Until fairly recently anyone who indicated concern about the destruction of the environment raised skeptical eyebrows. That has totally changed now, since we all appear to have an awareness that the planet is having troubles, and we all have a part to play in fixing it. Unless everyone begins to start living much more green we won’t be able to fix the problems of the environment. This needs to happen soon and living in ways more friendly to the environment should become a goal for every individual family. Read on for some ways to go green and save energy, largely in the kitchen.
Changing light bulbs is actually as good a place to start as any. Naturally you shouldn’t confine this to just the kitchen. Compact fluorescent lightbulbs are energy-savers, and you should use them instead of incandescent lights. They cost a small amount more at first, but they last ten times longer, and use less electricity. Changing the light bulbs would certainly keep a great deal of bulbs out of the landfills, and that’s good. It goes further than simply replacing the lights, though; turning off lights that aren’t needed is definitely another good thing to do. In the kitchen is where you’ll frequently come across members of a family, and often the lights may not be turned off until the last person goes to bed. And it’s not restricted to the kitchen, it goes on in other parts of the house as well. Make a habit of having the lights on only when they are required, and you’ll be astonished at the amount of electricity you save.
Refrigerators and freezers use a lot of electricity, particularly when they are not working as economically as they should. If you’re in the market for a new one, the good news is that compared with models from 10 or more years ago, they use about 60% less energy. The suitable temperature settings for your fridge and freezer, whereby you’ll be saving energy and optimizing the preservation of food, is 37F and 0F. You can reduce how often the motor has to run by frequently cleaning the condenser, which will save on electricity.
You may well prefer cooking with your oven, but using a microwave instead will cost you a lot less money. If you find out it will require 75% more energy to cook in the oven, you could possibly look for more ways to use the microwave. Compared with your stove, you can make boiled water as well as steamed vegetables faster, and use a great deal less energy, by using countertop appliances. You might think that you save energy by washing your dishes by hand, however that is not true. Mainly if you ensure that the dishwasher is full previous to starting a cycle. Don’t dry the dishes by using heat, use the cool dry or air dry features to increase the money you save.
From the above it really should be obvious that just in the kitchen, by itself, there are many little opportunities for saving energy and money. Green living is not really that difficult. It’s about being sensible, most of the time.