Category Archives: Going Green

Going Green, Health, Lifestyle, Tips

4 Ways To Leverage Renewable Energy For Your Home

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Renewable energy is any power generated from natural sources like water, sun, wind, and biomass. It was estimated that renewable energy sources accounted for approximately 12% of total US energy consumption in 2020. These renewable energy sources emit little to no greenhouse gases in their production, so they are worth considering over traditional energy sources to combat climate change. Please take a look at these points if you wish to learn more about using renewable energy for your home.

  1. Install solar panels
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Solar energy accounts for a meager 1.6% of total electricity generation in modern-day America. Nevertheless, it remains one of the popular and effective ways to generate and leverage renewable energy for your home’s needs. You can fix photovoltaic (PV) panels on your roof or in your yard. These panels harness the sun’s energy and convert it into electricity you can use to power your appliances and warm your home. Depending on the orientation and latitude of the panels, you can generate at least 10 watts of electricity per square foot for your home. Solar leasing and outright ownership are the two common ways to obtain a photovoltaic solar system for your home. Also, the question “How much are solar panels?” is a top concern for many homeowners considering solar. Although the panels’ type, size, and location can influence installation costs, you will pay anywhere between $3.30 to $4.50 per watt.

  1. Install tubular skylights

Tubular skylights don’t generate electricity, but they produce free natural light, which you can leverage to slash your utility bills. A tubular skylight has a round metal tube, ceiling diffuser, and a roof-mounted dome. The interior of the tube has a reflective coating that reflects more than 90% of sunlight and delivers it via the diffuser, which produces a bright and soft glow of natural light. These skylights are worth considering for your roof over their traditional counterparts because they are quicker, cheaper, and easier to install.

  1. Wind turbines

Turbines are typically found floating offshore or on huge tracts of vast land called wind farms. However, if you have enough land, you can install a small wind turbine to power your home. Wind energy is more stable and efficient than solar, and the right size wind turbine can generate most or all of your power needs easily. Nevertheless, it is critical to note that you will require sustained winds of 10 miles per hour or more to generate enough power for your home. Also, zoning regulations, local laws, and HOAs may forbid wind turbines, depending on where you reside.

  1. Hydro power
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Hydropower is an option that won’t work for many people. However, you are in luck if you have water flowing through your property. You can divert some or all of the flowing water through a hydroelectric generator to produce electricity for your home. Consequently, find the largest vertical distance the flowing water will travel and divert it, so it flows through the generator in a regulated manner. You can produce substantial power this way, depending on the vertical distance and the amount of water. In addition, you may need to hire a professional to install your hydroelectric generator if you have no engineering knowledge. Nevertheless, hydro power’s relative stability over wind and solar makes it an excellent option to consider for your home’s energy needs if possible.

Going Green, Going Healthy, Lifestyle

Challenging Your Ideas About Waste

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There are a “bajillion” reasons why town planning is not one of the “glamorous” positions in the public service. It doesn’t have the same appeal as say, public health management or emergency response planning.

But be that as it may, there are still creative and off-the-beat ways in which you could manage your career growth in this particular area of the public service while making a solid contribution to your community.

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“Waste management” ties together rather nicely with the more comprehensive parts of overall environmental management and of the most important areas of concern here is, waste management planning. Not to be confused with the overall management of waste, per se.

TAKING ALL ELEMENTS OF GREEN BUSINESS, INTO CONSIDERATION

An integral part of who we mean to do business with these days and how we mean to move forward is invariably going to be influenced by who you’re doing business with as much as who your intended partner is doing business with too, and this is a rather critical element of something you should be aware of: knowing your clients, clients.

