Guy Goes Green

Wannabe green guy going green

Posts Tagged ‘conserve’

Green Entertainment

January 8th, 2010

Yes, the TV will be turned by the time Monday comes around, but this got me thinking, what can we do to make our TV watching more efficient? Is there even such a thing? I think so. I think, that with the right equipment you can cut your TV time in half. I want to go through some things that came to my mind while I was thinking how to lessen my time in front of the TV and to bring green to our living room.

Through our cable company we also rent a DVR. I don’t know how I made it through TV watching before we got one. With the ability to pause and record live TV, I definitely take advantage of it’s efficiency. I will typically start a TV show half way through so I can fast forward through all of the commercials. Sometimes, when I have two shows on at once, I watch them both, just flip through when a commercial starts. This saves me half the time of a regular program without missing any of the actual program.

Another green way to be entertained by your TV, is to use Netflix. I love this company! I feel that this is going to be the new way to watch movies. I actually heard that DVD sales have declined. This could also be an increase interest in Blu-Ray, but could also mean the end of the DVD. It has been a very long time since Ben and I have actually bought a movie. When we do purchase, we will take the DVD out, then dispose of the case. That just takes up so much space in our house, plus how un-green is that? Ben and I also just started streaming movies through Netflix. This requires no waste at all. It’s kind of like On Demand. The benefits include not having to worry about movie quality or getting it in the mail. However, there is a limited selection to choose from, but I feel in time this list will get longer.

I think there is a place for the TV in the household, but I also think that time should be limited. However, I do think that most American’s over-use this piece of equipment. There is so many things we could be doing instead flipping through the channels mindlessly or clicking away online. I love to read, so I should start picking up a book once a night. Ben and I love to be in each others company, but how come we are usually on the internet or in front of the TV at the same time? We are addicted to these things! Facebook and Twitter are becoming so ingrained in our lives we can’t image being without. If you have anything you would like to add, please put your comments below.

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Posted in Ashley's Posts, Energy, Week 12 No Television

Tags: Computer conserve DVR electricity Facebook Netflix TV Twitter

Why should I turn off the lights?

December 10th, 2009

I have been trying to follow the rules of this week’s green challenge by turning off all lights when I leave a room and I understand that it saves energy, but I think it would be a good exercise to find out specifically why this is a good idea. “Save energy” is such a broad term and it seems to help me to take a look at specific reasons why I should be turning off lights to save energy.

One of the most common ways electricity is created is by burning fossil fuels. When fossil fuels, such as coal, oil or natural gas, carbon dioxide is released into the air and that is the nasty stuff that leads to global warming. So, by keeping the lights on when you are not using them is just an exercise in wastefulness. To turn OFF those same lights is an expression of conservation and only using what you need.

How big of a difference does this make? Although I usually really like doing the math, I am going to rely on other people’s math today. A 60 Watt light bulb consumes .06 Kilowatt hours of electricity. If I can prevent this light bulb from being on 3 additional hours by turning off the light when I am not using it, this adds up to .18 kWh, or about 66kWh per year. According to this site, 1 kWh of electricity generated from coal creates 1-3 pounds of CO2. A simple step such as turning off a light saves 66-198 pounds of CO2 per year. If you start talking about households where lights are left on all the time, I suppose the potential waste can get into the thousands of pounds.

This is such a small step and such a big reward for our planet. Let me know if you have any other interesting information on the subject in the comment area below.

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Posted in Week 8 Turn the lights off

Tags: CO2 conserve electricity

Turn off the lights when you are not in the room to conserve energy

December 7th, 2009

This week’s challenge is to conserve energy by turning lights off around the house. Although I think I have already starting becoming more conscientious about this since I started Guygoesgreen, it certainly is a behavior that I need to improve. Hopefully, you can join me this week on this eco challenge and both give me tips on what you do to conserve energy and possibly also learn along with me.

I have been told ever since I was a little guy that I should turn lights off when I am not in a room because it is wasteful. I, being somewhat stubborn and forgetful, may not have been the best at this and hope to learn about this type of wastefulness and take effort to change this behavior. I learned last week that I might have a tough time re-training my brain, but I think part of my journey is not only learning how to be green, but also how to rewire my brain for some things.

Some of my previous tasks require multiple steps and thought to follow through with. Those challenges seemed to be a bit easier for me. It is easy to say “I can only shower once a day” and for me it is easy to turn off the faucet when I brush, but it seems that there are some very small actions (or inactions) that I perform nearly every day that are difficult. For example, last week my challenge was to not use plastic bags and it seemed like I only realized that I took a plastic bag once I was in my car. I did it without thought. I think that possibly this might be another one of these tasks.

So, now that I know going into this green challenge that I will need to retrain my brain, do you guys/gals have any suggestions right off the bat? Are there any tricks, tools or suggestions you have for me to make sure the lights are off or how to conserve energy in relation to the lights?