reclaimed materials or at least sustainably harvested when renovating. be part of the green consumer loop.
don’t leave the television on. if you want comfort sounds, try your radio. likewise read yourself to sleep.
one fridge is enough.
get rear baskets for your bicycle and use it for errands once in a while. even a fuel efficient car is most efficient when it’s parked!
what nancy said. full audit.
oh and if you have a microwave don’t be afraid to use it. it’s way less energy hungy than the full oven.
Here would be my list:
1. Get your air conditioner tuned up. Clean the coils. Replace the filters. Get the coolant level checked and check the ducting for leaks.
2. Check your water heater. Make sure it’s well insulated and not set too high.
3. Check your refrigerator. Clean the coils and get thermostats for both compartments to make sure they’re getting cold enough, but not too cold.
4. Replace the lights you use the most with CFLs.
5. Contact all your utilities/credit card/mortgage/mutual fund companies and sign up for e-billing and automatic bill payment.
http://sustainablechoices.stanford.edu/
Comprehensive guide (kind of like the Seafood watch card for everyday behaviors) that comes in three different levels of actions (for the beginner all the way to the fiscally-dedicated and/or activist) and for three different areas of your life (consumption, home energy, and on the road).
And an absolute plug to get involved politically through a local environmental group (of which there are a ton now) in your area by volunteering and taking action.
I didn’t notice
keep your refrigerator full.
Doesn’t have to be food, lots of bottles of water just filling up space will do.
The idea is that every time yoou open the refrigerator, the cold air is replaced by warm air. SWo there should be as little air inside as is convenient.
Same sort of idea for the freezing compartment.
David
“Get your air conditioner tuned up. ”
What are you even doing with air conditioning in the first place?
To answer my own question, it’s all a question of what you consider normal. If you come from the US then A/C must seem essential because everyone else has it. But not too many countries can boast 19.66 tonnes of CO2 per person/yr.
http://www.breathingearth.net/
The climate in India is at least as hot as the US but their 1.1 billion people get by on just 1.17 tonnes of CO2 and scarcely an A/C unit to be found. If nothing else this shows how difficult an international agreement on CO2 will be.
If anyone is fortunate enough to still be able to build a new house, build an energy efficient house, even better, build a passive solar house.
I still have books I read in the 70s on building energy efficient and passive solar houses and it always bugs me that millions of homes have been built since then and so few are passive solar.
The single biggest thing you can do to green your home and your world is NEVER, EVER VOTE FOR ANY REPUBLICAN. The Republican party believes the earth is actually cooling and that global warming is a scam. No wonder they will do everything in their power to fight on behalf of more carbon based everything.
The last Republican Administration said it was Americans’ right to use as much energy as they pleased and they gave the big thumbs down to energy efficiency and saving energy in any way.
The Republican mantra in the last election was “Drill Baby, Drill!” which might as well have been “Burn More Fossil Fuels and Cause More GHG, Baby!”
When the Republicans were in power the federal tax credits for my new solar system were capped at 30% and due to expire last year. The tax credit for my new plug-in car would never have happened. CO2 would still be unregulated and not considered a harmful greenhouse gas by the EPA.
So in my book, the #1 thing we can all do to green not just our House, but our Senate and all our other federal and state offices is to employ a carbon capture system that captures and removes Republicans from the environment and replaces them with clean, renewable representatives who don’t want to sell us out so that their favorite oil companies, coal companies and other carbon collaborators can profit at our expense.
There are some Democrats we should capture and remove too, but it’s safe to say that removal of 100% of the Republicans is the best first step when it comes to greenest bang for the buck.
I know it’s a small thing, but I’ve been keeping the air conditioner off in my car. The car uses less gasoline that way, which saves me money and emits less carbon.
Of course, I have a convertible, which is handy on hot days…
Creative Greenius,
Here Here! And also, don’t vote for those freakin’ phony “moderate” dems.
Vote green candidates, period.
I think we need targets for energy use in a home. I have replaced almost all bulbs with CFL’s (except for one lamp; the CFL won’t fit); turn off power strips for PC, modem and TV at night (no cable); turn off lights when we leave the room; purchased energy star washer/ dryer/ dishwasher; use these only on full loads; no A/C (Oxnard never gets hot); thermostat is programmed, temp set to 65 in winter; and so on.