WASTE MANAGEMENT PLANNING

You’re never going to get away from this topic, whether you’re from the Balkans or Arizona but, if you’re going to run as tight a ship as what you think you want to then ask yourself this:  What level of waste management planning would you like to see left as a legacy of your business in your local community? It’s an important question as the problems of global waste control is not going away, nor getting easier to control. Many businesses have found other ways to plan for commercial waste disposal to help reduce their overall costs

IT STARTS WITH BEING A GREAT DAD (REALLY)

No matter how much life has changed around us, as “Dads” we still have crucial roles to play in how our children’s responsibilities are shaped. So if you’re going to change the way your community does business, start with how you do business at home and if you’re a dad with a business then involve your children in your business and let them see how you lead the way in your community with waste management and recycling.

THE DIFFERENT STAGES OF WASTE PLANNING

Before you can effectively diagnose where you’re at as a business, you also need to know what it is you mean to achieve your waste management goals. You may think that you don’t have an impact, but you do and if think that the US is leading the way…you may want to think again.

But your waste management team doesn’t have to be all that smart or overly sophisticated, you could start with something as simple as involving all of the stakeholders in your business to get involved with the decision-making that impacts each of their departments or sections.  Have them present plans to control recycling and waste that directly impacts their sections of the business and if they involve their direct teams in the process that will instantly create a greater sense of awareness.

These are challenges that more and more businesses are going to have to take even more seriously than they’re currently doing and if we’re serious about getting a handle on our environmental protocols, we’re going to have to get on board.

Going Green, Lifestyle, Tips

5 Ways to Prepare Your Home for Fall

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As the days get shorter and the nights become longer, you’ll soon be thinking of ways to keep yourself and your family warm and happy as you begin transitioning from the summer. Aside from that, you’ll need to carry out some fall-related chores in your home.

Doing so will ensure that your home and loved ones are ready for the cooler season and that you won’t have any household-related problems when you eventually transition into winter. Here are five ways you can prepare your home for fall starting from today:

1. Mow Your Lawn

It doesn’t matter whether you’ve got a small patch of grass outside your home or you have acres of lovely lawn you can admire from your abode. Even though it’s getting cooler and the days are getting shorter, your lawn will still grow, albeit not as much as during the summer.

With that in mind, it makes sense to keep your lawn trimmed until it gets to the point where it won’t grow much until next year. If you do not have a lawn mower already, now is the time to get one so that you are not falling behind with your grass cutting. You might want to think about getting a robotic lawn mower as it can be less work than using a traditional lawn mower. However, you will need to assess the size and positioning of your lawn before choosing.

2. Have Your AC System Serviced

If your home has an air conditioning system, there’s no denying that it will have been in constant use throughout the summer. As fall approaches, it won’t get used as much until temperatures start rising again next year.

It’s worth getting your system serviced; otherwise, you may need help from a 24 hour AC service if it suddenly decides to stop functioning as usual. Plus, getting it serviced now will be cheaper than potentially getting the system replaced due to a complete system failure.

3. Deep Clean Your Oven

It’s no secret that the oven is the least cleaned of all appliances or areas in your home. You undoubtedly use your oven on a regular basis, and you’ll likely use it quite a lot for cooking up feasts towards the end of the year.

The beginning of fall is one of the best times of year to deep clean an oven. That’s because it won’t be getting much use at the moment, giving you ample time to scrub any baked-on grease and food away and ensuring that internal components of your oven are also clean.

4. Prepare Your Fireplace

It goes without saying that when the darkness sets in early each year and temperatures drop, you’ll want to use your fireplace every evening. As you can imagine, you need to ensure your fireplace is in good condition and won’t cause any accidental chimney fires.

Have a professional sweep your chimney to remove any soot, and clean out your wood-burning stove so that it’s ready to use. Also, stack up some logs ready for use in winter or to use instead of your home’s heating system during fall.

5. Get Rid of Any Unwanted Junk

Last but not least, you’ve probably accumulated some items throughout the year that you’ve meant to discard.

One task you should do during fall is throw away, recycle, or sell any unwanted junk. Your home will feel more spacious, and you’ll have an enormous sense of achievement.