Preparing for Electric Cars

By Jenilee Rivera

     Many new models of electric cars are about to hit the roads. Think Nissan Leaf, GM's Volt, among others! How to recharge electric vehicles is becoming a serious concern. The US is far behind many other countries in this regard. A recent visit to Andorra, a tiny principality between Spain and France, revealed a popular option - plugging in when you park on the street.

     It is a complicated subject requiring all vehicle manufacturers to have a common system which in turn will be complemented by a common system of recharging. Some steps being taken include:

     Houston, Texas - the City of Houston has joined with Reliant Energy and Nissan to ensure recharging stations are ready for the Nissan Leaf. So far 10 charging stations, seven of them public, are ready.

     San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, California - These cities are partnering with Better Place, an electric-car company that plans to launch its vehicle in 2012. There will be 220 volt charging stations throughout the cities, permits will be expedited to allow fast installation of outlets and employer incentives will be put in place that will encourage employees to drive electric cars.

     Raleigh, North Carolina - Local utility Progress Energy has partnered with Nissan and the city to create a recharging infrastructure.

     West Sacramento, California - Retailer DMC Green Inc. opened its first electric-vehicle charging station in August 2009, the first of many retrofitted gas stations in California.

     Massachusetts - The state government and Nissan are developing plans for home, work and public charging facilities.

     Elk Horn, Iowa - The city installed four public charging stations in November 2009.

     In August 2009, the US Department of Energy awarded Electric Transportation Engineering Corp., a charging-station maker, $100 million to deploy more than 11,000 charging stations, and 4,700 Nissan Leaf vehicles in the following locations - Portland, Corvallis and Eugene, Oregon; Seattle; San Diego; Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona; Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga, Tenn.

Green Halloween Tips: Tricks to Make Your Halloween a Treat for Mother Nature

By: Terry Shannon

If you don’t already compost, Halloween is a great time to start. You can add post-Halloween jack-o-lanterns to your compost bin, along with fallen leaves, food scraps, and other organic, biodegradable yard and household waste.

Compost creates excellent soil for your garden. You might even use the compost from your backyard bin to help grow the pumpkins that will become next year’s jack-o-lanterns and pumpkin pies.

If you are interested in composting, your local hardware store, garden center, county extension service, or waste disposal agency should be able to help you get started.

Instead of throwing away your Halloween decorations each year, store and reuse them year after year, just as you do decorations for many other holidays, such as Christmas and Hanukkah.

From Larry West, former About.com Guide

Easy Ways To Go Green At Home And In The Car

By: Misty Capley

Going Green can start when you wake up... If you drink Coffee every morning, take a look at the brewing label. If it does not say USDA Certified Organic Label, who knows how it was grown. If it does fall under that certified label you can rest assured that it was grown using sustainable standards and not harming the environment.  

                  Laundry seems to be a never ending daily task, also a maximum energy user. Most loads do not need hot water to do a deep cleaning on your clothes. Wash loads in cold water, 90% of the energy used by washing machines goes into the heating.  The higher the water temperature, the higher the cost to your pocketbook and the planet.

Bill paying and record keeping use a lot of paper each month. By enrolling in on-line bill-pay options you will save trees, fossil fuel, money for stamps, and peace of mind. It can also make keeping records simpler. After enrolling, you’ve already saved trees and energy. Once you’ve paid print out the one page confirmation and file it away. There is no sending back an envelope or stamps!

While you are in the car there are a couple of things you can do as well. Everyone knows idling wastes gas… did you know how much? Idling for more than 10 seconds wastes more gas than is needed to start your car after is has been off.  American’s idle away 2.9 billion gallons of gas a year, worth around $78.2 billion annually.

While driving you may think “if I drive faster, I’ll get there sooner and save gas”… In reality driving 10 mph above 60 is adding nearly 50 cents to the price of EACH gallon of gas. Since traveling at a higher speed requires your engine to guzzle more gasoline. Don’t put the pedal to the metal and you will save yourself a trip to the gas station. 

10 Tips to Save Energy (and Money) in Your Home

By: Rene Hernandez

A whopping 46 percent of home energy use is, umm, energy loss! In other words, no productive energy use at all! Here are simple ways of reversing this, mostly by changes of habit.

1. Each degree you turn down the heat saves 3 percent of heating costs, while each degree you raise the temperature of your air conditioner saves 3-4 percent of cooling costs. By changing the temperature by 2 degrees all year, you can save about 2,000 pounds of C02 a year.

2. Cook with a slow cooker or a toaster oven (or even a solar oven!) to reduce electrical use from kitchen appliances. For a meal that requires one hour to cook in an electric oven, and which uses 2.7 pounds of C02, a crockpot uses 0.9 pounds of C02 for seven hours, a toaster oven takes 1.3 pounds of C02 for 50 minutes, and a microwave only 0.5 pounds of C02 for 15 minutes of cooking. A solar cooker requires NO C02!

3. Switch to a laptop instead of using a desktop computer and cut three-quarters off your electrical use. Turn off the laptop at the end of the day.

4. Switch to cold water washing and save 80 percent on energy used for laundry and save an estimated $60 a year. Hang dry your clothes instead of using the dryer and save 700 pounds of C02 a year.

5. Plug anything that can be powered by a remote control or that has a power cube transformer (little black box) into a power strip, and turn it off, and/or unplug, when not in use. (Power cubes are 60-80 percent inefficient.)

6. Turn off the lights when you aren’t using them and reduce your direct lighting energy use by 45 percent. Stop using heat-producing halogen lamps (they can also be fire hazards). Install occupancy or motion sensors on outdoor lights.

7. Switch to compact fluorescent from regular incandescent bulbs and use 60 percent less energy per bulb and save 300 pounds of C02 a year.

8. Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket and save 1,000 pounds of C02 a year. Insulate your hot water pipes.

9. Use public transportation whenever possible, carpool, shop locally, and ideally switch to a hybrid or energy-efficient car (if you haven’t already).

10. Keep your tires inflated to improve gas mileage by 3 percent. Every gallon you save also saves 20 pounds of C02 emissions.