2010 March 24 | Access 2 Knowledge

Meet the town people of Greensburg and hear their first hand accounts of how they survived one of the largest tornado’s in U.S. history. With a clean slate the town decides to rebuild the entire community with Energy saving features for every home and business and as green as possible. The series was aired on Planet Green and chronicles the town’s journey of personal stories and the rebuilding of a Midwest farming town on the decline into a sustainable model of eco-living. When there town was destroyed they set out to include as many energy efficient building and lighting resources that they could. A show was created that followed reconstruction efforts and the results to date have been inspiring showing that even in the face of disaster good can come from total destruction.

This story helped to inspire thousands of people to realize that they can do their part to help the environment and it does not have to take a natural disaster to do some simple things to help improve your home energy costs. We have been slowly changing out our incandescent light bulbs with more energy saving LED bulbs in order to reduce our carbon footprint and reduce our overall energy costs. We just recently signed for the Microsoft Hohm site that helps home owners to understand their overall energy consumption and helps to make recommendations on how to save energy and suggest modification tips in order to help you get there.

The site is free to join and they help provide a detailed look at your overall home and energy costs from your water heater to your home appliances and what to look for in future purchases. You can provide a detailed overview of your home through a simple step by step process and then see your energy report based on the total consumption. After completing these simple steps I was shocked at just how much energy and overall money we spend a year. Based on our energy consumption I have some work to do. Based on the average in our area we were almost double the amount spent. The site helps provide steps to reduce energy based on your input and then provides some additional energy savings tips such as using ceiling fans more to help cool your home. Here were a few of the energy saving tips that are simple to do and cost little to implement and will give the biggest payback:

These are just a few of the tips that you can do right now to saving money and helping to reduce your energy consumption and carbon footprint on the environment. Take the couple of minutes to visit Microsoft Hohm and see first hand how you can start saving money on your energy costs. I was impressed with this free service because not only is it free but they help to provide a check list of items that are recommended so that you can use this as a reminder to help with those Spring projects around the home and focus on ways to help improve the world we live in.

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Education, Home Improvement | admin March 24, 2010 |
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  • Lower your thermostat (should have a programmable thermostat) by just a few degrees when you are not at home (approx savings $154/yr)
  • Lower the temperature on you water heater (approx savings $135/yr)
  • Replace your inside and outside incandescent light bulbs with more energy efficient LED bulbs (approx savings $83/yr)
  • Use the sleep or hibernate mode for your PC/Laptops when not in use ( approx savings $45/yr)