When I read the list, I found we did most of these already. What is the result?
For a family of three:
Electricity 3867 kwh in one year (2006)
Gas 290 therm in one year (2006)
Water consumption 38.12 gallons per day in 2007.
I have no way of knowing if this level of energy consumption is ‘good’, if a lower target is needed, etc.
I think our family’s energy consumption is mostly in transportation (cars / air travel) and consumer purchases.
I like the list of actions, but I would not focus on the home testing for toxics unless there is some reason to be concerned. Homes built since the 80′s most likely do not have lead, for example.
The concern for radon, and other emissions may be an issue if the insulation is tightened up = less fresh air enters the home. In the 1970′s there was an increase in ‘sick building syndrome’ as homes and offices were sealed to conserve energy. One concern I had with a NYT article on this topic (perhaps not the one under discussion here) is that the article advocated sealing the home against air leaks, but neglected to mention indoor air pollution from gas cooking ranges, cigarette smoking, cleaning agents and so on.
Anyway, good post and great web site.
Harrier: Depending on the speed at which you are travelling, it might actually be less fuel efficient to roll down the windows. Consumer Reports says that the threshold is roughly 45 mph (this is because the power required at the wheels is a function of velocity cubed (not including wind direction)). http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/auto/20050804a1.asp
Wanting to make use of your convertible is understandable, but should be kept to a minimum on the highway.
Poor, harmfully poor, NYT and Andy Revkin. What a pity. Millions of readers?
As to Joe`s point 9, the white painting is not the best choice for albedo. White paint goes rather black in two years. I use white plastic canvas on the flat roof in summers. The same canvas covers my boat in wintertime. Only shower it when changing and it is white again. Keeps tightly on the roof with small plastic bags filled with sand. And some of the bags under the canvas, so that the canvas is detached from the roof some inches.
Hey, Bill McKibben commented. That’s pretty awesome.
If we are not talking about political action, but about small steps for green living, I would like to advocate for decreasing your living space. This does not mean you have to knock down your house and build a one room shack. What you can do, however, is cut down the rooms you use to a minimum, seal off the spares and not heat them. In practice, I don’t know how complicated this would be in modern American homes. However, in my 2 bedroom apartment in Bulgaria, it’s pretty simple. When it comes time to heat my place, I move my bed into the kitchen, seal it off and live there in the winter. This saves a lot of energy because part of the heating of my living space is generated by my stove when cooking dinner. Further, I illuminate my whole living space with one light bulb. Also, when you live in one room, checking to make sure everything is unplugged after use takes about 1 second.
Then, when things start to warm up, I do just the opposite: Open my apartment up to keep it cool so that I don’t need A/C or a fan. Simple enough. And, if it seems weird, I would like to note that in this part of the world plenty of people make similar adjustments because energy costs a lot of money and, well, it just makes sense.
Weirdly, I was going to comment yesterday to say – I get fed up with reading the “Get green lightbulbs” tips. Been there, done that – what’s the next step for people who have done all of the bulbs, water saving in toilets and so on and so on (ie: zero impact stuff). Most people reading this are ready to roll their sleeves up and take a few “some impact” measures (if only to at least feel like we’re continuing to do ‘something’).
So highlighting the white paint er, point, is brilliant (and you know I would like to see more action on that quick and easy win on the ‘Green jobs’ front, in particular), and reminding me about run off water – good job, thank you.
The issue I have at present is: yesterday I received a spam, er, promotional email from John Lewis, a well respected quality retail chain in the UK. First action: ways to green your home. Purchase goods, and replace your existing goods with better ones!
If you look at the carbon economy, then applying an ‘average life span’ to a product and ‘amortising’ the amount of carbon it took to create it over the average active life of, say, a kettle or any other supposedly green appliance, surely must be part of one’s calculation when purchasing new products? I love using our kettle as an example. It’s a gas kettle, so it’s using the unsynthesised fossil fuel – it has a lower carbon count than using electricity, it’s also only about 3 years old and because it has no electric parts and is built to last, it ain’t about to wear out. Realistically, should I encourage the production of more objects, the burning of more carbon, by purchasing a new energy efficient “boils in 6 seconds” kettle or should I stick with what I’ve got? And what happens to my old one – I don’t think it’s desperately recyclable.
