Monday, July 6, 2009

Spending over $75 on your water bill? Why?

If you are spending over $75 or more on your monthly water bill, the eco guru is here to help! Consider the idea of doing a Home Evaluation Water Retrofit for your home.

There are numerous ways to reduce your water consumption without you even realizing you are. Some of these ideas you will be reading about will be brought to you from the water conservation days of the 70’s and some will be technologies that have popped up in recent years. All of these ideas are tride & true concepts that work and can save you lots of hard earned money.

One of the biggest wasters of water is waiting for the hot water in the shower to heat up. We turn on the shower, walk away & 5-10 min. later we get in. We all do it! A product that has popped up recently called the Evolve ShowerStart Low Flow Showerhead does 2 things. It is a low flow (1.59gpm) shower head, (most shower heads are 2.2gpm or higher) and it has “trickle trigger technology” (fun to say!). The shower head monitors the water temperature and triggers a trickle of water as soon as the water reaches 95° F. When you hear the trickle you turn the knob and begin your shower. Ahhh!

Another great idea is a shower timer. Most shower timers give you time for a 5 minute shower before they beep at you or flash lights. This is great for the ladies; men don’t seem to need this timer as much as we do. But even though ladies have more to do in there, if you’re in the mode of saving money, a little beeping to let you know that 5 min. has gone by can save your family dollars a minute.

This is one of the tride & true concepts from the 70’s; it’s called the “Toilet tank bank”. Warmly named this because, it saves you money with every flush. It is simply a bag that you fill up with up to 8oz of water & hang off the inside of your toilet tank. The water in the bag takes up space that would have other wise been taken up by water filling your tank. So every time you flush you save 8 oz of water. With a family flushing all day every day for #1& #2, it adds up to saving gallons & dollars. With this product you “set it and forget it!”

These are just 3 simple ways to save money on a daily basis for more tips and money saving ideas go to my blog http://theecoguru.blogspot.com/, or join me on http://twitter.com/theecoguru for daily tips and tricks. Please feel free to email me with comments and questions at traci@theecoguru.com I would love to hear your feedback.
Be Healthy!

Reduce your Carbon footprint for pennies…..


With all of the Greening out there, how can you do anything with out it costing you hundreds of up front dollars? I have 2 simple words for you, ClimateSmart™. Through our friends at PG&E you can offset the energy usage and carbon footprint your home uses.

“The ClimateSmart program http://www.joinclimatesmart.com/ , a first-of-its-kind, helps you to balance out your home's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through environmental conservation, restoration and protection projects. By adding a voluntary, tax-deductible donation to your monthly PG&E bill—around $5 a month for the typical home—you can join the fight against climate changes and reduce your carbon footprint.”
PG&E determines how much you are charged based on your monthly electrical bill. The monthly cost for ClimateSmart participation is $0.00254 per kilowatt-hour (for electricity) and $0.06528 per therm (for natural gas), or about $5 a month and makes your home carbon neutral. My electrical bill is about $26 a month (I practice what I preach) and I pay only 0.79 cents a month toward the ClimaeSmart program.

The best part is 100% of your payment is tax-deductible and supports projects that reduce or absorb GHG emissions by conserving and restoring native redwood forests or capturing methane gas from dairy farms and landfills. The local ClimateSmart rep for the Southern Region of California is Rebecca Weber, RJu@pge.com, you can contact her with questions and especially if you have a home based business and how your business can be Carbon Neutral. I did and I got this great certificate (see below). The best part is I get to put it up in my office and brag about my home & my business being Carbon Neutral.

For more tips and money saving ideas go to my blog http://theecoguru.blogspot.com/, or join me on http://twitter.com/theecoguru for daily tips and tricks. Please feel free to email me with comments and questions at traci@theecoguru.com I would love to hear your feedback.
Be Healthy!