Be Green to Save Green

This is a post written by Avishai Shuter, a up-and-coming zoologist who works at the Bronx Zoo.

The first law of thermodynamics dictates that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only change forms. The same is true of money (except for the Treasury, but WE can only take money from other people and put it in our pockets). In this post, I’ll share a few tips that will allow you to change energy into savings and save on your electric bill.

Seal up the Cracks

The average American home spends $1,900 a year on energy costs. Wanna save 10% on that? I’ll bet you do. Go to Home Depot, buy some caulk, and seal up any cracks in your walls or windows that allow warm or cold air to escape.

Cool It

Turning down the thermostat on your home’s water heater can end up saving you more than you think. Add that to washing your clothes with cold water (and yes, cold water will clean just as well as warm), and you can save close to $50 a year
(depending on how much you want showering to resemble NAVY SEAL training).

Recyctronics

There are a bunch of sites where you can easily trade in your old electronics for cash. Go to SecureTradeIn.com, YouRenew.com, or Gazelle.com, enter the make and model of your phone or laptop and watch the cash roll in.

Those Swirly Light Bulbs

Switch your outdated fat bulbs (incandescent) for the new and improved twisty efficient florescent bulbs. As much as 11% of your energy bill is spent lighting your home. You can save up to 75% by switching bulbs. So, what are you waiting for?

Power to the Strip

Have you ever noticed all the lights that still shine on your TV, stereo, cable box, router, etc., even when they’re turned off? All those lights are sucking up power and costing you money, without even doing anything. Appliances can make up 31% of your electric bill (https://www.eia.gov/consumption/residential/reports/electronics.cfm) (much of it sucking up power when not in use, I’m looking at you phone and laptop chargers I leave plugged in even when nothing’s charging). Plugging all this stuff into a power strip that you can just turn off when you’re done stops this phantom energy absorption in its tracks.

It is not very often that one of my heroes turns out to be wrong. This is because I view myself as a person with integrity and intelligence and I choose the people I look up to accordingly. That’s why it pains me to say, Kermit, you were wrong. Turns out, it is easy being green.