I use this example because I seriously don’t know the answer. The lack of clarity around the CO2 units used in the production of objects is really hampering the widespread adoption of carbon rationing. Projects like WattsOn and AMEE are getting there, but it is frustratingly slow.
…and meanwhile there are people like me ready and willing to make lifestyle sacrifices, as well as people who you could very probably characterise as gullible but well meaning – ready to be suckered in by the “replace it with a better one” message, when sticking with the appliance they’ve got (with the exception of ancient refrigerators etc) would be infinitely preferable.
I can’t believe the NY times article. That guy is so out of touch and is EXACTLY why I created my blog at Mapawatt. I’m trying to give readers REAL steps they can take to make the most impact. Vampire Loads! Are you kidding me? Vampire loads make up at MOST 10% of your energy usage. At best, you are only going to be able to unplug half of these loads. I would hardly say 5% is the most important first step (that’s an optimistic 5% too)!
I do agree that the programmable thermostat is one of the most important steps. Not just having one, but USING it:
http://blog.mapawatt.com/2009/02/13/programmable-thermostat/
If you can optimize your heating and cooling, you can make the most impacts.
I may have missed it – don’t buy bottled water.
Eat less meat, and if you eat meat, eat chicken.
Recycle/compost if you can.
Minimize energy/pesticide consuming green lawns and grow a vegetable garden.
Eat in-season and locally grown.
Carry you own shopping bags.
Take your lunch to work (possibly a peanut butter sandwich, carrot, and apple)
Maybe call some attention to the unnecessity of a clothes dryer in most situations? Dryers use quite a bit of energy – certainly far more than ‘vampire loads,’ so eliminating the dryer is a step that should bring fairly significant energy savings.
1) Go here and enter information about how you heat and cool your home:
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=home_energy_advisor.showGetInput
I really appreciate your clarification of this topic. I read the NYTimes article when it came out and was a little confused by its tenets. I was wondering if you have any suggestions for people, like me, living in apartment buildings. My building (in NYC) isn’t going to install central air/heating or even a thermostat (we just get blasted by the radiators at someone else’s will). And I don’t believe I have the leverage to ask for new appliances. I already turn off the lights (which are compact fluorescents) and don’t leave the water running, but what else can we city dwellers do?
Step #1: Live in the smallest home that adequately meets your needs.
This won’t work or be a very attractive option for everyone but when I was growing up in a water scarce area the flush rule was, “if it’s yellow it’s mellow, if it’s brown flush it down.”
Rather than plug/unplug counter top appliances use a GFIC outlet and simply hit the test/reset buttons as necessary.
Buy less stuff. Every thing you purchase produces carbon emissions at some point. The carbon cost is not in the dollar price because it’s an “externality.” But it’s a real cost.
Even absent-minded middle-aged people (I qualify) can beat a programmable thermostat by developing simple habits of turning it low when you leave and lower when you go to bed. It soon becomes easy to remember because it’s a habit. The more irregular your hours, the more you beat the mindless program that is harder to fiddle with than a regular thermostat. (I’m not afraid of programming: that’s my profession.) Our house is nothing special, but we don’t use heat at night in Wisconsin. Get a blanket. And someone nice to keep warm with. When you get up, if it’s below 0 F, turn up the thermostat then and go out for a run. Everything will seem very warm when you return. If it’s above 0, you can turn it up on your return before your hot shower.
Its fun playing the “green credentials” game, but a bit pointless.
Bill mcKibben’s post is the only one that really makes sense – build a carbon price into the global economy. Of course, before we can do that a majority of people have to be on board, and maybe taking small, individual and voluntary steps is the way to get there.
Joe – please don’t tell everyone you have a 50″ TV again.
Joe:
Thank you for your thorough examination of my interview in the New York Times. And thanks to the constructive commenters.
Several friends have sent this to me, so I think it warrants a response.
CONFUSING THE MASSES:
In the early days of the environmental movement, I found that infighting among other greenies only hurt our mutual goals. It leads to confusion from the outside.
