Heating up your home but not your bills

Whether home heating bills or energy conservation are your motivation, there are easy, inexpensive ways to watch your gas and electric usage this winter.

High-ticket items such as adding additional insulation, an energy-efficient furnance or new ductwork may not be in your budget this season, however, here are 10 simple ways you can reduce your energy output, curbing your heating costs.

1. Clean or change furnace filters once a month or as needed. Invest in a permanent filter, which also reduces waste.
2. Place a rolled bath towel or custom-made "snake" across the bottom of leaky doors and windows. You can use leftover fabric, old clothing, etc., and stuff.
3. Clean warm-air registers, baseboard heaters and radiators routinely and make sure they are not blocked by furniture.
4. Remember that heat rises. Make your ceiling fans work for you. Most have a switch to reverse the blades' direction, which can pull that warmer air back into your living space.
5. Install a programmable thermostat, which can help you save an estimated $180 every year in energy costs, according to energystar.gov.
6. Caulk windows and seal air leaks where plumbing, ducting or electrical wiring penetrates through exterior walls, floors, ceilings and soffits over cabinets.
7. During the winter, keep the blinds on south-facing windows open during the day to allow sunlight to enter your home. Close them at night to reduce the chill. (And keep your windows clean to maximize the light and heat.)
8. Turn down your thermostat as low as comfortable. It's thought that for every degree you turn down the thermostat in the winter, you’ll save as much as 5 percent on your heating costs.
9. Seal and insulate heating and cooling ducts in your attic, basement or crawl space. You could improve your heating system's efficiency by as much as 20 percent, according to energystar.gov.
10. Get your heating system inspected by a professional contractor before the winter, when demand increases. Maintaining your system will keep it operating efficiently and hold your costs down.

Sources for more information:

• http://earth911.org/california/flex-your-power/
• http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/latest/winterize-home-tips-energy-461008
• http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=home_improvement.hm_improvement_ducts

Find more green tips at Thrifty Green Thursdays.

I see the moon....

"The moon! Look, Mommy, the moon!" my 3 year old exclaimed the other night. It was far too late, but as she peered anxiously out the window, the bright crescent of the moon beckoned out to her.

Maybe it was the wonderful weather, maybe it was just a whim. But I said, "Let's go out and see the moon!" The two of us trotted outside, sat in front of our tree and peered out at the moon. The clouds drifted over the moon, drifted past again, and teased us with the flickering of the stars. And we watched.

It's little moments like these that remind me that it's never too early to teach an appreciation for our world. Too often we take for granted the business of our lives, the "to-do" list and the technology, and we forget the little things of life. As I sat there, I realized my daughter probably won't grow up watching the stars at night, like I did at campouts when I was young, unless we encourage that path along.

She won't understand that tomatoes come on plants and not on grocery store stands, unless we encourage that path along.

She won't understand that nature is precious, unless we enourage that path along.

Writes GreenStyleMom:

We aren't waiting until our kids are older or waiting for a good green school curriculum. In our house, we don't just act responsibly, we discuss it. We are building a base that will be expanded as they grow. A way of life that is inherent to them as recognizing letters and counting objects.

And so I watch, and wait, and just appreciate those little moments.

Life without plastic?

This weekend, we watched Jean-Michel Cousteau’s "Dolphins and Whales 3D." The IMAX movie makes a point of sharing which ones are in dangerous risk of extinction due to our actions. I was shocked that a person seated behind my husband grumbled about it being a load of garbage (albeit more colorfully) that we are to blame.

Why do you think we have a dead zone in the Gulf? Or that species of fish are disappearing? Or that lobster fishermen are struggling? (If you need to put a “people spin” on the problem.)

Writes Robert Morley on TheTrumpet.com: “One such garbage patch of plastic, located north of Hawaii, covers an area approximately twice the size of Texas.”

“Evidence of our failure to deal with plastic rubbish is everywhere, from bulging landfill sites and countryside litter in the UK to a toxic plastic 'soup' swilling around the middle of the North Pacific, thousands of miles from continental land,” writes Christine Jeavans of the BBC. “Island groups such as Hawaii and Midway which, by their location in the Pacific should be pristine, instead are awash with plastic, killing seabirds, turtles and other marine life.”

The great news is the tides are changing. California is considering banning plastic bags to protect marine life. On a more individual level, attitudes are shifting. We’re investing more in reusable bags, though at a slow pace. And Jeavans is doing something few of us could fathom: She is giving up buying anything plastic for an entire month.

Consider:

• No coffees from the coffee shop around the corner
• No bottled water
• No prepackaged sandwiches wrapped in plastric wrap.
• No berries in those green plastic containers
• No plastic jugs of milk
• No trash bags
• No bottled cleaning products
• No packs of meat on Styrofoam containers, wrapped in plastic
• No disposable diapers

Jeavans kept track of a month’s worth of plastic used in her household – 603 item, from cheese wrappers to toothbrushes. Can she go completely plastic-free for 30 days? Read her blog at “Not my bag” on the BBC Web site.