Costco Connection - August 2009

garden home &
Living in the
Energy vampires

Televisions, computers, monitors, printers and other equipment silently suck electricity from our homes even when we think we’ve turned them off. The “instant on” features of TVs and other displays actually mean the device is in a persistent stand-by mode, constantly drawing a trickle of electricity and wasting an estimated 43 billion kilowatts a year. “Even shutting appliances down for seven or eight hours a night can save the average homeowner a hundred dollars a year,” estimates Glenn Fay, co-owner of Oakleigh Vermont, an online retailer that specializes in earth-friendly technology products.

Steve Long, director of government relations at The Nature Conservancy’s Eastern Region office in Boston, recommends thwarting these “energy vampires” by plugging them all into “smart” power strips that not only provide surge protection for the electronics but also sense when the devices are not in use and shut them down completely.

green house
Eco-friendly technologies help you
go green at home (and at work)
By Dan Daley

AS ENERGY, WATER and other resources become less abundant and more costly, going green at the household level becomes more practical. Fortunately, there are more new technologies and products coming to market than ever before that can help you achieve significant savings of both energy and money.

which uses energy even more efficiently. According to calculations by Jeff Crane, CEO of energy conservation consultant Concept to Creation, a 75-watt incandescent bulb costs $3.80 a month to operate; a 12-watt LED does the same job for 43 cents.

Good day, sunshine

MEDIA BAKERY

Solar power generation has been around for decades, but recent advances in materials and systems management have made it far more efficient and cost-effective. Photovoltaic and newer thin-film technologies gather solar energy and are used to heat swimming pools, power home water heaters and even generate all the electricity a home needs and then some. Solar electric generating systems are expensive, upwards of $15,000. On a smaller scale, consider purchasing a solar-powered battery charger to power up your camera, cellphone, iPod or laptop.

Meter, meter on the wall

The programmable digital thermostat is already a common fixture in many homes. It allows homeowners to turn heating and air-

28 The Costco Connection AUGUST 2009 Fiat lux

Compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) are the size of a standard incandescent light-bulb, but last six to 10 times as long and use 25 percent or less of the power of an equivalent incandescent bulb. CFLs dissipate far less of their energy use as heat and more as light, so a 14-watt CFL will provide the same amount of light as a 65-watt incandescent bulb. According to Energy Star (www.energy- star.gov), the joint program of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy, that rates energy-saving products and practices, if every home in America replaced just one incandescent light bulb with a CFL, in one year it would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes.

The newest generation of lighting technology is the light-emitting diode (LED),

Green investment

GOING GREEN CAN be expensive, but there are ways to offset those costs. Dozens of federal, state and local incentives are offered to homeowners who implement energy-saving technologies. Find them at Web sites Green and Save ( www.greenandsave.com), Green Made Simple ( www.greenmadesimple.com) or the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency (www.dsire usa.org). For example, the Marin County, California, Sustainability Team rebates $500 for a photovoltaic system, $300 for a solar water heater and $200 for a solar pool heater to local residences.

According to Mike Rogers of

GreenHomes America ( www.greenhomes america.com), with U.S. federal government tax credits of up to $2,000 for whole-house solar electricity generation systems, and state incentives that in some cases cover more than 65 percent of the cost of the system, full amortization of an investment can occur in less than five years.

Finally, some solar power-generating technologies are so efficient that they have the potential to create more power than the home uses, allowing the excess to be sold back to the utility. Imagine opening the monthly statement from your electric company and getting a check instead of a bill!—DD