Take the Smart Living Challenge
with the Smart Living Project
Every
month the Smart Living Project will issue a new smart living challenge. Give
it a try just once a week and then add a new challenge each month. If you
already live smart, try our advanced challenge,
or try to do something
else sustainable
every day. You can do it, and we are here to help.
Remember to send us your smart living stories!
August Challenge
Make a backyard clothes-line this month, and line-dry one load of laundry per week. Here's why:
The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that the average household spends almost 10% of their electric bill drying their clothes. Take your annual electric bill and divide it by 10 and that is how much money you can save each year by using a clothes line! If you can line-dry your clothes inside during the winter months you could possibly stop using your dryer altogether and save a bundle!
Advanced challenge
Plug all your appliances that don't need to run all the time (think TV, DVD player and especially appliances with adapters on the end, such as cordless phones or answering machines) into power strips. When you leave the room always turn off the power strip. Compare your energy consumption before and after.
The energy-sucking effect caused by the stand-by option on lots of appliances such as TVs (seem like they're turned off, but they're really not!) is called phantom load. This means appliances use energy even though they are not on. You can save a bunch of energy by using power strips and making sure to turn them off when the appliances are not in use.
Furthermore, it is estimated that about 6% of our total energy consumption is wasted through phantom loads. 6% of our energy consumption in the United States, is more than the entire energy consumption of Australia. Think about that for a minute. (Reference: World Fact Book)
Find more energy saving tips.
Check out this basic fact sheet from UC Berekely.