The easiest thing for most Americans to do, is to do nothing. It is easiest for them to continue wasting energy, water and resources because it does not require any additional effort on their part. Making changes is hard. Our job is to provide them with enough information and incentive to take action.
While I value your analysis, and even agree with some of it, you have made some fundamentally incorrect assumptions. By rejecting the information I offered, you have now created confusion to those reading both articles. Left bewildered, many people will probably reject all the measures you and I have provided. So now we have both lost.
Instead, you should have contacted me to discuss it first. Then we could have published the entire exchange with a summary for the readers.
I know blogs are not held to journalistic standards, but that is what a responsible reporter would do.
SELECTION OF THE FIVE:
This interview wasn’t to be the five “easiest” things, or the five “most important” things, or even the five “first and only” things.
It was five “must do” things. Five out of 300. Five out of so many other things people should do to lower their footprint.
In the original interview, I gave the Times 20 things to do, all geared at making people look at their home in a new way.
[JR: I don't necessarily agree with what you have written below, but I will make two comments. First, these are not five "must do" things in my mind. Second, I'm very glad you clarified that you gave the Times 20 things to do. That apparently was a mistake, since they wrote an article but did not leave that impression at all. It would have been much better had they explained the list was 5 of 20 things to do. I still prefer my list -- especially if it is "must do" things that any typical NYT reader interested in greening their home should do. I stand by my comments.]
Since there are nearly as many renters as homeowners in this country (and changing rapidly now), I felt it important to discuss things renters could do as well. I didn’t have the space to include all 20, and the Times wanted things people hadn’t heard about already.
Everyone knows about CFLs. Telling renters about solar is a joke. Even your #2, “Buy 100% renewable power” is impossible to someone in California who can barely afford our 19 cents a kilowatt. Buying green power is a fine suggestion, but only after load reduction.
In your own #6: Compact fluorescent lightbulbs – you even confirm this by saying, “But then you’ve already done that haven’t you?” See what I mean?!
(Coincidentally, our largest coal producing state, Wyoming, has their electricity subsidized by the coal and gas companies and they pay only 5 cents a kilowatt. It is impossible to calculate an ROI on solar in Jackson Hole.)
My job is to get people thinking about resources in a new way. From lecturing around the country I have a good sense of what people know about the environment.
I’ve been to hundreds of conferences lined with booths offering free CFLs, HW wraps and pipe insulation. You don’t need me telling people about those things. I’ve done hundreds of interviews (and several books) on those things. My five things doesn’t negate the need for those things – just increases the readers overall awareness of the other issues.
WATER
You suggest having only one water saving feature out of five. You suggest it is best saved for “people living in a drought.” You live in Washington DC, and perhaps the perception there is of an abundance of water. I live in California and live with water shortages and rationing on a daily basis.
For you to say, “if you do live in an area suffering from drought… …you probably already are [using water saving measures],” is a bad assumption to make. The ENTIRE country is in a drought, they just don’t know it yet. Most people are not taking advantage of water savings. Look at the research of the DOE, EPA and EnergyStar. I refer you to the books of Vandana Shiva, Anita Roddick and RFK Jr.
The water issue IS an energy issue. Joe, you’re an energy guy and should know that. They are linked and we can’t solve one without the other.
You assume the “Water Use It Wisely” list is in order? Using a broom instead of a hose does not save more water than replacing your showerhead!
Most people are unaware there is something called “greywater” or that water can be reused. You assumed, “the vast majority of the readers already have low-flow toilets.” This is incorrect.
California law (Title 24 Code) requires all new toilets to be low flow at 1.6 gpf. This has been a great success. We are installing ultra low flow, greywater and even composting toilets in our projects to push this even further. But when I cross the California border into Oregon or Nevada, I stay in places with 5 (or even 7) gallon per flush toilets. The need for national legislation is obvious, but the need to change the existing infrastructure is even more important.
VAMPIRE LOADS
As an architect, I see my clients assuaging their guilt through RECs and solar installs. Load reduction is vital to our survival. If through load reduction we can cut a 5 kW system down to 3, even better. I can’t control client usage behavior, but I can make sure the baseline house requires as little load as possible.
