We must replace regular incandescent light bulbs with Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs. CFL’s use 60% less energy than a regular bulb. This will save about 300 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
We must move our thermostat down 2° in winter and up 2° in summer. Almost half of the energy we use in our homes goes to heating and cooling. We could save about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year with this adjustment.
We must clean or replace filters on our furnace and air conditioners. Cleaning a dirty air filter can save 350 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
We must choose energy efficient appliances when making new purchases. We must look for the Energy Star label on new appliances to choose the most energy efficient products available.
We must not leave appliances on standby. We must use the “On/Off” function on the machine itself. A TV set that is switched on for 3 hours a day and in standby mode during the remaining 21 hours uses about 40% of its energy in standby mode.
We must move our fridge and freezer. Placing them next to the cooker or boiler consumes much more energy than if they were standing on their own.
For example, if you put them in a hot cellar room where the room temperature is 30-35ºC, energy use is almost double and causes an extra 160kg of CO2 emissions for fridges per year and 320kg for freezers.
We must defrost old fridges and freezers regularly.
Even better is to replace them with newer models, which all have automatic defrost cycles and are generally up to two times more energy-efficient than their predecessors.
We must cover our pots while cooking. Doing so can save a lot of the energy needed for preparing the dish.
Even better are pressure cookers and steamers which can save around 70%.
We must use the washing machine or dishwasher only when they are full. If you need to use it when it is half full, then use the half-load or economy setting.
There is also no need to set the temperatures high.
Nowadays detergents are so efficient that they get our clothes and dishes clean at low temperatures.
We must reuse our shopping bag.
When shopping, it saves energy and waste to use a reusable bag instead of accepting a disposable one in each shop.
Waste not only discharges CO2 and methane into the atmosphere, it can also pollute the air, groundwater and soil.
We must reduce waste. Most products we buy cause greenhouse gas emissions in one or another way, during production and distribution.
By taking our lunch in a reusable lunch box instead of a disposable one, we save the energy needed to produce new lunch boxes.
We must buy fresh foods instead of frozen. Frozen food uses 10 times more energy to produce.
Avoiding just 10 miles of driving every week would eliminate about 500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year.
We must keep our car tuned up. Regular maintenance helps improve fuel efficiency and reduces emissions.
When just 1% of car owners properly maintain their cars, nearly a billion pounds of carbon dioxide are kept out of the atmosphere.
We must drive carefully and do not waste fuel.
We can reduce CO2 emissions by readjusting our driving style.
We must choose proper gears, must not abuse the gas pedal, must use the engine brake instead of the pedal brake when possible and turn off our engine when our vehicle is motionless for more than one minute.
By readjusting our driving style we can save money on both fuel and car maintenance.
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