Introduction: The Ultimate Guide to Eco Living
This Instructible will show you how to live greener with some tips ranging from a small tweak in your life to a large shift.
Step 1: Living Green
Green living can be a small change that barely effects you, or a complete lifestyle, but implementing just one of these changes completely into your life can have a big impact on the environment.
**If anyone has something that they have heard that I have missed, then PM me or write it in the comments. I will try to add it ASAP**
***Please vote in the Earthjustice United States of Efficiency Contest!***
**If anyone has something that they have heard that I have missed, then PM me or write it in the comments. I will try to add it ASAP**
***Please vote in the Earthjustice United States of Efficiency Contest!***
Step 2: The Car
The car is a large user of energy. If you can cut that down as much as possible, then you can save our planet from a lot of CO2. Here are some ways to cut emissions:
-Tune up your car regularly, a badly tuned car can have a 20 percent energy penalty
-Get (or see if you have) tires with low rolling resistance as they improve gas mileage
substantially
-Get a hybrid, natural gas, or high mileage car, the lower the emissions, the better for the
environment!
-Don't use AC in the car, you can lose up to 21 percent of your gas mileage. Open a window!
-Buy used cars, that way the energy for one car is all that s used instead of that car being
wasted.
-Carpool to work or school
-Tune up your car regularly, a badly tuned car can have a 20 percent energy penalty
-Get (or see if you have) tires with low rolling resistance as they improve gas mileage
substantially
-Get a hybrid, natural gas, or high mileage car, the lower the emissions, the better for the
environment!
-Don't use AC in the car, you can lose up to 21 percent of your gas mileage. Open a window!
-Buy used cars, that way the energy for one car is all that s used instead of that car being
wasted.
-Carpool to work or school
Step 3: The House
The house also uses a lot of energy, so lowering your utility bills is a good thing. Here are some ways to reduce your house's CO2 emissions.
-Make sure that your house is properly insulated, one small leak can consume a lot of energy
over the year.
-Get bamboo flooring. It is a more renewable resource as it grows faster.
-In summer, waster at only dawn and dusk so that less water evaporates and more water is
absorbed by the plants.
-Plug electronics into power strips so that you can turn them off and kill the "Fantom Draw."
-Turn down the thermostat/heater in the winter and turn it up in the summer. Only by a couple
degrees, but it makes a difference. In the winter, wear a jacket, in the summer, use a fan.
-Buy a thermometer(a small investment) so that you can controll your temperature by opening
and closing the windows when it is hotter outside than in.
-Turn off your lights in a room that you are not in as well as a room that is well lit by sunlight
-Switch from conventional bulbs, to CFLs or LED bulbs
-Buy a "Pause" shower head, use less water
-Take short showers
-Get solar panels
-Lower your water heater temperature, they often go to heats that we never use, and it wastes
energy to heat it
-Put an insulating jacket on your water heater to keep the heat in and use less energy to heat
the water {Thanks iPodGuy!}
-Make sure that your house is properly insulated, one small leak can consume a lot of energy
over the year.
-Get bamboo flooring. It is a more renewable resource as it grows faster.
-In summer, waster at only dawn and dusk so that less water evaporates and more water is
absorbed by the plants.
-Plug electronics into power strips so that you can turn them off and kill the "Fantom Draw."
-Turn down the thermostat/heater in the winter and turn it up in the summer. Only by a couple
degrees, but it makes a difference. In the winter, wear a jacket, in the summer, use a fan.
-Buy a thermometer(a small investment) so that you can controll your temperature by opening
and closing the windows when it is hotter outside than in.
-Turn off your lights in a room that you are not in as well as a room that is well lit by sunlight
-Switch from conventional bulbs, to CFLs or LED bulbs
-Buy a "Pause" shower head, use less water
-Take short showers
-Get solar panels
-Lower your water heater temperature, they often go to heats that we never use, and it wastes
energy to heat it
-Put an insulating jacket on your water heater to keep the heat in and use less energy to heat
the water {Thanks iPodGuy!}
Step 4: Miscellaneous
The previous are the two main categories but there are also things that don't really fit into those categories. Here are some of them.
-Use a reusable lunch bag to reduce waste from paper bags
-Use a "pause" shower head and pause while you are soaping up to save unneeded water
-Take shorter showers
-Gollect rain for free (and green) water
-Use reusable canvas or fabric shopping bags
-Wash laundry in bigger loads to use less water
-Compost to save food from the landfill and get free mulch
-Donate your old clothes, don't waste them
-Buy organic, local food, it is better for the environment, it supports your local farmers, and
saves emissions on transport
-Buy green products because, well, they're green!
-Use eco-jewelery, and things that you can make yourself, like hemp
-Recycle batteries rather than throwing them out
-Get a green computer that uses less energy (like from this contest!)
-Set your computer to go to sleep so that it is not using energy while idle
-Set your dishwasher on energy saver and turn of the "pre-rinse" which isn't needed as long
as there is nothing big still stuck on things
-Buy stuff used, at garage sales, freecycle, Craig's List, etc.
-Save paper. Don't print things unless you must, or will use it more than one time. Try to keep
things on the computer
- Recycle
-And last but not least... make stuff from Instructibles to reuse items and recycle by yourself
-Use a reusable lunch bag to reduce waste from paper bags
-Use a "pause" shower head and pause while you are soaping up to save unneeded water
-Take shorter showers
-Gollect rain for free (and green) water
-Use reusable canvas or fabric shopping bags
-Wash laundry in bigger loads to use less water
-Compost to save food from the landfill and get free mulch
-Donate your old clothes, don't waste them
-Buy organic, local food, it is better for the environment, it supports your local farmers, and
saves emissions on transport
-Buy green products because, well, they're green!
-Use eco-jewelery, and things that you can make yourself, like hemp
-Recycle batteries rather than throwing them out
-Get a green computer that uses less energy (like from this contest!)
-Set your computer to go to sleep so that it is not using energy while idle
-Set your dishwasher on energy saver and turn of the "pre-rinse" which isn't needed as long
as there is nothing big still stuck on things
-Buy stuff used, at garage sales, freecycle, Craig's List, etc.
-Save paper. Don't print things unless you must, or will use it more than one time. Try to keep
things on the computer
- Recycle
-And last but not least... make stuff from Instructibles to reuse items and recycle by yourself