Vampire loads are one of those things I can help control. They have a direct effect on the monthly energy bill and people can start to reclaim control of their usage. Most people know their remaining cell phone minutes better than their monthly kW usage. By the way, you’ll never get anyone with kids to turn off their DVR at night!
[JR: Then your suggestion on vampire loads must come with the same caveat. Sorry this just isn't a priority action.]
YOUR REMAINING LIST
#3. Green your appliances.
#4. Wrap your hot water heater.
#5. Get ceiling fans.
#7. Turn off your computer (and DVR) at night. (SEE MY vampire loads)
#8. Do some water-saving stuff. (SEE MY tips)
#9. Cool roof.
…All things that were in my original list as well. In fact, I have incredible facts and potential impacts for all of them. Your readers can email me if they want to know more.
Let’s remember we are fighting the same fight. Let’s work together to make positive change. Keep up your good work and let me know if there is a way we can work together or if I can be of help to you.
Thanks.
Eric Corey Freed
Principal, organicARCHITECT
Author, “Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies”
I recently bought an older house outside Boston. My local electric company told me the attic insulation was adequate (free energy audit) but this winter I had very bad ice dams. I am about ready to cough up about $3K to upgrade the insulation, but am surprised this didn’t come up more on this list. Am I wrong in thinking this would be the #1 way I can reduce my energy use? (I’m not terribly concerned about the ROI as long as it will reduce my energy use a lot.)
I’d place hiring a company to do a real energy audit (including blower test) as the best FIRST thing to do. I’ve spent four years replacing an A/C, furnance, sewing flannel onto the out-face of curtains, replacing incand’s with CFL…you name it, but I really don’t know what impact my actions had. I’ve got an auditor coming out next month, which is being paid for by my city, to do the whole shebang, and provide documentation to support such actions as replacing windows or what not.
There is a handy little setance thought up some time back I feel applies best here. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. I live in a rental home with a ladlord unwilling to make costly purchases like refridgerators. The things I have focused on most in my life are :
1) Reducing my waste stream. Don’t want something? Donate it. I focus on buying in bulk and completely avoid anything in single serve packaging. And I break down my trash, making it take less space in the landfill and using fewer trash bags.
2) Reducing gas consumption. I’ve started accelerating and braking slower and put my car I neutral when going downhill. The savings were more obvious when gas cost me $5.20/gal but it’s still cool now.
3) Buying organic as often as possible. Not just food. My clothes, cosmetics, toiletries, and bedding. No toxins, typically grown more sustanibly, and says that I would pay the price to live in a green world, money is not the issue, which is a point that needs more making!!!
Eat less meat!
I can’t vouch for the math in this brief calculation, but this comparison of the embodied energy in a meat-based diet compared to a veggie-based diet appears to show a difference on the order of 20-30 kWh of energy per day per person.
There are probably some conversion factors and other losses involved here, so the math may be off. But if the numbers are in the ballpark, that’s about the same amount of electricity as is used by an entire household each day.
Changing from meat to veggies appears to be a heck of a lot more green than changing your light bulbs.
Oops, the link:
http://daily.sightline.org/daily_score/archive/2007/09/19/it-s-in-the-bag
Nobody mentioned the best idea for your hot water use. Get rid of your conventional hot water heater and get a tankless one. I got one 7 years ago and have not run out of hot water since and have already saved more than it’s cost in LP.
You can get your daily water-saving tip by following Water – Use It Wisely on Twitter. It’s pretty cool: check it out at http://twitter.com/wuiw
Wear a hat to bed in the winter. Remember “Ma in her kerchief and pa in his cap?” In fact, wear a hat around the house all the time in the winter; one looses 90% of their heat through their head! And a polar fleece rice bag heated in the microwave is a quick warm-up for day or night that allows one to turn the thermostat down another few degrees!
Urine is great for plants. Mictrurate outside in the summer on your tomato plants, or micturate in a bucket and take it outside!
Consider a “green burial”; even cremation has a huge carbon footprint.
Congrats on the post, Joe, plus your commenters contribs..
I hear john shars is in for an ‘interconnected’ blog next week on the topic. US/NZ content since kiwis are keen to home insulate – winter a-coming and all..
if your folks have the time c’mon over — http://sharsj.blogspot.com